Hi All:

A friend of mine called to tell me that LL Bean is offering a Merkel four gun set in the following gages, 16, 20, 28, and .410 caliber. I think that there are only going to be 5 of these sets produced.

Anybody else know anything about this set? Opinions?

Stay well,

Franchi

Given that this 20 ga LL Bean Merkel is being offered for $35k, that seems like a relative bargain.
LL Bean Merkel 20 ga.

I really like the pre-war Merkel SxS but the ones being sold today are too industrial for my tastes. Why anyone would pay $35k for this gun, when you could get a Krieghoff Essencia for $10k less, is beyond me.

Given that these guns are supposed to commemorate LL Bean's history, wouldn't a special run of domestically-made CSMC Foxes have been much more in keeping with its NE roots? Where the Merkel thing came from, I can only guess.

Ad was in most recent "Hunting" catalog I received. Not the way I would spend $75 on guns.

I think I remember reading a full article about this in the last SS, but there's a reasonable amount of info on the web about it too. Here's just one;

http://www.seriousbirdhunting.com/2011/12/21/check-out-ll-beans-100th-guns/

My opinion? Great for LLB. I hope the sell 'em all. I personally could find 75k other things to do with that $75k.

How much for the Kreighoff? My search says mid 20's.

bill

New, I believe they sell for around $25k. I have seen a couple either NIB or close listed for around $22k.

If you like them, contact the maker Ziegenhahn & Sohn directly and they will make something just as nice for substantially less.

My take, on going into the gun room at Bean's main store in Freeport, is that they are more selling lifestyle, even there. You'll hear stories that they get grief pretty frequently from some customers along the lines of "what are all those stuffed animals doing here?".

The sxs guns Beans has on the wall are Merkels and Spanish guns. Those are the brands lifestyle customers know.

I saw them first here:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/gun-...-coming-january

I echoed the lamentations that Bean's didn't choose an American make.

L.L. Bean shot at least one Parker DHE, and this CHE:

http://www.gunsamerica.com/916203844/Gun...RY_ORIGINAL.htm

That Merkel is UGLY.

OWD

Good point - but at least the Maine LL Bean store has a hunting/gun section. The others have de-emphasized hunting and shooting and there's a large LL Bean in an affluent part of NH that has no vestige of anything relating to hunting.

This is, I believe, because of the demographics of their new customer base. I see a lot of LL Bean clothing on the Upper West Side worn by people who would get lost if they were between two trees.

On the other hand, Orvis' New York store on Fifth & 44th has recently put in a lot of hunting gear - real shooting jackets, cartridge belts, speed bags and the like. They are again marketing themselves as hunting-orientated. I find this a very refreshing change to the NY scene!

I do owe the Freeport Bean gunroom a big one, however. A few years ago some friends and I spent a day at their "wingshooting" clinic (a complete and total waste of time - crappy instructors and no emphasis on wingshooting) but I did, for the first time, handle a Merkel 1620. I would have bought it right on the spot but the gunroom guy was such a dork that I didn't and got one a couple weeks later for 1K less.

Lifestyle marketing is big - can't blame them if they want to make money.

Companies gotta stay in business. Can't blame them for selling what people will buy.

That's a myth of modern America. I've done a fair amount of research, and I can decisively tell you that no company is obliged to stay in business. They can always close their doors and take pride in knowing they kept the faith whilst their A-hole customers went to pot.

What I've found is most companies sell their souls in order to 'Grow'. 'Growth' is the mantra nowadays - no one worries about getting better or having pride in their products. Growth is all that matters, and when growth can't be sustained (wonder why?) they start running around doing stupid things like moving production to China and selling T-shirts.

This made me laugh out loud. Funniest thing I've read in a long time. Thanks!

p.s. I'm not much of a LLB shopper, but they do make one of the greatest blaze orange backpacks I've ever seen, that includes a camelbak compartment.

as rick on pawn stars recently related:

"anything made to be a collectible, is not".

bean makes good clothing. not cheap, but not over priced either... and it lasts forever.

why would anyone pay more than five grand for any new gun?

Becasuse they like it better than the one available for 5 grand?

Cant say I'm much of a fan of having a gold boot engraved on my receiver.

Having frequented the flagship store may times, I think their gun room is a joke. I'd hit KTP or Cabela's first.

Question: which area is considered more elite, the Upper East Side, or the Upper West Side?
Thanks

They both are equal, but in different ways (!)

West Side claims to be hipper but the East Side is older money.

Allegedly.

I like Merkel's, 20s, and the deep "Germanic" engraving. But a gold inlay of an L.L. Bean boot on the floorplate????

(I have no great love of the chain-tread L.L. Bean boot--chain lightning on a slippery slope, even when new. Fine on the flats, but there aren't many where I hunted back East. NONE here.).

Thanks Gnomom

The two undoubted advantages in the gun room in Bean's Freeport store are (a) it never closes and (b) they carry RST short-chamber shells (and in 12, 16 and 20 and a couple shot sizes), which neither Cabelas nor KTP do. You might find some Gamebores or similar at Cabelas, occasionally, but it would be pure luck that you got there before the quota sold out. KTP says they carry short-chamber low pressure shells (offhand I forget which brand, but it ain't RST) but I've never seen them there.

