I have owned quite a number of Spanish SxSs and do almost all my own work on guns. I have torn apart Arrietas, AyAs, Grullas, Ugartecheas, Urbiolas, Arizagas, Sarasquetas, Aramberris, Union Armeras, Laronas, and Zabalas. As as result, I feel safe saying that I have had a taste of the good, the bad, and the ugly of Spanish guns.
While I believe Steve is being completely sincere in his description of the problems he has encountered on Spanish guns (especially since I have seen the same), I do not however think that his experiences are representative of an entire industry or all the guns produced by an individual maker. The very nature of his job as a gunsmith (i.e. he repairs broken guns) means that in his shop he is mostly going to see guns that have problems and not all those perfectly serviceable guns that are shot year after year without a hitch.
Case in point, a good friend of mine is a professionally trained local "general" gunsmith who has been working on all kinds of guns for over 40 years. When I ask him what is his "dog" of "dogs" shotgun is, he consistently replies "the Benelli SBE." He says he repairs more of those guns than any other and that in his words they are "pieces of junk." He absolutely hates them.
Like Steve's opinion of Spanish guns, I understand where he is coming from. A good friend of mine bought an SBE that would not cycle any kind of shell right out of the box. After several trips back to the store where he bought it and several inspections by a local smith, it was sent back to Benelli and came back still not working correctly. I replaced the aluminum tube that houses the main inertia spring with an aftermarket stainless steel tube and that seemed to help some, but the gun still did not always cycle shells correctly --regardless of the kind of shell.
BUT, on the other hand I know many other guys who have bought Benelli SBEs and hunt with them year after year without a hitch --heck, a few of my friends don't even ever clean them! There is a reason it is so popular and perhaps the most widely used autoloading duck gun.
I suspect Steve's experience with Spanish gun might be somewhat similar. Sure there are guns out there with problems and the Basques don't always finish the internals as nicely as they should. Yet Spanish guns have become quite popular for a reason and the quality is such that major retailers such as Cabelas continue to sell them.
Finally, in my opinion, the overall quality of Spanish guns has dramatically improved since the mid to late 90s, but so has the price. Prior to that, there were some great guns built by the Spanish but unfortunately they were also out numbered by a lot of junk. I also agree that the recent Grullas I have seen and currently own are mechanically finished better than the Arrietas of more or less the same grade that I own.
My Grulla 216RL:
