Charlin Shotgun value

What a purdy piece !! Wish I had more to offer than that.

Beautiful. Wish I had more than $1.49 in my pocket, or I'd make an offer!



of course, if that sounds fair to you I'd be happy to sign a bill of sale this instant!

The action looks like a French Darne - same toggle design - nice gun - it is probably chambered for 2-1/2 or 2-9/16, so DON'T fire 2-3/4 inch shells in it. Short shells can be found at RST, Polywad among others.

Looks like most of the screws are still indexed and aren't buggered by some shade tree gunsmith

All that checkering and engraving is hand-done - no lasers or CNCs......very nice

If you take the barrels/forearm off, on the underside will be the chamber size, and choke designations and proof marks indicating country of origin

1/2 choke is Modified

St. Etienne is France's gun-making region

Wouldn't doubt they got the action from Darne, the way many European makers bought actions from one house or another, and then finished it themselves

That is a lovely looking gun. I wouldnt be surprised if that was worth quite a bit. Quite unusual.

Charlin made Darne type guns as did others. France's gun making center is in St. Etienne as mentioned. The gun probably has 65 mm chambers which is approx 2 9/16 as previously noted. My guess is the gun is from the twenties and looks like a mid grade gun. No realistic idea on price but my guess would be between 1100-1800. It appears to be well taken care of. The sliding breech guns typically were stocked to dimensions most Americans find awkward (not all but many). Stocks were typically short with fair amounts of drop. The reach to the front trigger takes some getting used to. Do a search of the auction sites and you will see mostly Darnes but there are Dumoulins out there too. I don't know how to determine Dumoulin grade, Darne uses a series of punch marks on the barrel flats. You might inquire at http://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php or http://www.gournetusa.com/forum/. You should get some good answers at both places.

I know this thread is a year old. I also have a Charlin, although not as nicely engraved as that one.

The sliding breech action on the Charlin is much smoother than any Darne, due to the slide being supporter and riding on hidden spring loaded ball bearings.

Although the action appears the same it locks completely different. The Darne has a round barrel extension with a recess on the botton. When the slide closes a bolt comes up and enters the recess locking the action very strongly, so strong in fact the Darne has been made in some big African game rifle cartridges.

The Charlin locks by a simpler means, the locking is accomplished only by the toggle camming over, thus making it suitable only for shotgun shells, preferably not high pressure loads.