"Perhaps all the owners of Japanese Brownings and recent Merkel offerings would sense or hold the opinion they are better."
Actually I am always searching for that Weimar Merkel Gebruder because of the romance, current replacement values [at my price of course]and I like to tell people how old it is.
But finding one without some flaw,you pay dearly.
I passed on a sidelock 1956 gun because it had a crack behind the lock,and worn out checkering for 4k.
The 300 series prewar o/u boxlock had all the locking you could ever brag about[ a plus -add to above],but its overkill [look at kreighoff/perazzi/beretta locking].
If Merkel remade the 300 series TODAY,it would be a vastly superior gun to the old 300 [read metalurgy].
The nut you would have to come up with for that new 300 would put you into FAmars territory.
It also a question of the specific gun you are looking at.
Ive seen GDR guns identical to 50`s guns,and Ive seen GDR guns that were no better than Boitos.
