While I agree with Joe Wood about enjoying the aura surrounding the old S x Ss, I can get an equal amount of pleasure out of a fine looking and handling O/U. Sure, there was no history in the box with my new Beretta 687 SP II Sporting 20 gauge when I bought it in '03, and very little accompanying my two used Perazzi MX-8 comp guns, for sporting. But, I'm of the apparent "super-minority" here who can really enjoy a double gun with superposed barrels.
Old doubles with a history are great, but I am creating history for my O/Us and my latter day manufactured S x Ss every time I take them to a sporting tournament and win, or place. And, I'm well along in creating a history for the 687 SP II on the bird field. Two trips to Cordoba shooting it exclusively, and eight dove seasons under the belt with it here has compiled some great memories, and bird counts, in my hunting journal.
The guns I buy new, however their (two) barrels are configured, will have a history just as meaningful to my grandsons, and hopefully great-grandsons, as any of my Foxes, L. C. Smiths or English doubles have for me. I've a sneaking feeling that they won't care one whit how the barrels are joined.
History is fun to think about, in the duck blind and in the field, but it's a WHOLE LOT more fun to make yourself! JMHO.
SRH
