"I mean, count how many there are compared to top lever guns at any time in history and figure out how wonderful they were. NOT!"
Count how many Crescent Arms or Stevens Doubles were made in comparison to Purdeys. What have you proved?? Sometimes its Lonely at the Top"
This was my reply to Wonko, which seems to have touched on this last round of controversy.
LARRY;
I am going to say it straight out & addressed to you directly. You had to try Intentionally & Extremely Hard to mis-interpret what I was saying. I was simply saying that sheer numbers do NOT in any way prove what is or isn't best.
Just because there are more A&D guns & more guns opened by Top Levers do not in anyway prove they are absolutely the best ever made, Period.
Aha. You confused me a bit, Miller, because the first sentence--the one in quotes--contradicts what follows. Although you did use quotation marks, nowhere in your post did you attribute it to Wonko (or anyone else). Always good, for clarity's sake, to make clear who it is you're quoting. As you did, above.
As for the top lever and A&D thing: In view of the fact that you have to look fairly hard (and mostly to France) to find ANY double, OU or SxS, that opens via any means other than a top lever--and given that top levers are used on "bests"--that would seem to indicate that it has been generally accepted as the best system. And given both the longevity of the A&D coupled with numbers produced, while there are certainly other actions that are at least as good (if not better), it's sufficient to prove to me that, like Fords vs Rolls, while the A&D may not be the best, it is an excellent combination of reliability coupled with a price that's well within reach of the majority of sxs buyers.
