Found locally. 1964 vintage V19 in 28 gauge, imported by Stoeger. New, in-the-box, never fired, never assembled, until I showed the elderly owner how to do that a few months past. All packing and documents remain in the box.
Talk amongst yourselves. I'm verklempt.

Best,
Ted

That is a find! One of those rare moments. Lucky you Ted for such a "discovery"!

Best!

Greg

Great looking gun. A priveledge just to look at it!

This is a great topic for a thread for others to share their once in a lifetime finds. If anybody has anything else, let's see them!

Something you will notice if you get the chance to look at enough different Darnes is that the quality of the first few years of the Stoeger imports is superb compared to the final years production of the same importer, or the bulk of what James Wayne later imported. The company was in the process of dying in the 1970s, and, it showed. I'd rate this gun as on par with any great pre-war example, and just a shade shy of a Bruchet full custom. It's that nice.
This doesn't seem to be an issue with European production, just the stuff that came here.
The 20 gauge that I owned and which I photographed for the summer of 1996 Double Gun Journal article I wrote was a James Wayne import, with bland wood, and cartoonish engraving. I no longer own that gun, but, wish I did, as, mechanically, it was as good a Darne gun as I've ever handled, and I couldn't seem to miss with it.
Some other pretty gun bauble caught my eye, and I sold it.
Good engraving isn't everything.

Best,
Ted

tres belle

Ted, did you buy it from the elderly owner, or ask for the chance to buy it if he sells? Jay

Very very nice!-Dick

Having never held a Darne in my hands, I am curious about something. This gun has what looks to be ejectors, and if so, do the ejected hulls hit the breech and fall away, or is there some mechanism to clear them on each side ? It looks like it would be slow to reload, but looks can be deceiving.

SRH

Both, Jay. Not on the same day though.

Best,
Ted

What you are seeing in the photo is not an ejector. It is a spring loaded mortised plate that acts as an extractor to lift un-fired rounds out of the breech end of the barrels. The gun has ejectors, which, are simply hooks under the sliding breech, that pull fired rounds out of the barrels. The hooks disengage from the rim at full opening, and a pin on the face of the obturator disc gives them a shove left or right. My R10 lacks the obturator discs and the pins, a system I prefer anyway, as I can collect the emptys after they clear the hooks, but, before they are tossed off the watertable. You can also simply tilt the gun at opening and they will fall clear.
I can reload a Darne about as fast as I can reload a conventional non-ejector double or O/U. I've had one for a long time, however. I know Dustin can do it, too.
I wouldn't bet on Larry Brown being able to pull it off smoothly.

Best,
Ted

Ted, that's a great find. Curious as to specs--barrel length, chokes, weight...Gil

Barrel length is 25 1/2 inches. Chokes, marked on the barrel flats, are MOD/FULL. My postal scale says just under 6 lbs, but, it is not that accurate a scale. The gun has a raised rib and no under rib, and was not equipped with a sling, contrary to the ad copy in the 1965 Shooter's Bible. It is marked "QHS" on the rib, which stood for quail hunter supreme in Stoeger jargon, which was a 20 or 28 gauge V19. The LOP is about 14 5/8ths.
Thats all I can think of at the moment.

Best,
Ted

They are odd guns, IMO, interesting, but not worth the money because of the way they feel and handle. I could never shoot one well - just didn't feel right in my hands.

Perhaps the last design of gun that should be sold "off the rack" is a Darne. Fit is critical. So critical that I quit selling used Darnes early on when I was importing them. But, to those that have gone to the trouble to get one in their measurements, I assure you, they feel wonderful in the hand. And I shoot my fitted R10 just fine, thank you very much.

Best,
Ted

I'm sure they're fine guns, but they just look funny. They're like McPherson guitars - no matter how good they sound, I could never see owning one.

Everyone has their likes, and, dislikes. I guess I'm glad the people who think their opinion on this particular design is important have weighed in to share that with us. I do wish, however, they could have seen the post for what it actually was, the illustration of something we all hear about, but seldom get the chance to see.
An unused, unfired, 50 year old gun, that has spent it's entire life in the box it came home in. With it's papers and hang tags and certificate of proof all waiting for the day it was opened up for interested parties to see.
How often does a good double gun get put away and forgotten about, to surface half a century into the future as a time capsule from the day it was sold? I had never seen that stapled paper envelope marked "DOCUMENTS" in all the years I have been fooling with Darnes, so, I learned something when I opened that box. I also learned that I won't bet on quality level of early production Stoeger imports. And, that inspite of the 1965 Shooter's Bible saying so, not all QHS guns were fitted with the Darne sling.
My history lesson for the month, I guess.
I'm not in love with the guns dimensions, but, I could make do with a slip on recoil pad. I haven't decided exactly what I'll do with it. I am thrilled to have had the chance to see exactly how the gun left Stoeger, however, and to share that with a few folks here.


