doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com New Verney-Carron

I won an auction this weekend for a Verney-Carron I had never seen. It is a Stopvis model. I had never heard of it until I saw the listing. A little research show them to be somewhat common in Europe but essentially unknown in the US. The sliding action is what hooked me. I wanted it to go ith the Darne and Charlin models I have.

This one is surprisingly a 10 gauge. It appears to have been refinished at one time because the the stock appears to be fiddleback maple but they were made with walnut stocks. I presume that it was a stock made from some light European walnut and refinished with no stain. The pad was obviously added for obvious reasons. The weight is 3 kg (6 lb 6 oz) which is frightening to think about shooting. I doubt it has seen much service.

I located several catalogs for V-C and believe it was made for a short time from 1938-1939 until the war. They started these in I believe 1928 and made them until around 1966 or so. The 10 gauge does not appear up through 1935, it is in the 1939 catalog and then is not seen in the 1947 or 1955 catalogs. Over the years they made models called the Standard, the Luxe, the Colonial, the Supercharge, and the Canardier. Grades were standard, 83,84 and 87. The Supercharge (with the higher proof) was available several years after the war in 83 and 87. The Colonial was the only one available in 84. This gun is a Canardier Model 83. It is the only model ever made in 10 gauge apparently, and only available for 2-3 years befor the war. The 1939 catalog was likely the last year of sporting production in France.

I thought long about buying it but as listed at 6 pounds 5.8 ounces I decided it wouldn't be fun to shoot as a 10 gauge and didn't want to be making up sub loads. You did make a good deal on it at that sale price.

This is my seventh or eighth 10 gauge. The rest are Parkers, Scotts and a really heavy Paris marked 10 gauge market gun. I have shot the rest with reduced loads (full in a couple of the Parkers) but I will likely just add this one to the wall.

Congrats. I’ve never met an American who knew (or cared, really) about what a Stopvis is.

I don’t believe the stock is maple, just came from the same forest that Browning was getting their light colored walnut from-you can add Darne to that light colored wood list as well. I’ve only seen a few of these guns, this is the first engraved gun, and first 10 gauge for me.
I don’t believe they were truly inexpensive guns, and the fitting of the action was top notch, making their main market competitors lower grades of double guns. If a guy is going to have a single shot, might as well have a hammerless version. But, few people seemed to follow that logic. They seldom turn up.

An ounce and a quarter of 6s, at 1100fps, or so, would be the cat’s meow for roosters that you have to walk all day to get just a few shots. You have a great gun for a task like that.

Enjoy.

Best,
Ted

There are a lot of loads out there for short tens which are low pressure and mild enough to shoot. The Parker guys who shoot a lot of 2-5/8 and 2-7/8 chambers generally shoot 1-1/8oz with 18.5ngr of Red Dot or there about. Any mild 12 ga load seems to work fine. THis gun has a rotating bolt and is decent steel, so I would think any mild 12 ga load would work. I keep short 10 gauge loaded so it will fit any of my 10's. Sub 6-1/2# is still not light with those loads. They are light to carry though.

I have singles in every gauge from 8 to .410 bore. I always liked them as "carry around " guns while out walking the property for whatever may pop up.

As I said above, I believe the stock is refinished. I have seen a lot of the blond looking walnut on Euro guns. Since the gun has a later pad and no stain, I am assuming that is the case. I found a number of 12 gauge guns in European ads with a few being engraved. All of them had dark finished stocks.

How is it proofed?

I have two single shot 12s around the place. One, is hammerless. They don’t get enough love.

Best,
Ted