doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Brit SxS market.

After deducting associated proportional cost of storage, cleaning materials, upkeep etc it becomes a tax deductible loss doesn't it?

Jeremy

Especially if you wind up selling it for a loss!
Karl

I can attest to the fact that the British small bore market is healthy. I was looking for a respectable Brit 16 bore sidelock with long barrels. When one hit my dealer's inventory last month, a bidding war broke out for a 110 year old gun. I had to spend more than I wanted to secure it.

It certainly is a quiet time here in the UK.
I was recently offered a very nice Birmingham made SxS 12g that was being Part Exed for a new O/U . The Dealer didn't want to take it for any price , I was offered it for �40 ! But sadly I too didn't want it. SxS's are just not selling. I have numerous guns, many quality makes and I have had to learn that most are only worth about 2/3rds what I paid for them.
I have one gun that was valued at �52,000 in 1988.
Recently I was offered �2,000 for it by a rogue dealer who didn't know its history or model , it looks similar to a current gun that retails at �5,600.

Perhaps the market is self correcting and taking us back to the golden age of shotgunning. Back then a mid ranking officer made about 500 pounds annually and a "best" cost 100 pounds. The same rank officer now makes 55000 pounds and the "best" costs almost twice that, despite the introduction of cost cutting CNC machines. Something ain't right!

Military pay is documented and lots of military ranks appear in the ledger books of top makers, thus giving us an indication of the purchasing power of a large percentage of buyers during the golden age of shotgunning.

Probably worth remembering, re British military officers, that they were often the second (or further down the line) sons of wealthy families. So while they did not inherit, it's probably not wise to assume that their military pay was their only source of income.

I think that one of the problems, certainly in the U.K., is that youngsters are not taking up shooting as they once were. I would have thought I was the bee's knees if I had owned an English boxlock non-ejector when starting out. In fact I was about 21 before I could afford one such gun. Now they can be bought for very little. Most youngsters seem to just want to play with technology instead of getting out into the fresh air; and they wonder about childhood obesity! Any that do want to take up shooting want an over/under for clays and it usually carries the name of some Italian maker. It's the same with fishing. Can't get them outdoors any more. Sad times. Lagopus.....

I look at the equation and think junior officers are obviously underpaid

In all seriousness though I would not be at all surprised if the relative pay of officers has declined relative to the pay of gun trade workers.

Also as someone else pointed out it wasn't until WWII and later that the British officer class ceased to be drawn from the gentry who might have alternative income.

Jeremy

Take a look at this dealer in England. Elderkin.

What must have been a collection of English bests hit the market about 6 weeks ago on this site. There were about 30 listings in all, some singles, some pairs. All guns were visible at one time, and as they sold the pictures were removed. Most appeared to sell within 2 weeks of hitting the market. Now only 5 listings are active. Now, I do not know what the actual selling prices were, but these guns have moved fairly quickly.

L.Brown notes: "it's probably not wise to assume that their military pay was their only source of income."

This seems to reinforce the point that the cost of a "best" in the heyday of english gunmaking was a small fraction of a buyer's annual income.

Considering the great numbers of mid level officers (captains, majors, naval commanders etc)in the ledgers it is unlikely that ALL of them were partly financed by discretionary income sources. Also there are plenty of plain "misters" in the ledger books and they could afford a "best".

Current pricing of "best is even more weird . Per kilogram of weight it is in multiples of a Rolls Royce. No way a 1880 design can rival the costs of development or the overheads etc of a hand built car. Arguably there is more skilled handwork in an exotic car than in a "best" shotgun and infinitely higher development costs.

Our passion often displaces objective thinking, but that is no reason for the makers to overdo it with pricing.