Best,
Ted

Hello Ted,

Great find, thanks for sharing an event that is often talked about but never really
documented.

Best,

JC

You are correct Ted; in retrospect maybe this wasn't the place for such opinions and I certainly I didn't mean for mine to detract from what is a very unusual find. I appreciate your sharing it.

Could you share a little more of the backstory Ted? Was the elderly owner the original buyer? How did it happen that the gun was untouched all those years?

Jay

Ted, I appreciate the thread in the spirit you started it. It is indeed an rare find. It reminds me of the news of the retired car dealer in Nebraska who is auctioning off some cars he hung onto over a 50 year career. 500 cars in fact, including about 50 with odometer readings under 10 miles. You hear stories like this but it is in fact rare to see the real deal.

Like Jay, I'd like to hear a little of the back story.

I've got to say, this story is a real humdinger. I'd certainly enjoy the background story, more so now that others have made me go back to the pix and re-read the post(s).

I guess the thing that gets me is the complete smashing of stereotypes in the story. Picture: Early sixties; a farmer; buys a double shotgun; buys a FRENCH double shotgun; buys a 28 GAUGE French double shotgun; Puts the whole kit and caboodle away unopened.

Put all the known facts together and I'm scratching my head.

Please Ted, share.....

Impatiently waiting. My uninformed guess is the buyer wasn't a farmer ... but if so, I'd enjoy being corrected.

Jay

I wish I could find one like it !

But while I am dreaming make it a N0 5 or higher Ideal in 20 Gauge

Lol, dream mine in 16 gauge!

The guy I got the gun from was technically the third owner. The gun was inventory at a stocking dealer, but not Stoeger, where it had been for a long time. So, two dealers owned it. I don't have the receipt from his purchase, and figured it would have been vulgar to ask for it. I don't know if Stoeger had a liquidation sale to a different dealer after they got out of the Darne line in 1973, but, that seems to make the most sense. He said the gun was purchased by him in the late 1970s, but, wasn't specific about the year.
He invited me, out of the blue, to come over and see two Darnes early this spring.The box was sealed until the day I helped him open it, being as careful as I could with the original packing the gun was enclosed in. He had looked at the stock section of the gun, briefly, when he bought it, returned that in it's paper wrapping to the box, and taped the box back up. The barrels and paperwork had never been out of the box, and the barrels had never been out of their protective paper wrapping. We assembled the gun, he shouldered it, and we wiped it down and put it away. He owns two Darnes, this one and a lower grade that is in fabulous condition, but, sans box and paperwork. I'd known him over a decade at that point, but, didn't know he owned either gun. We didn't actually discuss selling either gun at that point.
He owns guns that he has shot, but is not a hunter, and has been frail enough for many years that shooting is a distant memory for him. He is actually too frail to assemble or take down a Darne. He also has a nice collection of Lugers that he doesn't shoot, either. Darne and Luger mechanics fascinate him. He was married at one time, long ago, and is a widower, with no heirs. He is well along in the process of sorting his affairs to his satisfaction, from what I can tell. He has made it clear that money isn't an issue for him. He held a pilots license for many years. He was an engineer. I really know very little about him personally.
He was worried about "waking up dead" after a health scare in June, and the house being looted. A few things he owns are going to specific individuals in the hope they aren't misused after he is gone-the Lugers are all spoken for, by the way. Not by me. I guess we'd call him a collector who is in the process of retiring from collecting.
My only connection to him was a chance meeting at a gunshow many years ago, where I had a table. He sought out the Darne table, and then he needed to rest for a spell. Bill and I gave him a seat, a donut, a cup of coffee, a Darne catalog and a business card. Bill and I always had donuts and coffee at the booth back then- I shoulda' sold coffee and donuts, I might have made more money than selling Darnes. I made time for him when he called, perhaps a dozen times over as many years. I still field 3-4 calls a month from people with questions about Darnes, and try to be polite to everyone. We had a conversation or two over the phone about him ordering a new Darne, but, it was always understood that this wasn't exactly practical, for either of us, or likely. He was about 80 years old when we met. How would I measure a stooped up old guy for a custom gun? We laughed about that, more than once.
He actually asked me, last month, if I wanted a V19, at a good price. I'm not a big V Darne fan, not a big 28 gauge fan, but, the price was good, and the condition was, too.
I own it today.

