doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com LL Bean 4 gun set for $75,000

I like Merkel's, 20s, and the deep "Germanic" engraving. But a gold inlay of an L.L. Bean boot on the floorplate????

(I have no great love of the chain-tread L.L. Bean boot--chain lightning on a slippery slope, even when new. Fine on the flats, but there aren't many where I hunted back East. NONE here.).

Thanks Gnomom

The two undoubted advantages in the gun room in Bean's Freeport store are (a) it never closes and (b) they carry RST short-chamber shells (and in 12, 16 and 20 and a couple shot sizes), which neither Cabelas nor KTP do. You might find some Gamebores or similar at Cabelas, occasionally, but it would be pure luck that you got there before the quota sold out. KTP says they carry short-chamber low pressure shells (offhand I forget which brand, but it ain't RST) but I've never seen them there.

I think they have Mr. Bean's DHE on display in the gun room area - it's on an oversized stair landing with a couple comfortable chairs. He had it made with a cross-eyed stock. His CHE was up for sale on GI or GA at a ridiculous price earlier this winter.

As to the clothes - I went to college when the "preppy look" was in fashion and I saw more girls wearing ankle high Bean boots than I could count, then or now. I'm presently working in DC on a temporary gig and it's kinda funny the looks my field coat gets when I'm casual, on the weekend. I mean, its not badly worn and I did wash it before I came down (I got the partridge blood off the pocket, even), but it's got enough field wear and tear that it's impossible to pass it off as the faux barn coat politicians and style-conscious folks wear.

But, the fact is, Bean's does not make their money in Maine. The consensus view among Mainers is that they lose money on Maine customers. Of course, Mainers take advantage of things like boot repairs and such, too.

DIM - Betcha Scott Brown would pay you good money for that coat!

Not for sale. I'm just getting it properly broken in.

DiM- your comments made me smile. I love well-worn clothing be they field jackets or tweeds or shirts.

Worn collars and cuffs drive some people nuts and I use them as a barometer to judge people (well, almost)

Of course in order to work, the stuff had to be good to start with.

My son has a couple of tweed jackets that I bought in the 60s!

I have an upland vest that I bought from Beans sale catalog a few years back, best I have ever used. When we lived in New York in the 50's our address was 16 something Park Avenue. We didnt have old money, Dad made new money. Is that East or West? I like Merkels, never owned one, but for the money I would buy somethng British. Does Abercrombies even sell guns anymore? do they even exist?

The "real" A&F of our youth no longer exists. They went bankrupt and the name was bought by the "new" A&F. They do not sell guns, they don't outfit safaris but they sell overpriced "outdoor" clothing to wannabes. I was in one of their shops once (I think it might have been in Boston) and fled in terror.

Merkels are indeed nice guns but I also wouldn't pay for the fake collectible ones that Beans is pushing. You're right - for that money you can get an English double.

However, one of the nicest guns that I've ever shot is a Merkel - their 1620. It's a 16 gauge boxlock built on a 20 gauge frame and it is very sweet. I have a 20 ga on the same frame and it's heavier and not as nice-handling.

LD- were you on the East or WEst side of Park?

A&F openned a clothing store in a local mall about 20 yrs ago. I was in there a couple times when killing time while the wife shopped nearby. I recall lotsa overpriced V-necked sweaters and such. Nothing in there you'd want to hunt in. If you go to their website, it looks like they're appealing to the young snob crowd for preppy grunge clothing.

I've got a couple older field coats that are only now reaching their prime, which I define as the time I have to start sewing canvas from a painter's dropcloth (new and unused) into it to close the holes, relining it (the cloth you'd make a flannel shirt from works great - it also makes great rod bags) and replacing the corduroy on the collar and cuffs (more a cosmetic thing).

It's funny, but it seems "hunting" and the outdoor lifestyle that revolves around it are encountering something of a renaissance, at least among the stylish classes. Time was - in my college days - when I'd duck for the weekend and tell people I was going hunting I'd get all sorts of "eww, yick! Killer!" (If I brought back, say, a rabbit to cook for my dinner - I'd hear about it for a year or two.) Now, the same people are saying "Hunting? Cool. I had no idea.* Pheasant? Yum!
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* This, of course, just goes to prove that even smart people don't pay attention, have short memories, or just glide through life without getting any depth out of it.
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Whether this renaissance will be something lasting or a passing fad, like flyfishing was among the high demographic when "that Movie" came out - lasting until they figured out it was hard to do, let alone do well and a new trend came along - remains to be seen. I'm kinda figuring it's like flyfishing and will wind up the same way, only this time in a couple years they'll be trying to sell the overpriced lifestyle guns they bought, instead of ditching a flyrod in the back of a closet. We'll see how they deal with briers....