Kyrie, not trying to pick a fight here but this is what Terry Wieland had said about the Spanish and English shotgun design; He stated that the exception was Armas Kemen that made completely different side-by-side shotguns.

“Today, a Spanish best is typically modeled on the classic English game gun: It is a side-by-side sidelock with straight grip, splinter fore-end, and double triggers. The Basques make other types and configurations of shotguns, but among the handful of surviving custom gunmakers in Eibar and Elgoibar, this gun---a slavish reproduction of the English ideal----is the definitive shotgun. All others are variations. …..Then there is the fact that for many years the British Isles was the largest single market outside Spain for the Spanish best. Throughout its history, Britain was AyA’s largest customer, and today all the custom makers export to Great Britain. Their clients are people who hunt driven grouse, partridge, and pheasant and want suitable guns that approximate a Purdey or Holland & Holland without the prohibitive price tag. Finally, there is the ancient influence of the English on the Basques through their trading ties, to say nothing of the inspiration of the greatest of all Spanish Anglophiles, King Alfonso XIII----The “true friend” of Purdey’s …. For the Basques, this all adds up to a great devotion to the English game gun formula. They decided long ago that it represents the ultimate development of the shotgun, and they set out to reproduce it as exactly as they possibly could. This is not merely a matter of crassly copying someone else’s designs, although you could look at it that way. It is more a case of acknowledging that the English approach is the best, and adopting it as their own beau ideal. It is hard to criticize them when they frankly admit that they worship the original and seek not to steal it, but only to duplicate it as well as they can.“ Source: Spanish Best, The Fine Shotguns of Spain, published 2001, by Terry Wieland, pgs. 109 – 111.

If these statements are somehow wrong, then why didn’t the Spanish gunmakers call B.S. on his version of their Spanish gunmaking history?

Tim