doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ever hear of a "Lady of Spain" shotgun?

Greg is partially right and partially wrong.

Small parts that are not hardened correctly do get into the supply chain of parts, and used to make shotguns. It�s rare, but it happens.

But when it happens it doesn�t just happen with low price point guns or to just some makers. And it's not limited to any specific period of time. It can happen to any maker and any gun regardless of price point or the year the gun was made.

Understanding all this requires understanding the artisanal nature of the Spanish shotgun. The shotgun makers don�t, as a rule, make the parts they use to assemble the shotguns they put their names on. Rather there are small shops, each of which specializes in making some part or assembly, from which the makers buy the parts they need to assemble their guns.

Artisanal manufacturing does not scale up well or easily. When there is an unusually high demand from one or more shotgun makers for parts this underlying network of suppliers cannot keep up with the demand for more parts, faster. So they bring in untrained and inexperienced workers (usually family) to help increase the number of parts produced. This is the point at which we begin to see poorly heat treated, or completely untreated, parts delivered to shotgun makers and included in new shotguns.

When poorly heat treated parts get into the system they can end up at any gun maker�s shop, and in any gun regardless of price point. People who think they can avoid this problem by only buying from a maker with a name they recognize, or by only buying top price point guns, are asking to be disappointed. These folks have the same (small) chance of getting a gun with one or more soft part in it.

So what�s to be done? Here are two simple answers.

New guns:
All the small parts that need to be hardened should be file hard. So if you have any concerns disassemble the suspect gun and hit each hardened part lightly with a file to verify it was properly hardened. If the file bites, the part needs attention.

Used guns:
Un-heat treated parts wear out fast. If you�re buying a used gun that has been consistently used for forty or fifty years, and it still works, then the gun either had no problems or whatever problem existed were fixed long ago.

Yes sir, and it�s just that simple. But I�d suggest checking each part to verify it needs attention. No point in fixing something that isn�t broken.

A dozen or more books on the Spanish gun industry would be greatly appreciated by this layman.

As a side note it would also be interesting to read how the Spanish gun industry differs from the other European gun industries. That would be a good read.

A buddy in another province asked for opinion of a shotgun marked Lepco London on the barrels, from appearances a well turned out 12 gauge. I googled Lepco and found this:

"LEPCO, I think, may have been a trade name under which Manufacture d'Armes des Pyrénées, a French/Spanish company, sold guns into the UK and the US.

"They were sold in the UK by LePersonne & Co, London and may have had an office in London themselves at some stage during the 1920's.

"If your gun had Belgian proof marks, it could have been made there by one of the hundreds of small arms workshops in Liege/Herstal, and distributed by Lepco/MAP under thier name."

Is it LOS or the real thing? Appreciate any assistance, please.

At the risk of stretching an analogy past the breaking point (and of offending Max Weber), I'd be tempted to compare/contrast by using the term "gemeinschaft" for the Spanish gun industry and "gesellschaft" for the European gun industries.

So that old black and white picture of a workman by the window of his cottage pounded out shotgun hammers for the trade while his wife sits near the sink washing the baby is pretty accurate.

Interesting picture but far too many books skim right over that part of the industry. A real shame. But as a historian once said, the last book I wrote took me five years of intensive research and all I got from it was enough money to buy a good used car.

Did you actually own this gun Jagermeister, or is it something you lusted after at your local gun rental emporium? I mean, you told us you don't even own a double, and that your only shotgun is a short barreled Ithaca Model 37 pump. And didn't you also tell us that you rented a .22 rifle? I didn't even know you could rent guns. I guess that "Hope and Change" isn't working out so well for you. Maybe Hillary or Bernie Sanders will do better.

The gun fits me very well and they're not getting any cheaper. New ones are expensive. Connaught is �7800 and Pall Mall �15000. Good enough for Juan Carlos and Carlos Sainz good enough for me.

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