What you are missing here, Larry, is that I was looking for replies to a specific proposal, nothing more. A gun similar to a Win. 21 in configuration, style, and purpose (please note I included 20 ga. as well as 12).
Maybe Browning couldn't do it for the price I mentioned, but maybe they could. More likely is they wouldn't. Nobody seemed interested, so I got what I was looking for. All the rest of the scenario you present changes nothing. But thanks anyway.
JR
John, you're addressing a fairly small audience here, although certainly one that's interested in side by sides. Might be interesting to see the reaction to your proposal--or, for that matter, my suggestion of a BSS small bore game gun--from, say, a majority of the readers of Double Gun Journal. But frankly, I would've been surprised if your specific proposal would have generated a lot of interest, given the relatively lukewarm reception to 12ga RBL's tricked out as long barreled target/waterfowl/etc guns. Both Galazan and Reagent Chemical, when they decided to produce the Parker Reproduction, started with smaller bore guns to "test the waters" before they came out with any 12's. I'm thinking one reason the market for long-barreled 12's isn't that great is that there are plenty of them out there in the form of vintage American doubles--far more of those than smallbores--and they're excellent starting points for custom conversions to side by side sporting clays etc guns. I owned one of those, fairly briefly: 30" Parker V grade on a #2 frame, restocked to modern dimensions, choke tubes, etc. Eventually decided I didn't really want what for me was basically a dedicated 12ga target gun. But I also think it was a successful project, for someone looking for something like that.
