doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com French Shotguns: A Call for Information

JC-

Amazing, curious, and very French (i.e., atypical, artful and form over function in design). How in the dickens does that shotgun lock up? Does it eject? Would you be able to post a photo of the action open? Is the action the same as on Jack's?

Doug

Doug, it locks up like a veritable vault, :-)

Here is the action:


That slides here:


The extractors you see pull the spent shells out but don't actually "eject" them.

In principle it is the same concept as Jack's Charlin, but I am sure Ted will jump in to give details of the differences apart than the Charlin slides on bearings (if I am not mistaken).

Halifaxes are "sans-coulotte" Darnes, but mine is rather dressier than most.

JC(AL)

Doug, to the casual observer, the Darne and Charlin would appear to be the same "type" of action (sliding breech) just as the great majority of doubleguns would appear to the layman to be of the hinging barrel or breakopen type. Ted has explained previously that despite the bird's eye similarlities, the standing breech of the Darne is mechanically locked when closed; the Charlin is not "locked" but has an over-center cam in the toggle lever which makes it progressively resistant to opening under pressure of firing. There are bearing balls embedded in the "ways" upon which the sliding breech of the Charlin slides; omitted on the Darnes.

Anyone know who built/builds guns for Henry Huret, sporting goods retailer in Lille? Anyone know anything about Pirlot?

jack

Thanks Ted for shedding some light on the mysterious marks, stars, bunnies, etc. I knew that Charlin had several owners, In fact saw an actual stock certificate for Charlin several years ago somwwhere, maybe Ebay. The mystery continues and as you say probably will continues due to destruction of documents. Many German guns face the same fate. As a retired academic, I know the frustrations of attempting primary source research. It is tough sledding. Kindest regards, and again thanks Ted. Dr, Dozier sends

Ted, JC & Jack-

Thanks for the extra photos and details. Very interesting shotguns both and I bet they get a lot of admiring looks when you take them out! Any disadvantages to those actions, (they look extremely robust)? I hope you realize that you all are fueling gun lust.

Doug
Edit PS. I found a very pretty Darne Gran Bois 16ga circa 1930s, $1,750...if $ were not an issue right now... . If anyone is interested, I'll post the link. Sorry JC meant to thank you too!

More on these interesting shotguns...and from all places!

http://doublegunshop.com/darne.htm

Sorry, no MAC catalog tonight, what I thought was excessive traffic at Photobucket, is actually the Adelphia Time/Warner transformation. Adelphia users wont be able to sign onto servers like photobucket and Ebay for perhaps another day. sorry to make you wait. I could email them if someone else is willing to post the images...there is a total of 15 images standing by...

Robert-

Happy to wait or to help. I am away from home on business and my notebook software can read some images, but not others. If you would like to give it a try, feel free to e-mail them to me and provided my computer can pick them up, I'll post anything you like. DBADCraig@sbcglobal.net.

Thanks much-

Doug

OK dbad, I'm trying to send the attatchments to your email box, but the old adelphia server doesn't like that either. If it doesn't go through, thanks just the same, and I'll post 'em when this digital storm blows over. If it does go through and I see them posted, 1-8 of 15, I'll send you 9-15, just to get them posted sooner. Thanks again
Just one other important question, is there a limit on how many images I can post at the DoubleGun BBS? Is there a limit on how many images Photobucket will host before I have to delete other images or start paying for extra space? I know to keep the files as small as my camera allows, but beyond that, are there other limitations that I should be aware of?

Bob-

I have the images you sent, thanks a million--I don't speak French, so I don't know if they are in the correct order, but here they are:

Jack, I don't know anything about Huret, but being located in Lille, which is almost in Belgium, he might well have sold Belgian-made guns. Even though there was a very active French industry, a surprising number of Belgian guns show up with French addresses on the barrels.

Could Pirlot possibly be Pirlet? Seems I've seen that name in combination with Mode (as in Mode-Pirlet), with I think a Paris address. Mode, however, was another Belgian maker.