............facing a buyer of a new double gun today? Is it price, or getting the options he wants, is it simply finding the right gun?
My opinion is that the very biggest problem a new doublegun buyer faces is that of regulation. I am a bit of a perfectionist about regulation. I have read writers who propose that as low as 50% "overlap" (their words) is acceptable. That is totally unacceptable to me. Their idea is that, if the patterns of the two barrels are not perfectly overlapping it doesn't matter, because no shooter is good enough to perfectly center the bird in the pattern everytime anyway. That is an anathema to me. What if you are "off" on the wrong side? A miss results, that should have been a hit with a regulated gun, or worse, a cripple.
Another reason that this is the number one problem, IMO, is that regulation cannot be checked, in almost all cases, until after you've bought the gun. Remember the 3-day NON-FIRING policies? You can walk into a gun show, or gun shop, and find the "perfect" gun, shoulder it to see if the dims are close to suitable, drop in snap caps and test the triggers, etc. but, you cannot test it for regulation.
I built a pattern plate about a year ago, and it tells the tale. There are waaaay more doubles floating around that are not regulated than most would believe. What's the big deal? Nothing, unless you're a serious shooter who likes to hit what he shoots at.
SRH
I found it to be worse in O/Ur's....
