I love that someone turned the MG42 I drew in 7th grade into real gun.

I'm a direct descendent of Regis Darne, seeing his family name on your video is surreal. Thank you so much for this

I am so impressed with how normal someone with three arms can seem.

Even though I've been subscribed to a gun channel for years now, this is the first time I've seen a Darne gun

Ian demonstrating an incredible amount of restraint, not making any Darne jokes

Fantastic video. I especially like the part at 9:00 where Ian momentarily grows 2 extra hands to depress the main spring and remove the butt stock. Your techinque is truly unmatched sir.

8:59 Ian reveals his ability to grow a second pair of arms at will

Slaps on rear sight ladder* “This is a Darne good machine gun “

Ian missed such a Darne great opportunity for a dad joke there 😂

I always thought "gun jesus" was just a silly nickname, but Ian's ability to manifest an extra pair of arms makes me suspisious.

The potential was certainly there for it to be a French counterpart to the MG34 as an infantry GPMG. It amazes me how many potentially good designs fell by the wayside.

The grip / trigger guard makes perfect sense... A lot of Great War / Interwar pilot and observer gloves would've been sheepskin mittens, with the fleece on the inside, and the fingers grouped in pairs [with a separate thumb, or course] - almost like a pig's trotter. So you'd need a huge trigger guard to get two heavily gloved fingers into - even if only one was required for the trigger.

The story behind Darne is Darne interesting

9:01 Gun Jesus demonstrates the miraculous 4 handed disasembly technique.

Hearing Ian flawlessly pronounce French names and words is the ASMR I didn't know I needed.

13:08 You know a gun is complex when Ian doesn't feel confident enough to fully take it apart. The man who disassembled 30 SIGs.

The trigger guard and grip seem to be designed to accommodate thick "three finger" mittens (the 1-2-2 finger mitt, not like the modern 1-1-3 finger configuration)

Ian, thank you ever so much for bringing us these beautiful pieces of history. In my opinion you are the most valuable firearms channel on the internet. Again, your community thanks you from the bottom of our heart!

One word about the Darne on aircraft. Given the very French "laissez faire" way of doing things, Armée de l'Air fighter aircraft were fitted well into the 1930s with the reliable but already obsolescent Vickers Mk.III in .303 produced under license. The Darne could be synchronized but the system used was not reliable, thus they were mounted in underwing fairings in a few instances, like the early Dewoitine D-37 and Loire-46. Dewoitine D.500s used a combination of fuselage-mounted Vickers Mk.IIIs and Darne, for example. In the late French 501s and 510s they were replaced altogether by the MAC-34. The new design also had to contend with the Darne-Lewis, a licensed version of the Lewis Mk.II/III (easily distinguishable due to the wooden heat sinks on the gas piston). By 1939 the Darne was used mainly on secod-line aircraft thrown into the fray as an observer gun, on the likes of the lumbering Les Mureaux and Potez-39 two-seaters. The ones used by Yugoslavia - not Serbia - were all of the observer type IIRC (it's 5AM and insomnia is frying my brain) and standard issue for rear defence on two-seaters (Potez 25 and Breguet XIX) and bombers like the Bristol Blenheim. Why so many got exported and so few saw service with the Armée de l'Air? Well... It's something I read years ago in a well respected French magazine (AVIONS by SARL Lela Press), and it basically boiled down to the French procurement being a cheap fu... and considering the Darne as both expensive and complicated. "Why bother with new material created by a private company if we have thousands of Vickers Mk.IIIs lying around and our own folks at Saint Etienne and Chatellerault have been croaking for years to no end on how their next machine gun is going to be superlative?" That's the "Petoire" or "Firecracker". I mean, the MAC-34. Also, the French State got a pretty pinch in taxes and fees from the exports. So, 10/10 for the State owned companies and 5/10 for the private one. The Darne could have been the MAC 24/29 of the air with some further development, but official shenanigans and conservatism killed it. Sorry for the wall of text. Got carried away on one of my favourite topics. Cheers.

Overlooked part. The infantry MG only weights 8.4 kg (7.4 kg the aerial one, with lighter barrel and without stock) that's VERY light. However the lack of a quick exchange barrel limits its effectiveness.

I know someone who is restoring an early Darne SxS in i2 gauge. The mechanism makes one think of what might happen if a watch and a puzzle box had a child. Very elegant, but easy to repair if you have four hands.

I hope some Darne shotguns get a video eventually too, their weird sliding-breach actions are something I haven't seen anywhere else.

It’d probably be very difficult to pull off, but I’d be fascinated to see a video of Ian showing how the firing mechanism for machine guns on ww1biplanes worked, from the trigger the pilot pulls to the mounting of the gun itself. That’d be really cool!

If you're having problems with dirt and mud in your aircraft gun, then jamming is the _least_ of your worries.

