Thanks revdocdrew for the link to the thread on the 16ga society page, it was very good.
What I am getting from the rest of you is that given a choice most all buyers of a side by side would buy used rather than new.
Given that a lot of you have a lot of guns, and thus have a decent amount of money invested in total this area, I think it's not that you couldn't afford a new side by side if you really wanted one, it's that you probably choose not to do so.
Am I off base in what I seem to be getting here as the reasons for this?:
1) SXS users are primarily hunters so the guns will get blemished anyway so why waste the money on new.
2) That a clays shooter is not apt to purchase a sxs for this purpose, and since in that intended use a gun stays in pretty fresh aesthetic condition these guys might be more apt to purchase new because of the hard use they will put the gun through.
3) Unlike a car that most of us start out with used but dream of new, that guns are more utilitarian than cars and new is just not as important. And with this is that a used gun is apt to have a lot more life left in it than a used car.
4) Used guns are older and thus better made, so that a new gun at even 2X-5X the price is in reality less of a gun.
5) For the price of one new you can have several used in different bores and styles to better fit the various game you hunt and different conditions you hunt in.
If I am not off base for the possible reasons I surmise above, maybe the used argument makes a lot of sense for an expensive to manufacture shotgun design as a sxs.
Dave
