Watch: Darne Model 1892 Rotary Shotgun

This a double-barrel shotgun of French origin, which opens and operates in a rather unusual way. To load or unload the gun, the action rotates off to the side.

The most popular shotgun made by the French Darne company was their 1897 sliding breech side-by-side, which saw sales and use worldwide. Before that, however, Darne invented a rotating breechblock system – first a series of external hammer varieties in the 1880s and then this hammerless Model 1892. It is a great example of a functional, creative, and interesting system that simply never became popular.

It’s really not a bad system, and in the long run may produce less wear & slop than you can expect on a break-action gun after thousands upon thousands of rounds. And the safety, while unconventional, makes it easy to tell at a glance whether your gun is ready to fire.

This particular gun was sold as part of a lot of 5 scatterguns, which went for $3,163.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.