doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com P&V Maestro Imperiale

I ran into a shooting friend at lunch today and he told me about shooting his brand new P&V at the National this year. Due to their association with Purdey, he decided to order a custom engraved OU with the detachable trigger group, similar to this example from P&V last year:



I sent him to Bill Kempfer for a gun fitting and he went through the bespoke gun ordering process culminating one year later in a beautiful ST clays gun with 32" barrels. He shot maybe 4,000 rounds with it at our local club, then packed it up for the National. In competition, the upper barrel lock seized up and refused to activate the firing pin. He found a gunsmith who pulled the trigger group and sent it to Italy. It was returned two weeks later in supposedly pristine order. At the next competition, it misfired once again, but resumed normal operation shortly thereafter. He confided in me that he has lost confidence in the gun due to these incidents and it the concern of a misfire is often a mental distraction when he is in competition. He is ordering twin to this gun in a 2-barrel set 20/28 and I advised him to spec DT on his order!

He should have been shooting something competition proven ......... a Perazzi. But, some people just have to be different. That can be very expensive.

SRH

Competition separates the pretenders from the contenders. They build beautiful guns but, I recognize the doubt starting to creep into your friend's psyche about the malfunctions. Don't need that disturbing concentration when competing at that level.

That's probably a $40,000 shotgun. The ego must be fed.
JR

Good information and insight into the world of competition and that caliber of firearm used that hard. I've had a shotgun since 1983/84 can't quite remember and I probably have somewheres close to 4,000 rounds through it.

I will say this: if, after the trigger group was repaired, it misfired once, but none since, he needs to just keep shooting it and see what happens. The incident at the Nationals is certainly upsetting, but as each thousand rounds passes without trouble, so does confidence return. He may be through the shakedown period. Shit happens, even with Perazzis, Krieghoffs, and Kolars.
JR

Good point, John.

That misfire may not have been the gun's fault. Coulda been a bad shell. Time will tell.

Not that it means anything significant, but what level shooter is he, what classification?

SRH

Stan, average or class has very little to do with winning as you know. Some of the most expensive guns are owned by shooters who are just high average shooters. There are some fine shooters who while they shoot for a high average are no real threat to win a shoot. Yeah, they back into one every once in a while but when they know a high score is a must they will come up just slightly short. In Skeet we use to say he is a aaa shooter but the fellow who beat him is a AAA shooter. Both have the average but one gets to win almost every time.

He is a past national champion probably competing in the Sr. Division these days. I am not sure of his classification. Another interesting tidbit on the duplicate small frame gun he has on order: the stock broke at the wrist as it was being shaped and fitted. He now has to choose another blank.