I was visiting friends and hunting in Serbia recently and at a dinner we were at a guy brought in this shotgun. He knew nothing about it but surmised it was from the 19th Century/early 20th Century.

It is double barreled and has a bolt action which simultaneously opens both breaches. There are no stamps or markings of any kind other than the gilded "Le Goliath". Possibly French or Belgian.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? Sorry for the picture quality; all I had at the time was my phone.



Has

I believe that's a Darne. They patented what was known as the sliding breach. It was operated by a lever you pull up and it releases the barrel assembly to slide forward.

I looked at one several years ago and have regretted not buying it.

www.fusildarne.com the official website.
An interesting design and very well made ,I wouldn't turn one down !

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
www.fusildarne.com the official website.
An interesting design and very well made ,I wouldn't turn one down !

Thanks for posting that link. I had no idea they made double rifles. That would be cool to own.

The one I looked at was a 12 Ga but it only had 2 1/2 inch chambers. The wood was badly oil soaked and would have needed replaced. At the time, I thought the $600 asking price was too high and I passed. Probably a bad plan

Guys, thanks for the info.
I believe you are correct as the gun I handled seems identical to the ones on Darne's site.
While I might buy an old one for the right price as a conversation piece, it is not the most user-friendly action and I would never buy one to shoot. While I didn't have the opportunity to shoot this one, just working the action was enough to know that it would be a liability on a decent bird hunt. In a rifle it would be OK for a high seat hunt but a recipe for disaster on DG.

Darne I've seen that action before

The Darne has one advantage in that compared with most boxlock or sidelock side-by-side guns of the same calibre it is lighter.

So for typical FRENCH shooting, walking-up it makes sense. Also when you fire it it actually ejects ONLY the fired cartridge.

But as others say it is certainly not as fast over repeat shots as a standard boxlock or sidelock ejector...so for typical BRITISH shooting, stood at a stand, it is no good.