doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Darne History

Lemmings you say! Well right you are jack ol' bean.
I've resisted the vintage American gun for that very reason. I still have trouble using hi-grade, lettered, graded and field grade in my posts.
The peanut gallery is a tough nut to please, and lord help the man with a cheap scope

Jack,
The extractor mechanism(it is not an ejector mechanism in the true sense of the word, since it makes more sense than any ejector I've ever used) is quite simple on either a Darne or a Charlin. The hook, under the breechblock, is loaded against the rim of the cartridge by the percutator (think firing pin, with a few more jobs to do) after the trigger has been pulled. If the trigger has not been pulled, the hook cannot catch and hold the rim of the cartridge. The little spring loaded plate in the barrel assembly moves the cartridges out of the chamber just a bit, so you can grab 'em, and gives the spent cartridges the same assist when the hook has them. Either design makes it easy to be polite, and not leave emptys strewn across the fruited plain.
The opening lever itself is a dandy safety, Rabbit-simply leave it up a 1/4 inch or so, with the normal (insert deadpan look here) safety in the fire position. When the birdie flies, simply close the gun. It can't fire unless closed, (try it, you will see what I mean) as it has a really keen interrupter device built into it, and that safety is as good as the other.

Thorny, a guy with a Kimber or a Beesley isn't the guy you expect to have The Wal-Mart brand optics firmly bolted down to the Kimber. The good scopes, are very good indeed, but, what most folks don't realize is how far all scopes, even the cheapies, have come in the last decade. Even the cheapies are pretty dang good, if all you are doing is rendering empty cans less than water tight, or filling the stew pot with bushy tailed varmints.
Best,
Ted

Thanks for the explanation, Ted. The field grade Charlin which I have does drag rather than push (due to the rifle-style extactor hooks?) both empties completely out of the chambers but the extractor lookalike, which I assume is merely spring-loaded, acts as does any shotgun extractor in that it lifts the unspent shell perhaps 3/32" above the rim-cut.

OT Lowell, I like those old 3/4" Weavers on a sunny day. Sometimes they aren't really cheap to buy. Thank heavens eastern groundhog are bigger than those prairie rats. Haven't had a chance to shoot my Savage 23D yet. Has a little J2.5X which closely resembles the itsy-bitsy Weaver on my 23AA except it's not on a side-mount plate. And I've got the minty K2.5 on a .45-70. The paper punchers share the big ol Nikon 6-18s. The 03 sporter and the .30-30 have Lyman peeps.

jack

Ted:

I may be repeating myself but I found it interesting that my Charlin stock incorporates a method of achieving cast which resembles the cheek pocket which some trapshooters have been known to work very quickly into a comb but is more subtle and possibly original--whatever that may mean. A lot of castoff developed not in the wrist but by shaping the comb to curve to the right and then return to the butt, which is nearly on the plan view centerline of the gun. I have put both this gun and my AyA (also strongly castoff) on paper by the pull up and fire POI test. I consistently put the AyA left barrel pattern 70-30% laterally offset to left on a 3" black-painted aim point. The left barrel of Charlin shows no tendency to do other than center the pattern laterally.

jack

Rabbit,
Whoever built that gun, and likely the first several owners, are dead-we aren't going to know how the stock came to be the way it is.

I haven't seen them like that, but who knows? Maybe someone ordered it that way.
Best,
Ted

I've posted these before but they are illustrative.





Gun is 1960's vintage so original owner might be around.

jack

I would think, in my infinite ignorance, that cast-off should (ideally) always be like the one above.

Michael Yardley does mention that cast (at heel) in one direction can cause a gun to shoot in the other, as in Jack's AyA, so one could conclude that the way the Charlin is cast avoids this.

JC(AL)

JC, I would speculate that the stock was got out to this shape rather than bent except that I can't detect dark areas of end grain which should border the depression or cove fore and aft if it were worked in that way. If it was in fact bent, it must have been a more complex job than a twist to the wrist. I think it would require a fulcrum between thumbhole and heel about which the stock was bent after shaping. Who knows?

jack

I didn't say that quite right. Not a simple comma shape but rather a sort of chicane of "S" so the stock would have to be bent over opposing restraints or fulcrums spaced a few inches apart.

jack

FSP and Ted,
Yes, the French Darne book has abundant illustrations of early Regis Darne pivoting breech guns, both back and sideways.

The extractor, unfortunately has relatively little leverage until the trigger is pulled. My R-16 in 10 gauge will not extract unfired Federal plastic rounds, neither my reloads nor early RST ammo. It will extract what I take are Remington unfired rounds. NOTE that the Federal hulls are snug and must be pushed into the chamber rather than dropping in.
Regards, Tim