Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on Forgotten Weapons dot com.
I'm Ian I am here today at the Rock Island Auction House.
I'm checking out some of the guns that they are going to be selling in their upcoming
June of 2016 regional auction.
And I found a COOL French shotgun to take a look at!
Now..
this kind of appears to be uh
typical
side-by-side
you know two barrels, two triggers
sort of shotgun.
Shotguns are kind of boring, right?
Well, this one's a little different.
And, it's really kinda cool.
So, I found this, I recognized the manufacturer's name and I decided you know we really ought to take a closer look at this.
So, this was made by a fellow named Regis Darne.
Uh, who is at least to me, better known for designing some machine guns.
During the inter-war period.
uh the
The Darne Machine guns weren't particularly successful but they're another interesting gun.
So,
I wanted to see what this fellow and what this company were doing a little bit earlier.
Well
In between 1879 and 1884
uh Darne developed a...
rotary
action
rotary breech shotgun.
And his first models
were exposed hammer guns.
And then in 1892 he developed a hammerLESS version of the gun.
And that's what we have here is an 1892.
Hammerless rotary breech Darne.
Then in 1897
he came up with
the one designed that really turned out to be popular.
For him for shotguns and that was a sliding breech. Which is
pretty cool, there's actually a locking lever and then the whole
breech assembly slides backwards over the wrist.
And THOSE really took off commercially.
These rotary guns, ehh not so much. They werent all that popular.
And...
After he got the sliding breech I believe he had one more weird experimental
version of a rotary gun but that was it.
Then, you know, they had found the one that worked and then they stuck with it.
So..
These rotary guns are kind of uncommon.
And the mechanism is not something that we have seen made in the United States.
And so we should take a look at it!
So let's do just that.
Okay, let's look at how this works.
We've got...
No hammers, of course, this is the hammerless version.
We've got...
two triggers
two barrels
and a lever on the side.
And a lever on the top.
Now this lever is the safety.
You can flip it to either side...
and it renders the triggers non-functional.
So that's that bit.
Now to actually open the gun...
what you do is pull this lever up
ninety degrees.
...and then the whole thing rotates like that.
And when you get it all the way over you then hit a spring loaded piece.
Where you're now running
the extractor.
From a different angle.
Lift the lever
Rotate the block over
There's our extractor
under spring tension.
You would then take the your two shells get ejected, and get extracted and dumped on the ground.
You then put two new shells in
Rotate this back up.
Push the lever down.
When you lift the lever up you actually recock both of the hammers.
And then when you push down you're locking this block in place.
Now...
This lever prevents the breech from rotating.
And it's also camming the breech forward against the barrels.
So, if you look closely here you can see that when this gun is unlocked and open..
There is really no gap here and we have a gap of just a millimeter or two up at the front.
When I push the lever down...
That whole block cams forward. Now we have a gap back here.
You can see that again there
..to there.
So,
that's what the locking system on this is.
It's..
this block is getting pushed up against the barrels...
to seal.
So, let's take this apart and see how that actually works internally.
I'm gonna loosen up this screw which, actually, I already did.
and then we can take
the wooden handguard off.
Now, we have this mechanism.
Now what I'm gonna do..
is unlock the breech
rotate this around
and then
I can rotate the stock
and pull this
out of there
and then I can get...
here we go
the breech block out.
So this is our self contained breech block.
It's got the firing pins, the firing pin springs.
This is the cam track for the extractor
that runs against spring tension. Trigger mechanisms all in there safety is in there. Everything.
That's the working bits of the gun all in one block.
And of course the lever for recocking and locking and unlocking.
Now, this..
slides back and forth. You saw that uh when I lock it
It pushes up against the barrels.
What's actually moving is this locking block
right here.
Now you can see our breech block here.
and when I push this lever down, when I lock it
that block is pushed backwards.
So, when the gun's properly set up and in battery..
like..
this..
you can see we're nice and flush back here.
When I push this lever down
it's going to push this breech block forward.
