Ted, I have Darne's with and without Obturator discs, do they really make a difference in recoil, or is there another purpose for them besides charging more money?
I think the ”reduced recoil” bit was advertising hooey, and told people that the entire time I imported them. The discs were originally a high grade gun feature, but, after the design of the R model Darne became simpler and more modular, the discs could be fitted to anything, grade wise. Mr. Customer just had to tell them he wanted it, and pay for it, and his new R10 would have a set of obturator discs put right where the flat plate would otherwise be. I’ve seen a couple. But, few people ever did that. V guns typically have the discs, but, I suppose if someone didn’t want them, they could be done away with. I’ve just never seen that example. I believe you can see one of the screws that retain the face plate in the OPs photo of the inverted breech block of his R12.
The older R models had a plate that was dovetailed into the face, and retained with a single screw in the face. The newer R models have two screws from the bottom retaining it, with no dovetail. The older way is better, because if a guy snaps the triggers with the barrels off the gun on the new version, he will often bend the screws as the springs that drive the strikers are quite stout. That won’t happen, ever, with the dovetailed plate guns.
The hot tip is not to dry fire your newer Darne without the barrels in place on the gun. Other than being a nice piece of machine work, I see no good reason for discs on a Darne, and I use both types, with no noticeable difference in performance that I can detect.
But, nice machine work is a plus, anyway.
Best,
Ted
