Ive been following this thread concerning the necessity of yearly preventative maintenance for (presumably English) side lock guns with interest and some incredulity.

Spaniards rarely even clean the bores of their guns once a year, much less take them back to the maker for a yearly PM. The guns get used and put up, used and put up, until the original owner is too old for the field at which point they are handed down to the next generation. Eventually someone breaks a firing pin and has it replaced, or a hinge pin becomes sufficiently worn that it needs to be turned, but PM just isnt in the picture. Guns can go forty or fifty years and never have the side plates removed.

Ive seen any number of discussions of English shotguns in the forums of Spanish hunters/shooters, and the beauty of the top end English is highly praised, but their lack of durability is spoken of with a kind of sorrow. Id always taken the former at face value and doubted the latter. The English hunters/shooters Ive corresponded with over the years have not mentioned any great need for maintenance of their guns (English or otherwise) or of a short service life without such maintenance. But this thread has made me wonder if lack of durability of English shotguns spoken of in the forums of Spain should be given some credence.