doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com "entry level" ?

Just for fun, and to answer a questioned I've wondered about for awhile, what is an example of a lowest tier NON- "entry level" O/U and SXS? And- so I understand, what characteristics differentiate the low tier non- entry level gun from the top tier "entry level" gun?

The high today is 10F.

Entry level is what I've always thought of as field grade. Most makers seem to have thought so as well.

Examples, well for U/O how about a Browning Citori field. SXS, anybody's field offering.

Characteristics of the Field Grade, little or no stock checkering, extractors, little or no engraving.

Maybe you had something else in mind...Geo

Mr. Newbern, Truth be told I don't know what is being entered into when the term "entry level" is used. I think when the term is used with say Trap guns the term means the gun you buy to try out Trap shooting until you find out better what characteristics you need to make your gun shoot 60/40 and stop smacking you in the cheek. But I see guns that are "field guns" like Beretta O/Us for example and no one ever refers to a Beretta O/U as "entry level" though I suppose if a field gun is used as a starter Trap gun it could be? Among shotgun shooting disciplines, if that is the right word, there seem to be entry level guns and non-entry level guns. A Weatherby Orion has been called the former and it was said to be a Beretta action copy but having heavy trigger pulls. So I ask if the trigger pulls are lightened does that change its "entry level" status? The same critic really likes Remington Wingmasters, as another example contributing to my confusion of the term. Then a Wingmaster must not be an entry level pump gun I suppose?

Mr. NewBern, Thank you for your reply.

That's how I think of entry level, too, Geo. But for some reason or another, rightly or wrongly, justified or otherwise, I think of my Beretta o/u 686 Silver Pigeon I, which hasn't the features you describe, as entry-level compared to those SOs on another current thread (and many others advertised in the glossy magazines).

Entry level is the lowest priced gun that a brand offers and competes against. It is the "entry" to that market with that brand.

An entry level Huglu will be different in quality than an entry level Beretta.

There are entry level Ferrari and Porsche. Entry level private jets. BBQ grills and chain saws.

It's also a bit meaningless. It's a marketing term.

I'm going to opine that the lowest level of gun is the farm tool/farmer grade/JABC/trade gun. It is usually safe to shoot, but has no options that cost money --- any money. Its design will be simple and/or least cost to manufacture. Materials will be pretty much the lowest cost to manufacture a working gun. Finish will lowest cost to manufacture. Manufacturing technology has advance to the point that entry level is a decent gun.

DDA

I was attracted to what are now American "classics" because they were often referred to as hardware-store guns. My 1889 Parker 16 0 grade hammer twist would have been one of them. Few are better handling to this day.

Someone upthread mentioned entry grade Farraris. Not in the gun realm, of course, but the reference made a good point; there are Fords and Farraris in the gun world as well.

King's low grade Parker may have been bottom of the Parker barrel, but far superior to the low grade Crescent or Belgian gun of the time...Geo

A Parker was never a "hardware-store gun", in the sense that "hardware-store guns" were near the bottom rung in fit/finish/quality. Just because Maxwell Hardware on Broad Street in Augusta, GA sold Parkers does not mean they were "hardware-store guns". It means that Maxwell Hardware saw the market for Parkers and could move them. There were "farmers" who saw the value in a Parker, and spent that hard-earned money for one. So, the term "farmer grade" is just as ambiguous as "entry level", if not actually somewhat condescending. Why not say "clerk grade", "barber grade" or "mill worker grade"?

A Trojan was the entry level Parker, just as a Sterlingworth was the entry level Fox. "Entry level", as James accurately described it, is also used often, in an expanded way, to refer to the lowest grade/cost item for sale in a genre, such as the broad category "shotguns". Entry level for a shotgun would be a single barrel, single shot, break-open exposed hammer shotgun.

SRH