Now, because everything is connected around this central pin..
this works as a locking mechanism.
So the barrels are connected out here
and they can't move.
The..
the recoil, err, the breech block
the locking cam is pushing against the back here which is this same bar, so..
The only place that this breech block can go is flush up against the barrels.
Now, as long as that stays tight..
everything is nice and safe and effective.
Now this center stock can fit into the barrel.
put it in 180 degrees out of alignment.
And then we have this flat spring right here.
Which snaps into this little V-groove. So..
..right..
..there.
This is locked in place.
So for disassembly I can rotate the stock.
Like this.
And that spring just keeps tension on it so that that doesnt happen during normal
course of operation.
Now...
our breach block would be sitting in here sliding just slightly back and forth to lock and unlock.
So the marks on the top of this gun appear to be totally worn off
but we do have a plethora of proof marks and the like down here underneath.
What we can see
We have this mark from uh Ronchard Cizeron
and he was the guy who actually manufactured the barrels.
So..
Darne put the gun together but they would've bought, basically, bought ready to go barrels
from somebody who specialized in making barrels and
and in that case, in this case, that would be Cizeron.
Uhh.. Canon De Surete is uh "Safety Barrel"
We have...
a uh cast steel guarantee.
Uh this is Medaille de Ore or uh "Gold Metal"
Which means Cizeron, at some point, won a gold medal and so he got to use that to advertise on his guns.
We have San Etienne proofs here which showing that both of these barrels were proof-marked.
And then the 15.8 is the bore diameter in millimeters.
And that's 15.8 millimeter which would be 20 gauge.
Lastly, we have this little rabbit stamp
And, up here it says "Choke proofed"
Down here "Perfectionne".
These are both improved choke barrels.
So that's what all these mess of markings means.
You can see that we do have a serial number 621.
621 on the barrels which does match the number on the stock assembly and on the breech block.
And looking at the very back here this is our
..wow..
..our ejector, our extractor, which is a very tough spring.
Normally, when you're running that with the the breech block you've got a lot of leverage.
That's a little tough to run with your hand.
But, when you push this down that way
it pushes the ejector out.
Err, the extractor out.
Keep trying to get those two mixed up.
So, if you get it in just in the right light and I kind of got it there.
You can see that there is just a bit of a shinier area right on the top here.
A rectangular section.
And that's where the locking block from breech block is actually contacting this rear surface.
So, that's going to get, that, it's going to be your primary point of pressure back from the barrels.
Uh aginst the breech block and into this every time you fire.
So, it will look a little bit more worn.
Here is our breech face.
With that 621 serial number once again.
right there.
Overall this is a pretty petite little shotgun
It's lighter and smaller than I wouldve expected from looking at the pictures. And..
yeah it's really cool.
It kinda exudes that late 19th century continental sort of feel.
At least to me, I find these designs really interesting.
Alright, now we've seen how that all comes apart and goes together.
Let's take one more look at the operating cycle.
Uh, now that we have it in some context.
So..
open this, pull it down to the side..
extract your two spent shells..
..put two new shells in..
lift up..
...and push down.
Now, if you are a right handed person, like this was obviously intended for
uh, you are holding the gun out here.
with your support hand.
you reach up with your trigger hand
Operate that
Grab your shells, put your shells in.
Relock it, go back to the trigger.
It's actually a very convenient, handy, ergonomic system.
Really quite cool.
Well thanks for watching guys, I hope you enjoyed the video.
Definitely an unusual cool type of shotgun to take a look at. You know? And..
Shotguns are boring until you start realizing the vast number of different ways that designers came up with
to make them work.
So,
This is, I think..
actually a really cool little gun.
It's handy, it seems to run well.
It's not in the greatest condition
uhh, you know a lot of the finish is gone but
I think its got a whole ton of character.
So,
If you'd like to try and get it for yourself take a look at the link in the description text below.
That will take you to Rock Island's catalog page on this little guy
and you can take a look at their pictures and their description
and place a bid right there through their website.
Thanks for watching!