doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com LL Bean 4 gun set for $75,000

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.