Darne info wanted

[Steve Scobee]

Looking for info on my recently acquired Darne. 12 ga, 25 1/4” barrels, 14 1/2” LOP. Very small “EPI Arlington, VA.” mark by the barrel lug. Serial #SPL424.
Any idea of a date of manufacture?

[Bill Murphy]

Geoffroy Gournet knows everything about Darnes. EPI is probably the required stamp of an importer.

[Ken Hill]

Over on doublegunshop.com, Ted Schefelbein use to import Darnes. You may want to post your Darne questions over there.

Ken

[Steve Scobee]

I've tried to register on doublegunshop.com be it won't let me. Something about my email address they don't like

[Ken Hill]

Steve,

Ted also posts on the upland journal board. You can try there as well.

https://uplandjournal.ipbhost.com

Ken

[Mike of the Mountain]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Geoffroy Gournet knows everything about Darnes. EPI is probably the required stamp of an importer.

You beat me to it Bill.

[Steve Scobee]

I emailed Geoffroy and he didn't seem to want to chat

[Matt Buckley]

Here is some info on Darne grades for you to look at: https://doublegunshop.com/darne.htm

What you have is a R15 Grade which is one of there middle grades. Yours is a later built Darne with full 2 3/4" chamber indicated by the 70mm on the barrel flats. I would venture a guess it was built in the late 60's into the 70's. Many of these were imported by Stoeger at the time, but they were usually marked Stoeger on the barrels. They are a very well built gun and you have a beautiful English Stock on your Darne.

[Steve Scobee]

Thanks for your reply, Matt. That’s exactly what I was looking for. When I was in high school I read an article. It concerned a guy that, I believe, went to Vietnam and got an old Darne. I have been fascinated with them ever since. Anyone recall the article? I want to say it was in American Rifleman, but I could be wrong.

[Kevin McCormack]

Beautiful and exotic guns, works of art in the higher grades. I bought a heart-stopping 28 gauge R-15 from Steve Barnett at the Southern SxS about 12 years ago but sold it to help pay for a $4K abdominal surgery on my English setter when he wolfed some hard plastic trash somewhere in the woods on one of our woodcock hunting forays. Ingenious and simplistic in their design, they seem to befuddle people who have never seen or handled one before, dealing with the sliding breech and especially operating the side safety.

Hundreds of them were sent to Viet Nam; the French bought them and stocked the PXs and armories with them there so their soldiers could hunt with them; some have the funky "stock in sling" setup not unlike other Euro military firearms. Most if not all of these are plain field grade guns.

I corresponded with Ted Schefelbein during the time I owned my Darne; he was always helpful and a wealth of obscure information on them. I almost bought a rough R 12 16 gauge recently, but couldn't find any definitive Darne proor or makers mark on it; then I remembered from Ted that it was not uncommon especially during transition periods (e.g., Darne to Paul Brouchet & viz.) for whomever was building the actions to farm them out to nearby finishers for final production and proofing, very much the same as some top end British makers did with Birmingham and in some cases London 'best' guns.

I couldn't reach a deal with the owner of the Darne 16 ga, he convinced that it was a 'one-off custom gun by an elite French maker". In truth a common field grade gun, if I ever get my hands on it, I may have Geoffroy turn it into a V-22!!