doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Bruce’s Darne type gun.

I recently received an email, and request for some help from a guy named Bruce, who was looking for some answers about a sliding breech gun.

Photos, first:







A couple things, in no particular order. We have chambers marked with the 6.5 nomenclature, as opposed to the newer 65. It means exactly the same thing, but, the 6.5 went away sometime in the late nineteen teens or early nineteen twenties. The push button safety was patented in the very early 1920s, and the timeline dovetails nicely with the proof house markings. The shape of the detonation practically screams late nineteen teens as well. Single proof for powder T, not much other than that going on with those barrel flats. There is NOT an extension on the barrels to take a rising bite from the sliding breech, and that right there is a new one on me. No name on the gun. The stock is, sadly, a mess, it may have been a one piece stock when it was new, hard to tell for sure from here.

31 years since I was last in St. Etienne, and I can offer very little solid information as to who finished this gun. I have never seen a version that didn’t have the rising bite. It has lived a hard life, my advice to Bruce would be to not throw a bunch of money at it. I’m guessing it was a slick little 16 gauge short chamber bird gun, back in the day.

If anyone else has anything, feel free to post it.

Best,
Ted