Thank you for discussing this Darne gun. I learned a lot of interesting Darne facts from this Darne video. I thought it was particularly neat that the manufacturer would provide this Darne gun in any Darne calibre you pleased.

This is very much a "necessity is the mother of invention" type of gun and I love it.

@12:37 "This wire connector is... ^oops!" I really felt that.

Hans, can we have a MG-34? We have MG-34 at ze barracks. MG-34 at barracks:

You mention Italy as a customer, would the caliber have been 7,7x56R ( .303Br)? France produced 7,7 from 1918 to WWII for their Lewis and Darne Aircraft Guns. Thanks Ian, on the thoroughness of the video DocAV

Thank-you Ian for explaining everything so thorough without making it boring! 👍

Owned a 16g Darne shotgun with a sliding barrel loading system,nice little gun!

It always takes me longer than it should to realise the 3rd hand isn't Ian just spontaneously generating one as needed

So great to hear Ian say it is a "Forgotten Weapon" in this video. So a Forgotten Weapon on the Forgotten Weapons channel! Best channel ever!

Their experience with shotguns makes that feeding mechanism make a bit more sense. It’s not too unlike lifter in a tube-fed pump shotgun!

You, Paul Harrell, Garand Thumb, Hickok45, even Brandon Herrera, are all my favorite gun dudes. Keep it up.

I have been waiting for this gun for so long! Thank you!

I've seen models of these with a drum magazine mounted to the side (like the Riebel) for flexible aircraft mounts.

Those pins, especially the U shaped ones, scream "made by a blacksmith" to me. Definitely something easily produced in numbers at the time through very available channels.

This Darne gun was awesome to take a look at! Certain parts and construction of this firearm reminded me of an M240 like the but stock with the built in buffer and the firing pin design and retention (similar to a full auto M240 firing pin). Plus the tilting bolt lockup and the front part of the carrier/piston looks very reminiscent of the M240 parts. Being that the M240 is BAR style action flipped upside down it locks with a tilting mechanism as well but executed differently from this Darne gun. Very interesting mechanisms/designs, would be neat to see what the proprietary belt/belt links would of looked like. I like that the cartridge is stripped from the belt into position to be loaded into the chamber from the carrier/bolt cycling back from recoil rather then relying on a heavy spring alone to push the bolt/carrier forward then strip, feed, & chamber the next round locking up in battery. There were a few other firearms this one reminded me of or used parts from as you pointed out, great video as always Ian, keep up your amazing work making videos on guns like this that you more then likely would never know existed without the video on it from Forgotten Weapons! ❤👍

The Four Hands Moment was hillarious! FN SCAR copied their buttstock retention. One of the most beautiful bolt groups I have ever seen. Flowing lines and so elegantly machined. The retention pins are just fascinating engineering.

As a forgotten weapon, it's a winner. It's amazing to me that you say that was a fairly cheap machine gun to make, as it looks very intricate to manufacture. Sounds like it worked a lot better than it looked. That feed system, just amazing that worked at all, much less was reliable. But it is undeniably cool! ^-^

As a longtime viewer and Merch, supporter I love that there are weapons out there I’ve never heard of. Thank you for all the time and effort Ian. What a historical legacy of information you give to the world.

I am always amazed about the level of engineering included in those guns with what they had back in the days ! A Darne engineer with the tools and knowledge we have today would make some craaaaaaaaaazy stuff

At a first glance, it kinda looks like a PKM, a Bren and an MG42 got morphed together

We FINALLY caught a piece flying across the room like you're always saying could happen on camera!

It looks like it would have been a good weapon for a tank as well, since it can swap feed directions.

Years ago I was allowed to fondle a large bore goose gun by Darne. That sliding breach had almost no visible seam. Very nice products.

It's interesting how sometimes on here you see weapons that are forgotten for good reasons (Zip pistol for example) but so often you find ideas that were good or even great, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Darne M1922 was a hot favourite in 1920's machinegun trials in Czechoslovakia but failed miserably to Madsen and what would later become the ZB vz.26.

Drink every time Ian says, "Darne".

If this had a quick change barrel France would've had a general purpose machine gun as early as the Germans with their MG34.

I'd spend a hour or so to watch a comprehensive comparison of all the variations!

Darne had some beautiful sporting firearms.

Wow, the military museum is just next to my house, I feel strangely honored.

It would be insteresting to see the history of the FN Scar, especially what it could have been, since originally it wasn't meant to be 5.56 or 7.62, but 6.8 spc. Also, what if the fal was adopted with the .280 british, and then modernized with lighter materials and rails, would the fn scar program happen? Would the m16 be adopted? Maybe a lighter version of the 280 british, since it's a long cartridge.

Top shelf, as always.

"We'll just make our own Darne belts!"

