The very finest British best guns, will always be worth owning, but they last for well over a century. One of my friends brought over a very nice W. Scott hammer gun, made with the thumbhole Purdey patent action, that was made in the early 1870's. He also had a I. Hollis hammer gun, not as high grade as the other, but still a very nice gun.
But as nice as those old damascus barreled, black powder shotguns are, they are worth only a fraction of what they'd be worth if they were made thirty years later with fluid steel barrels.
An old shotgun that requires expensive and hard to get ammo isn't going to be worth much, when that's the only ammo it can shoot.
One of the reasons I'm so fond of my old doubles, is that I can buy a box of cheap lead shell for five bucks and shoot them at the range with my friends.
I'm curious, if you wanted to shoot nontoxic shot that was soft enough for old double guns, how much a box would the shells cost?
