doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Sidelock non-ejectors

The nugget of grain in all the chaff.....

...as to why the gun was built sans ejectors, who the hell knows? It is likely older than all of us ('cept, maybe, Larry Brown, and he didn't order it, or won't confess if he did) but, here is an actual English gunmaker warning us that simply because a sidelock came from Blighty, it isn't automatically a great, or even good gun.

You guys be careful out there. That name thing is over-rated.

I know guys love 'em, but, one of the funniest events in double gunning is watching a guy on his first outing with his new ejector, after the shot. Gun opens, one or more spent emptys head over his shoulders, guy sets gun down, vacates peg, and retrieves spent cartridges, returns to peg, and reloads gun. Guy repeats above, as many times as it takes to figure out to hold hand over breech at opening, to defeat purpose of ejectors.

Hilarious. Almost as much fun as watching husband wife teams at the boat launch.

Best,
Ted

But not as much fun as watching someone learn how to operate a Darne safety, Ted!

Larry,
I've always found the "Darne safety" thing to be overblown. It may be because I'm lefthanded, and the safety starts out on the correct side for me, but, I never really believed the issue. At least not on an R model



This picture shows how my trigger finger and the safety end up on about the same plane when I'm carrying the gun. It is pretty much a no brainer to flick the lever forward, put the finger on the trigger, and the gun can be fired.

So, if you are right handed, you would have J.J. or Geoffroy get the safety over to the other side, and it would be pretty much the same deal, only your right hand would be doing the safety lever off and fire the gun bit. A bunch of them that I imported came over that way, right to begin with.



But, you have another option with the Darne, and that is to simply use the opening lever as the safety. In this picture, the opening lever is up, and the gun is out of battery. The lever is right on the edge of contacting the main spring, and a little tension is keeping it against my thumb. It takes almost no effort, at this point, to close the lever and shoulder the Darne. The first trip I made hunting with Lloyd, we had kids, a puppy recovering from an auto-immune disorder, a wife, and two vehicles, and whilst herding all these cats on our hunt, my gun spent a lot of time in this position. It might look a bit strange, but, it is a comfortable carry option, at least when you are not trying to take a picture of it, anyway.

It is a piece of cake. The main driver for competence with a Darne, in my experience, is the subject WANTING to be competent with one-no more than that.

Best,
Ted

Ted--Unlike Trump, I have small hands. The only way I can operate the standard Darne safety on the L side is to carry the gun at about a 45 degree angle and use my thumb. Safety off, slide L hand forward to where it needs to be while twisting gun to the L so I can reach the trigger. If it's on the R side, that means I have to use my finger rather than my thumb to work the safety, because shooting from the CORRECT side of the gun, my thumb is on the L rather than the R. I then have to move my trigger finger from the safety to the trigger.

God meant that doubles should have tang safeties. Easier for both dexter and sinister users.

Larry,
Look at my paws on that 20 gauge Darne. I don't have tiny hands, but, they aren't catchers mitts, either. If you ever have the chance to handle a 28 gauge Darne R action, I think you will realize, that it is do-able. Yes, you would have had to order a fitted gun, probably a 20 or a 28, and it would have been better to show up in town to let the builders see what they had to work with. Yes, you would have to want to make it work.
But, it could be done.
Maybe not off the used gun rack at Cabelas, with a 12. But, where there is a will, there is a way. Your trigger finger has to be in the neighborhood of where the safety is anyway, conventional gun, or Darne. And, you could still use the opening lever as a safety, so your trigger finger doesn't have to do anything except get to and pull the trigger. The opening lever IS a tang safety, Larry, a big, obvious one, right where you think they all should be.
Totally doable. Or, it was, anyway.

Best,
Ted

Ted, there's always a solution. With a hammergun, you can carry it broken open, hammers back--because, except on small bore hammerguns, very few people have paws large enough to cock both of them with one motion when the bird flushes. But you'd better not be walking through cover where crud might fall into the action, or the open with hammers back solution may well fail you.

I like the little, less obvious tang safeties. Probably because I've used them for 40+ years. Woops . . . make that 50+ years. My first double was an OU, old Savage 420 20 gauge. Tend to forget that one because it was a real club and wasn't a sxs. But it also had the same tang safety.

From the mid to the late 1970s, there was a different option on the R models. It was just a button, that pushed left from the right side to take the gun off safe. This was seen on the guns James Wayne imported. It is not reversable like the lever, but, if a righthanded guy found one, it might be a better option.
Here is an example of that type of safety, but, unfortunately, someone has seen fit to take a buffing wheel to the guns action to remove the French gray:

http://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-fo...un_id=100655624

That may be the nicest wood I've ever seen on a James Wayne imported Darne.


My first Darne, an R15 in 20 gauge, with long barrels, was equipped with this safety.
I made due with it, as a southpaw, for a long time before I foolishly parted with the gun. I had a hard time missing with that gun.
Something to be said for a tang safety, but, I've learned the sun doesn't rise and set on one for my shooting. The safety that gives me the most trouble is a Winchester model 12 safety, but, I haven't gotton rid of my first year 20 gauge yet. Too many other fine points to like about the gun.

Best,
Ted