doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - A Charlin finds a home in my gun safe

For those of you who have any interest or care of such things as French Sliding doubles, here is a Charlin for you to look at. This particular gun from what I can tell has not been used much. It still shows lots of case color and the wood shows very little use. It appears to be a Model A with one hare stamped on each barrel. At some point somebody took a saw to the stock but the gun fits me well with the recoil pad and extension. Most guns are not perfect. I have added a German leather sling that came from Germany on a new Merkel Over and Under back in the 60's. I don't know that a German sling fits a French gun but when I look at my ancestry, I am half German and about an 1/8th French so I guess it works for me. I have experience with R Series Darnes and know how there actions feel and I must say that after working this Charlin, the action does seem smoother to me but that is just my observation and I may be imagining things. I would not say that the design is better than a Darne considering I can not remove the sliding breech from the stock on a Charlin like I can on a Darne. I'm guessing this is a late 20's or earlier gun considering the short chambers but if anyone can add anything to it's approximate age and I am all ears. I am very satisfied with the overall gun. Enjoy the pictures.

Very nice gun in great condition. I don't understand why someone would cut that stock. I hope it wasn't just to put the pad on. It kinda drives me nuts that most shooters think a recoil pad is a necessity.

My Dad thought everything should have a pad. A big, ugly, white line pad. I don’t know why.

That gun is a 12, short of 6 1/2 lbs. I can visualize somebody complaining about recoil easily enough, and thinking a pad would help. I’ve not noticed that pads help with recoil all that much, for sure not as much as wisely choosing the load used in the gun. But, as the OP noticed, the gun fits him, and I would bet the stock was not too much longer when it was new, and the cut was just to get a flat surface for the pad. None of them, are long stocked, compared to current production guns. It is a pre war French gun. Short is common.

That gun has not been used very hard. But, it isn’t a museum piece, either, and a day afield would sure be enjoyable with it.

Best,
Ted

That lever is the safety and it is stiffer if that is the right word compared to any Darnes I have handled.

I owned a Charlin I believe much older than yours. Ended up giving it to my daughter as a home protection gun when she went to college. I always had a Darne on my bucket list but was put off by the prices. I found the one I bought (very plain model 16 ga at Kittery Trading Post while on vacation for only a few hundred dollars. Mine actually was old enough to not have a safety. I thought thst strange until I realized the intent was to carry the gun with the action not snapped completely shut, then simply press down with your thumb as you mounted the gun. Really simple and within 5 minutes I found it faster than a safety,

I know Ted knows more than most of us have forgotten about these guns, but I will have to say that I found the one I had to be incredibly smoother than any of the Darnes I have ever examined.

As to the lost ball problem, I had to take it apart (inveterate tinkerer) and lost one. I was worried until I measured the other one and found they were a common sized hardened and polished metric ball bearing. I believe around 4mm. I bought a pack of 100 chrome plated stainless ones from McMaster Carr which fit perfectly. They also have tiny metric coil springs. For about $10 I had a liftem supply for an Charlin army. They worked so smoot, I changed both balls and both springs.

I also liked the push button barrel release. Took 2 seonds to remove the barrels for easy cleaning.

My final comment on the Charlin is all of them I have handled seem short. Somehow the geometry makes the "good feeling" LOP an 1" longer than normal for me. That may be why a lot of them have pasds installed, even though most of them are rather long to start with.