Now Ted, you know I already have a good Spanish gun.
What started all this silliness was the beating my Arrieta was giving me on clays. These heavier American guns (8-lbs versus 6 1/2-lbs) are far-more comfortable to shoot high-volumes with and then... thanks to all of the insidious "gun-snobbery" here (& Mr. Vicknair of-course), I was able to obtain some very nice examples to shoot for a very reasonable outlay. I actually funded my last two guns by selling some classic American bamboo rods and some old American fly reels.
Are you noticing a theme here? "Classic American" stuff is still popular in this country and that includes many of our own doubles. Call it nostalgia, call it jingoistic, call me obtuse(!) but any gun that is still doing the job it was designed to do after 125-years is just fine with me (& frankly, it's got pretty good karma at that point too). For years, I couldn't afford any of the better American stuff (especially when I was younger) because it was massively popular with the generations that preceded mine. But now, after all the bad press it's been getting in the gun blogs for the last several years, the prices are quite reasonable. That Grade 2 Syracuse Smith I just got is very dramatic to look at(!) and it shoots just dandy on clays. I wouldn't want to lug it over hill & dale for upland stuff, but for waterfowl and even turkey it would be just the ticket.
To close here: I'll grant you... Pine Creek Dave is rather enthusiastic about his guns of choice, as is his prerogative. I promise you this: he's having a great time with them. As a Pennsylvania boy myself, I've been to his part of the world and it's downright lovely. I only wish I could just step out my door and have a gorgeous trout stream to fish and then almost endless wilderness to chase game in. We should all be so lucky.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 04/17/24 09:21 AM.
