I owned a Charlin I believe much older than yours. Ended up giving it to my daughter as a home protection gun when she went to college. I always had a Darne on my bucket list but was put off by the prices. I found the one I bought (very plain model 16 ga at Kittery Trading Post while on vacation for only a few hundred dollars. Mine actually was old enough to not have a safety. I thought thst strange until I realized the intent was to carry the gun with the action not snapped completely shut, then simply press down with your thumb as you mounted the gun. Really simple and within 5 minutes I found it faster than a safety,

I know Ted knows more than most of us have forgotten about these guns, but I will have to say that I found the one I had to be incredibly smoother than any of the Darnes I have ever examined.

As to the lost ball problem, I had to take it apart (inveterate tinkerer) and lost one. I was worried until I measured the other one and found they were a common sized hardened and polished metric ball bearing. I believe around 4mm. I bought a pack of 100 chrome plated stainless ones from McMaster Carr which fit perfectly. They also have tiny metric coil springs. For about $10 I had a liftem supply for an Charlin army. They worked so smoot, I changed both balls and both springs.

I also liked the push button barrel release. Took 2 seonds to remove the barrels for easy cleaning.

My final comment on the Charlin is all of them I have handled seem short. Somehow the geometry makes the "good feeling" LOP an 1" longer than normal for me. That may be why a lot of them have pasds installed, even though most of them are rather long to start with.