| David Noble |
12-14-2016 12:23 AM |
I've owned a few, a 12, 16 and 20ga. The 16 was a Halifax model but still a true Darne design.
The guns are light weight and handle easily. Finding a good fit might be difficult, the length of pull is rarely over 14 inches in my experience. The action, which is the big draw on these guns, is awkward at first primarily because it is so different from a thumb lever. Instead of just shifting the thumb over the top to push the lever, you have to completely release your grip and reach up and pull the cam lever up and back. This amounts to about tens times the amount of involvement to open and extract the shells. The shells on an ejector model are knocked off on opposite sides of the action. Notice I say knocked off, not thrown out like on an ejector Parker or similar action. The Halifax 16 did not have ejectors so the empties just were pulled out but always seemed to fall from the action anyway due to the manipulation of the cam lever. One thing you need to be aware of is when the action is open, the back of the sliding breach is protruding back over the grip area of the gun. If for some reason you try to regrab the gun at the grip the rather sharp back edge of the breach can cause you some grief. And never open the action with the off hand while grasping the gun at the grip with the other hand.
Reloading the chambers takes a bit of getting used to also. Since the barrels don't drop down as on all other doubles, you have to manipulate the shells a bit differently to feed them into the chambers. On my Parkers I can grab two shells in my hand and feed them both in simultaneously but that was a maneuver I never mastered with the Darne type guns. Most of the time I would have to load one at a time even though I held two shells in the hand.
Once the gun is mounted, the swamped rib becomes very evident! If you've never shot a side by side with a swamped rib you'll be in for a surprise. It's a bit unnerving at first but after a bit of shooting you quit being disturbed by the lack of a rib and just point and shoot as usual.
Like I said earlier, the draw of these guns is the unusual action. While quit unique and attractive, I never saw any advantage to the action mechanically or functionally. I owned each one for about a year and then sold or traded them off. Still I would recommend the gun if you are interested in one, just to experience it. They are easy to sell or trade off when the time comes.
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