"I once had a 20ga Syracuse Arms A grade with the ejector switch on it. Don't recall exactly what now but something in the cocking arrangement broke & I had to go inside it. That was I believe the roughest finished gun I have ever seen inside in all my life even down to including some JABC's"
Under the guidelines of the topic at hand, your SAC 20-bore falls outside the pre-1900 production parameter; as that gun would not have been produced prior to 1902 when SAC first offered a 20-bore. I've seen my fair share of beautifully fitted and finished SAC guns; but not those examples produced near the end of company operation (early 1905).
As for my opinion on the early period guns I've personally owned and used for hunting and targets, I have high opinions of the Colt model 1883, the early Syracuse Lefever, the Model 1894 Remington, early Syracuse and Fulton manufactured LC Smiths, early Parker hammer guns (later production Parker hammerless guns are better in my opinion than the early hammerless models), but the finest fitted and finished examples of made in American double guns I've ever seen were done by obscure custom makers in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and elsewhere in the northeast; makers names I can't recall at the moment, and all were in the collection of Bill Mcphail.
