I purchased a Padrone o/u from Cabelas in Texas. It is an extremly well built and beautiful gun. I can't seem to find out any information on the outfit that made the gun. Anyone have any information?
Jim

I assume you like yours and it is a small gauge not a 12.

The Padrones were made in Italy by Marcheno, which is one of the smaller companies in the Bresicia, Italy region. I think the Euro price to USD was a major problem for them. They were not a cheap gun and several smaller makers went under about the time they hit the US market.

They are beautiful, very well made and great handling guns. They were made on three gauge specific frames. 16, 20 and 28. Their 410 is on their 28 gauge frame. You will notice that there is not a 12 listed. They were NOT making a 12 in the round body game gun series. DO not know it this changed. Perhaps someone has information about their existence still or if they were taken over by someone else. One rumor was that they were just a product of one of the Rizzini's but I was informed that was not the case at all.

The idea for these was hatched by a guy in San Antonio 6-8 years back. I don't remember his name but he was hoping to take a bite out of the mid-tier O/U market by importing these from Italy. I visited the guy and looked at several guns back then (his showroom was his living room). I thought they were decent guns for the money but I didn't order one. The one interesting tidbit I remember was that "Padrone" was a made up name and didn't represent a real person. The guy had big plans as I remember but obviously they never materialized.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/padrone

Jim,

I'm pretty sure the Padrone was made by Marcheno, in Brescia, Italy. The guy's name, that introduced them here, was Steve Hays. I've never seen and handled a Padrone, but from all I've read they are a very well made gun, and pretty.

I would expect that would be the case, having seen some of your fine Foxes. You have very good taste in guns.

All my best, SRH

Thank you for the information KY Jon, gwsmith, Igorrock and Stan. I bought the .410 and it is the only o/u I own, all the rest s/s guns. What I like about the gun is that this o/u has double triggers, 29.25" barrels and a 15" LOP. I have killed dove, snipe and released pheasants with it.
Jim

Even if the barrels are stacked in the wrong direction you followed what should be the number one rule when buying guns. Buy the gun not the name. Learn what quality is and what you want will be much easier to obtain. You .410 sounds like a fun gun to shoot and a great find. Enjoy.

I looked at the 16 a few years ago, and it looked like a really nice gun.

They were being blown out at that point, and there was a strange and complex story behind the guns. Something about one of the Indian tribes putting up a bunch of the funding, the whole deal going south, and the tribe ending up with a bunch of guns rather than cash. As I recall, the blowout guns I looked at were the ones the tribe ended up with and that they wanted to liquidate quickly. I don't remember the story exactly, so maybe someone can correct it or elaborate.

What kept me from buying one was that the dealer was pretty upfront that there was no more Padrone company and no warranty. The gun itself looked nice.

I think you are confusing the Padrone story with the Cortona story. The Cortonas were imported by the Kalispel Tribe (same bunch as built the Kalispel Case Line), and the guns were built to their specs by FAIR (Rizzini). They came in 12, 16, 20, 28, and .410, each on a dedicated frame (including the .410). All were O/U and had screw chokes except for the .410 which was fixed. They came in about eight/models grades from simple blued boxlocks to sideplated guns with nice machine engraving and case colors. The top grade had minimal engraving and gold wireline inlay. Max barrel length on field guns was 28", but the target versions had 30" barrels with porting. They offered the Ugly Gun, which was a wood stocked, camo dipped waterfowl gun, and the Alumino, which seemed intended to compete directly with the Beretta 687 UltraLight. List prices ranged from maybe $1200(?) to about $4500, and blowout prices at the end ranged from about $700 to $1500 if you bought in quantity. A group of us bought a small pile of these to hunt with and it was a tremendous bargain. We got a few of the Ugly Guns and a bunch of the higher grades while they were still available. Once the liquidation started, the top grades went very quickly. Warranty work (?) and parts are by Basil Slaughter in Nevada.

I think their deal fell apart because they introduced a fairly pricey line of shotguns just as the recession was hitting its stride and the merchandise wasn't moving so they liquidated to cut their losses. The tribe decided to get out of the gun business and to also stop building and selling their very nice cases. I think they converted their case manufacturing facility to a trade school for tribal youth.

The Verona is another that was built by F.A.I.R., and is a very nice gun for the money. I just bought a 28/.410 combo, the 692 LX Gold Combo, with 30" barrels. Can't wait for opening day of dove season to give the .410 a wringing out. I just registered to shoot a subgauge event with it next month at Rick Hemingway's Backwoods Quail Club, at the NWTF Sporting Clays "Heat Is On" shoot.

Nice looking guns, Jim.

SRH

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I think you are confusing the Padrone story with the Cortona story. ...[/quote]

Yes, thanks for correcting me. I think I looked at both the Cortona and the Padrone about the same time, and got the two confused.

Stan, the Verona combo you bought sounds nice. Let us know how you do at the subgauge event with it next month at Rick Hemingway's Backwoods Quail Club.
Jim