Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Europe Darne shotgun

anyone in France or the rest of Europe have any info or parts for Darne shotguns?

If you remove the fore end ( depress button and slide forward, to slide it loose. If I remember correctly, you have to sort of slap the forearm forward more than once. as the fit is so precise), you will see stampings on the barrel. It reveals the "grade" of the shotgun. It may help you identify your shotgun better for finding the answer / part.

Add 10 to it- to the number of stampings, to get the final grade. (ie. "4" stampings, **** plus 10 makes it a grade "14".

Lots of Darne owners/enthusiasts on www.doublegunshop.com/bbs. Pretty civil folks there, too.

Mike Armstrong aka Mesa

Darne's are a unique shotgun. To remove the barrels slide open the breech and right behind the extractor in the slot in the frame is a small lever that you push down and slide the barrels back. The forend is fixed to the action and isn't moveable.

There used to be a Darne forum but is defunct as far as I know and most are over at Doublegun including me.

They are very well built and I've rarely heard of any needing serious repair, heavy trigger pull is the main complaint.

oops, Wrong advice, wrong shotgun. Sorry. To remove the barrel, you tap the muzzle backward to the breach. I knew there was tapping and sliding involved, just forgot the details. I apologize. It's been 30+ years since I handled one .

These are fascinating old guns. . . . I have a Halifax grade 12 ga. that my father "liberated" when he was with the 79th infantry division in Europe during WWII.

Be very careful disassembling a Darne. The higher grades have a button under the forend. You open the action, depress and hold down the button and then place the muzzle on a rug and give the butt a sharp slap with your hand. Be careful to catch the barrels when they come loose. On the lower grades, you have to depress and hold down the spring inside the action (it's clearly visible and has two small prongs on the front end) while slapping the butt. Don't let the little prongs catch the barrels when you do that, as you can break that spring and they are wicked hard to replace.

There are three different models: R, P, and V. Normally, the Rs are grade 10-16, the Ps are 17-18 and the Vs are 19-22 and custom grades. I own one grade 10 (a very rare 10 gauge) and one grade 19 (something of an oddball, as it's a P model, not the usual V model), so I have experience with each of the different styles.

Apparently, at least according to recent postings on the Doublegunshop.com BBS, someone has bought the Darne name (I'm not sure what happened to the Bruchets, who previously were making Darnes) and production facility and is manufacturing a very limited number of Darnes.

I traded for one some years ago. It was for sure unique, just never warmed up to it. It went down the road.

DF

Ted on double gun shop might be able to help.Owned a r17 many years ago didn't work for me.

They are very unique and beautiful. I wish I had one...