My interest in guns has been across the board, but for 20 plus years I mostly collected Winchester Model 70's. Never finished the entire collection but did get almost the entire lot before I sold them off. After a while I got to the point where it almost became boring. Why collect guns just to have them, when I enjoy shooting so much? So I went into a different direction. Shotguns can be shot with little wear and tear on them and no real loss of value.
While looking for Winchesters I came across doubles which were very reasonable in those days. So I started buying Fox small bores and mostly A grade in 12 and small bores. Fox were such easy to swing guns with very neat lines that I just enjoyed above most other makes. A few Parkers and Smiths, that I bought, never made me that happy so for years I just bought Foxes. Those days a Sterlingworth 16 was a $400-500 gun, in perfect shape. 16 were a dead gauge and gun in 16 were white elephants on gun shelves. The prices on 12 and 20 were slightly more. A grade were less than a grand for most 12 and 20's. How times have changed. Live long, and prosper, and you tend to end up with a lot of what you collect.
My only real regret is to come to see Lefevers as such fine guns so late. My collection of them could be ten times as large if I had just seen the light early. Oh well at least I see it now.
