GregSY
If you do not think of Uncle Dan as a real gunmaker then that sentiment shows how little you have learned so far and how much more you have to learn. JOhn Browning was another person who kept changing his designs left and right as the same time as Lefever was doing the same. Do not judge a man by the bottom line alone. History is written most often not by those who lived it, but by those who came later many of whom have an axe to grind or a viewpoint to support.
Lefever invented a double which could be adjusted for wear and has been able to last over 100 years. I shoot one that is 117 years old and must have shot a boat load of shells over the years. Still works perfectly every time I pull the trigger. In the past four years I have put just under 15,000 shells in that guns and it is still tight as the day I got it. Try that with a Remington 11/87 or Beretta slam-a-matic. I have, they wear much faster that this old double.
All of his partners combined did not contribute 10% of the improvements to the advancement of guns or doubles in the US. Most were people looking for a large return on investment and as anyone in the gun making business can tell you that is almost never the case. Slow and steady if you are lucky.
Parker made more money on coffee grinders, vices and hardware good that they made and sold than they ever made on guns. Fox might have made more on fishing reels than guns. Just about every gun maker in the US has been sold or taken over in my lifetime. And by then we were down to just a few. In the 1880-1900 time frame there were dozens, maybe more. Many made more profit on bike parts than guns. Almost all of them failed and were sold repeatedly.
How many gun makers survive a fire that destroys their entire factory with tools, wood and all gun parts lost? How many gun makers made it through the multiple boom and bust cycles of the late 1800's. Bank failures were common, runs on markets common, financial panics made any business a very risky thing. JP Morgan became the first Fed banker because he stopped a financial panic that many now understand he started. Times were vastly different and our viewpoints of right or wrong, smart or silly do not hold much weight.
