16ga.com ~ View topic - need help with fixing a Darne sliding breech sxs

need some help with my 16 ga french Darne, it has striker type firing pins, on the front trigger the seer does not always engage the notch on the firing pin. both look rounded off, before I hit it with a file, any advice? I am sure no replacement parts are available.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1914 Location: Central ND

Darn Darne.

Ted Schefelbein is probably your man to ask.

Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Posts: 15 Location: Nothern Michigan

Get ahold of Geoffery Gournet the engraver in PA (gournetusa.com)
He was imported Darnes and still has parts for them. I have a love/hate relationship with these guns and have bought and sold a number of them.

When I have had questions about them i contact him and he has never failed to respond.

Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Posts: 15 Location: Nothern Michigan

Get ahold of Geoffery Gournet the engraver in PA (gournetusa.com)
He was imported Darnes and still has parts for them. I have a love/hate relationship with these guns and have bought and sold a number of them.

When I have had questions about them i contact him and he has never failed to respond.

Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Posts: 15 Location: Nothern Michigan

Get ahold of Geoffery Gournet the engraver in PA (gournetusa.com)
He was imported Darnes and still has parts for them. I have a love/hate relationship with these guns and have bought and sold a number of them.

When I have had questions about them i contact him and he has never failed to respond.

Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Posts: 15 Location: Nothern Michigan

Get ahold of Geoffery Gournet the engraver in PA (gournetusa.com)
He was imported Darnes and still has parts for them. I have a love/hate relationship with these guns and have bought and sold a number of them.

When I have had questions about them i contact him and he has never failed to respond.

Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Posts: 15 Location: Nothern Michigan

Get ahold of Geoffery Gournet the engraver in PA (gournetusa.com)
He was importer Darnes and still has parts for them. I have a love/hate relationship with these guns and have bought and sold a number of them.

When I have had questions about them i contact him and he has never failed to respond.

Joined: 30 Jun 2020 Posts: 15 Location: Nothern Michigan

Get ahold of Geoffery Gournet the engraver in PA
He was importer Darnes and still has parts for them. I have a love/hate relationship with these guns and have bought and sold a number of them.

When I have had questions about them i contact him and he has never failed to respond.

I think he's trying to suggest that you get ahold of Geoffery Gournet Very Happy

!

I did, no help

Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 1481 Location: Mpls, MN.

How many triggers have you worked on in your life? If you are far enough in the gun to know the relationship between the sear and the striker, my compliments.

I would guess the rounding off you refer to was an attempt by a previous owner to lighten the trigger pulls. Depending on the vintage of the gun, you may be able to swap the sears or the strikers themselves, to get an idea of which part would benefit from some squaring up. Mark each of the parts so you know where they were when you started and do some experimenting to see what improves.

It is important to remember that you only have a little metal to work with. There are Darne guns out there that double because someone tried too hard and removed too much material in a quest for lighter triggers. JJ Perodeau puts it best, “quit when you have two or three file strokes left”.

Knowing where that is separates a good ‘smith, from an average one.

Good luck.

Best,
Ted

thanks Ted, I tried interchanging the parts and neither seer would fit in the others location, I know the seers are original, they have the ser no on them, the leaf spring on the bad side looks home made and is longer then the good side, soooo, I put a little more bend in the leaf spring and squared up the surfaces with a file and so far its working. A side note, when removing the screws that hold the leaf springs in I buggered them a little so when I installed the sliding breach the screw heads kept it from closing, so had to file them flat, now all is well

Thank you for the update Smile

Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 1481 Location: Mpls, MN.

Whatever works.

The sad thing is these were never really cheap guns, but, the lower grades that have been used pretty hard (most of them) aren’t worth throwing a bunch of gunsmith money at.

Glad it is running.

Best,
Ted