Is it just me, or isn't it hilarious hearing him say "Darn" repeatedly?

Thank you , Ian . 🐺

Hearing Ian say 11 487 as the serial number while reading the real serial number tripped me up a bit, gotta say

That looks cool. I'm glad you covered another interesting thing

I do love that trigger guard! Kinda shocked to learn that Ian has 4 hands, however!

I learn so much. Thanks.

Them darn Darne guns, needing 4 hands to take apart, darnit Darne. I had a chuckle every time I heard the Darne guns.

Ian grew and extra set of hands! Impressive!

Thanks for making this.

Ian had to bring out his extra set of arms for this video

The Darne 1933, slightly more effective than France's Dratte 1928.

Wow, woke up JUST in time it looks like.

Thanks Ian

Great video Ian! Always a pleasure,

Something a bit unrelated that i find interesting nonetheless, is the habit of countries after the peace treaties of WW1 canceling their orders for new military equipment. They must have really had faith in their treaties ability to dissuade any further large-scale conflicts, which as we know in hindsight was completely false.

Thanks for showing us this Darne gun. I had a Darne good time!

Woke up to a new forgotten weapons video, oh darn

It’s about Darne time

Darne, that's some MG...

I didn't really read the title and had this on in the background thinking Ian was swearing a lot more than usual.

That thing has a massive trigger guard. God damn.

12:40 what no museum curator ever wants to hear

Damn, the danish do be missin'

Freaked me out when the extra hands appeared to help with disassembly :-p

“Captain we don’t have a gun for the side.” “Darne it”

you could say the history of the company is *darne* interesting

The thought process of firearms designers; never ceases to amaze me. I mean, who thinks like these guys?

lol when you get a jam in the Darne it causes you to shout "DARN IT!"

This is the coolest darne machinegun I've seen all day!

Me: can we get an MG42 Mom: we have an MG42 at home *the MG42 at home*

"Ping! thunk thunk thunk..." Oh, I know that sound so very well.

Thank you very much for KZfaq work 😉👍👌✌🤙👏👏

Very Interesting, the design is leagues ahead of the curve, Mostly in it's modularity, but suffers the same flaws as most early iteration MGs of this Era. It's feed mechanism is overly finicky relying on pull out/push in devices for stripping the belt. (very Vickers/Maxim like) It's like the primordial ancestor of the GP MG concept that Germany (and eventually Everybody Else) adopted. Mostly limited by the Lack of refinements that were ironed out by later adopters of the GP concept who had multiple iterations to streamline and improve their clunky Mechanics. Thanx Ian, love the history and nobody hates a Mag dump at the Range!

I would bet that the trigger guard is designed to work with split mittens where you have a pair of two fingers (index and middle, ring and pinky) in each of two finger pockets, or some similar solution.

"Built by an armorer from Saint-Étienne, renowned for his prestigious hunting rifles, the Darne machine guns continue to cause debate. Of modern design, allowing very cheap manufacturing and therefore widely exported, these weapons seem to have presented, however, a recurring lack of reliability and robustness which had to limit their role in the Air Force to that of a transitional solution." "The conclusion of a test carried out at Versailles in 1924 clearly reflects the impression given by the Darne: 'the commission considers that the Darne machine gun is of ingenious design but still very defective in execution.'" "In 1927, a report from General Challéat highlighted a serious defect in the Darne machine gun, which was unlikely to be corrected due to the multiple modifications made to the weapon: 'requested for 9 years, interchangeability has never been achieved in any satisfactory manner'. Subject to progressive improvements, the Darne machine gun was finally considered acceptable, when the Air Force adopted the 7.5 mm caliber planned in 1924 as the new regulatory caliber." "The Darne machine gun had passed the first tests in the competition organized by the RAF in 1935, but failed in extensive trials. In France, endurance tests are being carried out to assess how well weapons hold up in service. A report from July 27, 1938 mentions shooting incidents due to numerous breakages or deformations of parts: "unmodified parts do not resist firing" and reinforced parts, established at the request of the Yugoslav air force, are missing. focus [10] . The experience of naval aviation, which had recovered the Darne decommissioned by the Air Force, was to confirm these failures: "their operation was erratic to the point that we had given up hoping to get better than the first 10 or 12 shots." before irreparable jamming in flight", was to write Admiral Mesny about the Darne mounted as fixed armament on the Vought 156, and therefore not being able to be rearmed manually."

That Darne gun is pretty impressive.

This gun looks like when a bren and an mg34 had a one night stand and that gun is the cursed offspring of said relationship

This looks like a child tried to draw an MG42 from memory.

Darne good video Ian!

Thanks for the great content, interesting as always.

A darn good machine gun

I love how it just sounds as though Ian is on the brink of cursing this whole video XD

That darn gun is pretty slick