doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Closing A Gun................

I wonder if I should start holding the button on my car doors in and then gently releasing them when the door is shut.

This whole post reminds me of an old saying....don't let the door hit you in the ...

I tend think of fine guns as women.

I think we need to find out how to close a Darne...should you slam her forward, ease it in or ram her home.
What's proper eti'cut for loading up a French girl.
L.F.

Close a Darne "briskly", with no hesitation. You can slam one closed in the heat of battle if you like with no worries-you can't strain a hinge pin that isn't there. The extractor plate is spring loaded and always cushions the breech closing to a degree. The design doesn't give the "wear gremlins" much to work with.
Best,
Ted

The introduction of the "snap" action was one of the great signal events in the development of the breechloading double gun, greeted as the greatest thing since nookie at the time. Indeed, as it's inert predecessors continued to be built in steadily declining numbers, they were often given return springs too (even the Jones) and thus became snap actions themselves. Had there been any need, real or imagined, for the snap action to be operated as an inert action (by returning the opening lever manually when closing the gun) the snap action would have been irrelevant, and all of today's double gun actions would be inert.

It should be operated as the inventors intended. Contrary dogma reflects a profound ignorance of the design.
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"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

I think I'll go and cycle my Savage 110F bolt action .338 Whisper a couple times.

Actually Ted, I find I have to change the procedure a little between the R and V models. The V seems to slide closed no matter how one pushes it but the R needs a little downward pressure, at least by me. Of course the Charlin closed on verbal command.
Nial

LOL! I just laughed coffee out my nose!

There does indeed seem to be a little "clunk" in the middle of the closing stroke of an R, Nial, but, it is further and further reduced as the gun gets more use on it, to the point that the gun is eventually smooth as silk. Not quite as smooth as a V or a Charlin, but nice all the same.

My favorites are well used R guns, with lots of rounds and years on them. I mostly don't care for a V because of the "pop" when it opens. No defect that I can decern, just personal preference.

New ones, V and Rs, can be a bear. And, I have discovered that just playing with them, opening and closing, doesn't break them in-you have to go out and shoot them.

I owned a 16 gauge Charlin, the gun pictured in DGJ, and a good friend still does. I like them, but, I like the idea of an R a whole lot more, with the breech being locked by two different fasteners, to the barrels, when the gun is closed.
It isn't an accident that is the design used for rifles and slug guns.

True story. In the western metro area of the twin cities of Mpls and St. Paul, works a gunsmith. He is a very good Winchester/Remington/Mossberg/Knight gunsmith, if, you know what I mean. At a gunshow, he informed me that a Darne "was an unsafe design" and he didn't work on them. I asked him why he believed that to be true, and he produced from under the table the most beat with a ugly stick low grade Charlin I have ever seen, and informed me that "the damn thing opens up when you shoot it". I asked if he used low pressure ammunition, of the correct length for the chambers, to which he replied he didn't know. I also informed him it wasn't a Darne, it was a Charlin, and said so right on the opening key. His less than well thought out response was, "So? Whats the difference"?

When I tried to explain that a Darne and a Charlin are truly not the same, and that the Charlin couldn't open at the shot, but, might complain about the wrong ammunition being used in it by lifting the key a bit out of the trigger interrupter, I could see his eyes glazing over, and I realized I might as well have been at the beach at that point.

Did I ever tell you about my boat?

Best,
Ted

Uh, I realize this is dating myself a bit, BUT, in order to lock the doors on my 1967 Oldsmobile, you DO indeed have to hold in the buttons on the doors, and release them after the door is shut. GM cars were that way for most of the 1960s.

Why that seems so unusual is a mystery to me.
Best,
Ted

Phew!! Jim, you bragged and bragged on Dez Young and how he closed his guns and when I showed you how he closed them you got mad again. I close my gun exactly as he does. Take a look again. All these people tell and show you the proper way to do something and you call everyone idiots. Common sense tells you that holding a lever over keeps the closing of the gun from pushing the lever over and prevents more wear. Maybe not that much more, but it has to help some. So I will still close mine as the gunsmiths told me personally and that's that, guy. Calling the most reknown people in the gun world idiots only shows that you keep putting your foot in your mouth again. Sorry about your luck. As I said, it's a matter of choice and I'll hold the lever over when I close my shotguns and hold the button to close a handgun rather than just slapping them shut like you said you do. I like being a little more gentle than that...... And as far as closing a car door- when a car door is opened, the two jaw-like clamps on the door pop open and stay that way, then you shut the door, they snap back around the pin on the frame of the car. Some have one clamp and some have two clamps in the door. You might want to check this out the next time you open your car door, guys. Car doors have pretty much always been like this. Mainly to save wearing out the clamp on the door. Just like on a gun. IF you hold the lever over.