Well, I'll fess up right now, I'm a guy who was out with a Mossberg today (forgot my bismuth at my friends house, who couldn't make it out hunting at the federal wildlife area that is non-tox only, and had to settle for a Mossy 500 and steel 4s-and, yes, I had a great time). And, I feel I've always been a 'sorta "big tent" gun kinda guy, with an appreciation for the good stuff, and for the stuff that is just for meat on the table.
But, I'm tired of marketing people picking that same $2000-3000 price point and sticking it up my "consumer" ass with few or no options that matter in the long run. You can have an RBL in any gauge you want, as long as it's 20, or a Gold Label in everything that is 12.
Who comes up with that as a price point? And why would that individual expect me to be happy with what comes at that price point? My new midsize Chevrolet cost $23,000 and will have rust holes as big as anything else on the road in less than a decade.
I'm a big boy, let me give them a price point, and give me exactly what the hell I want. I'm well aware that the gun that sells for, say, $8000 is going to be much, much nicer(and I've got guns that sold in that price range, or, more, to go with the less than $500 cheapies) give me the option of something better than the marketing/bean counters tell me I can have. I don't need a $2000 new double anymore, been there, done that. Maybe somebody (maybe a lot of somebodys if the "marketing" people are right, but, I sure as hell 'ain't one of them) needs such a gun, but make sure S & W knows to get in line behind all the other $2000 guns that I don't even read the reviews about anymore. I've had it up to here with single trigger, poly finish, hot blued, screw choked, white line spacer, plastic grip capped, double plastic bead, vent rib, 3" chamber, gold duckys, laser checkered, rolled engraving, single gauge offering doubles designed by some marketing degree puke wearing Guci loafers with a cell phone in one hand and a palm pilot in the other, who wouldn't be caught dead buying a hunting license, and built in the third world. Screw that. A beat up Sterlingworth 16 will fly out the door of any pawnshop in the nation at $1000, and the manufacturers today don't have a clue why. Or, how. And that actually makes me sad when I ponder it. When did it become what they want me to buy and at what price point, instead of what I want?
Best,
Ted