doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com mystery old high grade Darne

Darne definitely made 10 Gauge guns. I have one and have seen photos of another.

Do you have a pad on the gun? How's your shoulder?
I have a P-17 12 ga. with the Obturator discs, and just a horn butt plate. It can be punishing after 2 or 3 boxes at the range.
Carl

No pad. It weighs 7 pounds 3 ounces. 2-7/8 inch chambers so I shoot RST 1-1/8 ounce loads in it. Quite comfortable to shoot with those loads.

A few more shots of the OPs gun:









Couple things, in no particular order:

Disc set strikers, first time I've ever seen it on a sliding breech gun. In 3 1/2 decades of owning, study, importing, fixing and enjoying various designs of sliding breech guns, that is a first for me.
I've never seen a non disc set striker Darne with a broken striker, however. Makes me wonder what they thought they were improving?

The checkering seems to be just about worn off. The wood below the sling fitting in the butt stock has been broken, and repaired, not exactly a seamless repair, but, functional, I guess. It appears to have been used fairly hard over the last 90 or so (I'm making an educated guess on age) years, and, I presume the gun still works. This is typical, in my experience.

The styling of the detonators (breech balls) was a stylistic treatment that could be specified on Regis Darne guns-I imagine the same option existed for this brand of gun. You don't see it much after about WWII.

Do tell, Carl-how are the barrels removed on your gun?

Thanks for the comments, Al. I'm thinking about it.

Best,
Ted

So glad you asked. Same as other's, you push the button and tap barrel tips on soft surface. They pop apart. However, when you reverse the process, it's even easier because they slide forward once dropped in place and click into the locked position.
My issue is removing the stock. Compared to a P-17 I have, this looks more complicated. The P-17 requires the removal of two screws, one through the stock neck near the trigger guard into the back of receiver under the back of the sliding breach and two, the removal of a screw inside the base of the receiver which is threaded to the steel rod in the stock.
I don't know what to do in this gun because it's all different.
Best Carl

If interested, I have unraveled the secret of stock removal on this gun. Under the shoulder strap spool in the stock is a hole and that leads to a screw threaded to the receiver by means of a rod. Unscrew that, along with other screw(s) on the stock, and it will come apart...hopefully. Then it can be fixed and refinished.
Carl

Carl,
Snap a pic or two for me, would you? I've never had a chance to tear a Fixe apart.

Later into the Bruchets production of the Darne guns, the design was updated with a typical 10 mm bolt under the buttplate, assuming the customer ordered a buttplate. Guns with a solid stock still had the bolt that came in through the action.

Good luck on the repairs and refinish.

Best,
Ted

Will do, will send it as before. Just finished making the custom screw driver to extract the nut. Will send a picture of that too.
At a later date, I'd like you to explain the basic differences of Darne vs. Charlin...or direct me to a previous explanation? I think you said the Darne is stronger?
Best Carl

Carl, that's lovely engraving on the sliding breech. Are you going to rechecker the stock? Gil

Hi Gil,
Yes I am. I will strip it first, mend the crack on the stock, refinish it and then have it rechecked. Were you merely curious or do you have some thoughts?
Best, Carl