I think they have Mr. Bean's DHE on display in the gun room area - it's on an oversized stair landing with a couple comfortable chairs. He had it made with a cross-eyed stock. His CHE was up for sale on GI or GA at a ridiculous price earlier this winter.

As to the clothes - I went to college when the "preppy look" was in fashion and I saw more girls wearing ankle high Bean boots than I could count, then or now. I'm presently working in DC on a temporary gig and it's kinda funny the looks my field coat gets when I'm casual, on the weekend. I mean, its not badly worn and I did wash it before I came down (I got the partridge blood off the pocket, even), but it's got enough field wear and tear that it's impossible to pass it off as the faux barn coat politicians and style-conscious folks wear.

But, the fact is, Bean's does not make their money in Maine. The consensus view among Mainers is that they lose money on Maine customers. Of course, Mainers take advantage of things like boot repairs and such, too.

DIM - Betcha Scott Brown would pay you good money for that coat!

Not for sale. I'm just getting it properly broken in.

DiM- your comments made me smile. I love well-worn clothing be they field jackets or tweeds or shirts.

Worn collars and cuffs drive some people nuts and I use them as a barometer to judge people (well, almost)

Of course in order to work, the stuff had to be good to start with.

My son has a couple of tweed jackets that I bought in the 60s!

I have an upland vest that I bought from Beans sale catalog a few years back, best I have ever used. When we lived in New York in the 50's our address was 16 something Park Avenue. We didnt have old money, Dad made new money. Is that East or West? I like Merkels, never owned one, but for the money I would buy somethng British. Does Abercrombies even sell guns anymore? do they even exist?

The "real" A&F of our youth no longer exists. They went bankrupt and the name was bought by the "new" A&F. They do not sell guns, they don't outfit safaris but they sell overpriced "outdoor" clothing to wannabes. I was in one of their shops once (I think it might have been in Boston) and fled in terror.

Merkels are indeed nice guns but I also wouldn't pay for the fake collectible ones that Beans is pushing. You're right - for that money you can get an English double.

However, one of the nicest guns that I've ever shot is a Merkel - their 1620. It's a 16 gauge boxlock built on a 20 gauge frame and it is very sweet. I have a 20 ga on the same frame and it's heavier and not as nice-handling.

LD- were you on the East or WEst side of Park?

A&F openned a clothing store in a local mall about 20 yrs ago. I was in there a couple times when killing time while the wife shopped nearby. I recall lotsa overpriced V-necked sweaters and such. Nothing in there you'd want to hunt in. If you go to their website, it looks like they're appealing to the young snob crowd for preppy grunge clothing.

I've got a couple older field coats that are only now reaching their prime, which I define as the time I have to start sewing canvas from a painter's dropcloth (new and unused) into it to close the holes, relining it (the cloth you'd make a flannel shirt from works great - it also makes great rod bags) and replacing the corduroy on the collar and cuffs (more a cosmetic thing).

It's funny, but it seems "hunting" and the outdoor lifestyle that revolves around it are encountering something of a renaissance, at least among the stylish classes. Time was - in my college days - when I'd duck for the weekend and tell people I was going hunting I'd get all sorts of "eww, yick! Killer!" (If I brought back, say, a rabbit to cook for my dinner - I'd hear about it for a year or two.) Now, the same people are saying "Hunting? Cool. I had no idea.* Pheasant? Yum!
--
* This, of course, just goes to prove that even smart people don't pay attention, have short memories, or just glide through life without getting any depth out of it.
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Whether this renaissance will be something lasting or a passing fad, like flyfishing was among the high demographic when "that Movie" came out - lasting until they figured out it was hard to do, let alone do well and a new trend came along - remains to be seen. I'm kinda figuring it's like flyfishing and will wind up the same way, only this time in a couple years they'll be trying to sell the overpriced lifestyle guns they bought, instead of ditching a flyrod in the back of a closet. We'll see how they deal with briers....

Bean's does sell some good stuff in their hunting catalog, but the prices are never competitive. I've been wearing a pair of their kangaroo leather upland boots for about ten years now; just had to replace the original soles with Vibrams (we still have a great local shoe maker and fixer. From Guatemala.). Got them 1/2 price at the store because they were "blemished"! (Apparently that means that leather ain't plastic.)

But of course now that I'm back in CA, the 'roo leather is illegal, so I have to keep an eye out for the Leather Police when I'm hunting. Sweet Baby Heysoos! What next? Fingernail Police? ("Dude, those jobs are over 1/16"--have to ticket you.... public menace! We'll do a lab screen on 'em too. Might be a germ in there. WMD!).

BTW, the only time to go to the Beans home store is about 4am, prior to hunting or fishing. No tourist buses full of lardasses from NJ or skinny guys with bazookameras from Osaka! The folks that are "on" then may actually have walked off the blacktop a time or two....

I have a good friend who lives in Nashua that I visit a few times a year. I used to always make my first and last stop at the Nashua LL Bean Outlet and purchased a lot of hunting clothes, supplies, optics accouterments, etc., everything that was being closed out and at great price reductions. Stopped going about 7 years ago, it all petered out to household items and preppie clothing.

L.L. Bean sells (or sold) the single guns for $15,000. Looks like a scalper in action already (Gunsamerica). I too was disappointed in their choice of makers but the quality will be there.