In the Darne workshop, was a Cincinnati built die press, that had but one task-stamping the “Darne” name into the opening lever of Darne guns. There were two dies one that read “Halifax” for that model gun, and one that read “Darne” for everything else:




Sometime after the Second World War, the die for the Darne name became unusable. For a period of time, the Darne guns were built with the levers engraved with the Darne name, like so:




It would be truly useful to know the exact dates of the guns that had the name engraved on the lever, but, I don’t have that info. A good guess is that when Stoeger began importing the guns, say, 1964 or so, the company saw fit to fix the American built press that stamped the name into the gun. I’ve never seen a Stoeger marked gun with the engraved version of the lever. I am pretty sure there was never an issue with the die for the Halifax name, but, that model came and went with the economic conditions of the era. High cotton, so to speak, meant no Halifax.

Best,
Ted

mine is die struck not engraved, but I knew it was an older gun.

I don’t think it is a huge number of guns that had the engraved Darne, rather than the die punch, that actually displaced metal in an oval on the opening key. But, they are out there.

First year or two of production after Paul Bruchet bought the company, he didn’t have permission to use the Darne name. The guns had the name “Bruchet” engraved on the lever. I think the family that owned the name, may have wanted money, or fees on each gun. Paul never intended to have a production shop, and knew his guns were going to be superior to the factory produced guns. The family eventually decided to just let him use the name, as they saw he was building the best sliding breech guns that had ever been built.

He happily put the Cincinnati press back in use.

Best,
Ted

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...-condition--6lb-3oz.cfm?gun_id=100884559

Salut Ted,
Je viens de voir celui-là.
Ne voyant pas les marquages sur les canons, je ne peux pas estimer une date de fabrication. Cependant, je suppose que nous sommes dans une production des années 60 /70.

I would guess that is a later gun as well having 70mm chambers. I highly doubt few if any guns were chambered that pre 1910.

Salutations, Fab,

Je ne veux pas essayer de deviner la date de ce fusil, très peu de canons brasés, voire aucun, ont été fabriqués pendant cette période. Pour moi, cela ressemble à un fusil refini d'un autre fabricant, sur lequel quelqu'un a gravé le mot « Darne ».

Sincere salutations,

Ted

English version:

Greetings, Fab,
I don't want to try to guess the date of this gun, very few, if any, brazed barrels were made during this period. To me, it looks like a refinished gun from another manufacturer, with the word "Darne" engraved on it.

Best regards

Ted

I have a R11 16ga that has DARNE in block letters on the top lever. I had the gun on consignment at Marks Born Again Bird Guns but it did not get any interest. Shot two pheasants with it yesterday 1

Congratulations on the pheasants! Did you take any photos? Can’t have enough photos of Darnes. Would be interesting to see the block letters.

S
Pretty sure I taught you how to take that gun down at the very last Sweet 16 shoot. As I recall, it was for sale, there, until you shot it, and decided it was a keeper.

I like days like that.

Best,
Ted

Salut,
Ce type de marque Darne est antérieur à 1913.

Salut Fab,

Merci beaucoup pour la photo du logo du bloc Darne.

What was the idiot thinking when he designed the Darne action....

Had he been eating syslicidial mushrooms fresh from the fields ?

Bonne année

He was an engineer, who clearly understood the limitations of using a hinge in the middle of a firearm.

He died in 1939, fabulously wealthy by European standards. He held many, many patents:

https://archive.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1299

Best,
Ted