Best,
Ted

This story must be carefully stored away for the gun debate.

I mean, lots of times anti-gun people say that the only reason for wanting a gun is a conscious or subconsious desire to kill someone. We know it isn't so, but the 'not so' part is not so easy to prove. Now here is this person. He doesn't hunt, he doesn't shoot, he's simply fascinated with the guns' mechanics. What 'subconscious desire to kill', in the name of the world chaos? Who in the right mind could think of one good reason why this person should be banned from keeping these guns?

Thanks for sharing.

This one is the third one that I have seen. About five years ago a friend showed up with two. Both new and unfired. That he had bought from a texan client. They were serial numbered 1 &2 both had top end engraving one in nice relief work the other nice scroll and game scene. He wanted to capitalise on his investment and flog them off. The attempts to get reasonable valuations were not fruitful. I even floated them on this sight. Then we developed a friendship with a northern cal dealer who bought them from my friend for around $25,000 cash. They promptly disappeared and have not resursurfaced. They were as you might say SWEET. Just one of those fond memories from the past.
John Mc

I wish I could have have met the guy with 25 grand. I had a V19 28g that I tried to sell for 2 yrs. It looked unfired, but didn't have the box. I couldn't get $ 5000.00 for mine. Chuck Brunner finally moved it for me. There is one on Crosnoes list for 7500.00 down from 11500.00. It was a great little gun but was just to small for me.
terc

I get the fact that someone wanted a longer LOP on the gun Crosnoe is selling. But, once you cut a stock, the "collector price" doesn't compute anymore.

And that gun is collector priced. Good luck.

Best,
Ted

Barrel flat trvia:



Notice 70mm chamber length and proof. The 28 gauge guns for Europe were often 2 1/2 or 65mm chamber.

Stoeger markings:



Not sure why Stoeger thought they had to come up with a corny sounding name. I would think the Darne numbers would have been good enough.

Best,
Ted

Time capsule for sure! Darnes are like Fench cars, if you get used to them no other can compare. I miss my 2CV and recall a near purchase of a R15.

In 1971 at our local North London gunshop, Whaley's, the Darne R15 sold for 115 sterling, but it was "unusual" and doubt won the day. It would have been an ideal rough shooting double. Still is.

Time capsule for sure! Darnes are like Fench cars, if you get used to them no other can compare. I miss my 2CV and recall a near purchase of a R15.

In 1971 at our local North London gunshop, Whaley's, the Darne R15 sold for 115 sterling, but it was "unusual" and doubt won the day. It would have been an ideal rough shooting double. Still is.

What a darn lucky find Ted. You either love 'em or there's something wrong with you. I LOVE my 16 gauge. The really nice Parisian dealer I bought it from went out of business two years ago, bummer. Actually there are far fewer nice gun shops in Paris these days. I wrote an article for DGJ about 15 years ago on Parisian gun shops that included a bunch of photos. It will have a historical value soon. What a pity.
nial

Nial,
The Darne works was recently sold. I have no idea if the guns will be produced in the future. Pre 9-11 was a good time to be involved with an interesting French gunmaker, but, at this time, I think the handwriting is on the wall.
I've been playing with this gun and my shooter, and, oddly, this gun doesn't seem to be a whole lot lighter than my 12 gauge R10. The 12 is a very light 12 and this seems to be a little heavier 28 gauge. I wonder if I should take it out and shoot it?
I wouldn't mind seeing some pictures of your 16, Nial.

Best,
Ted

I have owned four Darnes, two 12 gauges, one 16 gauge and a 20 gauge.
The 12's were and R10 and R15, the 20 an R10 again and the 16 was a bespoke Bruchet Darne R11 that Ted had made for me.
I retain only the R11 as it's a great upland double with a unique double trigger where the front trigger will fire the barrels sequentially.
It will be sad to see the demise of the factory if that happens.
I always thought that the 12 gauges I had, felt as light as the other gauges.
I ordered the 16 gauge, just because and it came out 6# 0.1oz.
What ever you do with it Ted, it's a beautiful gun and a great example of a great gun maker with a very unique action. It's the only double I asked the seller of the first one i purchased, "How do I open this thing/". -Dick

'Morning Dick,
Glad to hear you are still putting that gun to good use. That was the only example of the double/single trigger I ever ordered or sold. Nice option, for sure.
I was only able to talk the Bruchet's into building three R11s-your's, my friend Bill's 16, that was reviewed in Shooting Sportsman, and Steve Bodio's slug gun. They wanted to build higher end guns.
Like riding a bike, once you see how a Darne opens, you will always be able to do it.

Best,
Ted