Larry,
I've always found the "Darne safety" thing to be overblown. It may be because I'm lefthanded, and the safety starts out on the correct side for me, but, I never really believed the issue. At least not on an R model
This picture shows how my trigger finger and the safety end up on about the same plane when I'm carrying the gun. It is pretty much a no brainer to flick the lever forward, put the finger on the trigger, and the gun can be fired.
So, if you are right handed, you would have J.J. or Geoffroy get the safety over to the other side, and it would be pretty much the same deal, only your right hand would be doing the safety lever off and fire the gun bit. A bunch of them that I imported came over that way, right to begin with.
But, you have another option with the Darne, and that is to simply use the opening lever as the safety. In this picture, the opening lever is up, and the gun is out of battery. The lever is right on the edge of contacting the main spring, and a little tension is keeping it against my thumb. It takes almost no effort, at this point, to close the lever and shoulder the Darne. The first trip I made hunting with Lloyd, we had kids, a puppy recovering from an auto-immune disorder, a wife, and two vehicles, and whilst herding all these cats on our hunt, my gun spent a lot of time in this position. It might look a bit strange, but, it is a comfortable carry option, at least when you are not trying to take a picture of it, anyway.
It is a piece of cake. The main driver for competence with a Darne, in my experience, is the subject WANTING to be competent with one-no more than that.
Best,
Ted
