doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Dig's Theory Gun

I have several lovely English, Belgian, German and American doubles, all in excellent condition.

My "magic" gun, however, is a ratty looking 16ga. NID with cut barrels that have almost no blue, a silvered receiver and a stock that has been through the wars. I purchased it that way for very little money and I shoot it better than anything else I own.

Dig's theory makes sense if it is feasible to ship the gun for speicalist repairs.

Current EU and national laws stop this. Either by design or accident they have turned high end shotguns into liabilities rather than assets.

The antidote is simple: bolted stocks, monobloc parrels, coil spring actions. In short, a locally, often owner serviced SXS.

And that means that a Beretta 626 outguns most other SXSs. The cost of one used is low enough to get it to sensible bespoke level and no specialist work is needed for that.

The Purdey pigeon gun mentioned, by the way, was purchased from a retail store less than 35 miles from my home. Instantcheck, my check, and home. It was a fluke visit to that store, which I have visited maybe three times in my life. I still frequent the Holt's auction site.

If the maker does the barrel replacement it will carry their name on the rib, along with CURRENT address. "Other" could be anyone, though it is possible that the same barrel maker would be responsible in either case. Value? 'Other' is less valued.

I have a Harkom 16b BLE re-barreled and re-stocked by Hellis Beesley and Watson cost me $2200! Had a Dickson RA that was rebarreled by the makers - sold for a good (but fair) price. This data is 'indicative of nothing except guns vary in price depending on a lot of stuff.

Unfortunately many strip off the old rib that is named and replace it on the new barrels. However,

There is a mention in the Beesley Archives of a rebarreling of a Best Beesley SLE "by another" when AG&L owned the firm in 1946. They "examined the gun, found the barrels of expected quality and allowed the barrels to be named as by the Maker", i.e., F. Beesley.

Thoughts?

The maker's primary/#1 function is quality assurance/control. Most makers used out-workers on high/best quality guns. So, if the maker inspects the work done and says it is up to standard and you are welcome to put our name on it I see no problem. Who is to know if work is done by in-workers or out-workers. The bigger question is does the work meet the standard for the gun in question.

The catch in the above is if the buyer is not competent to judge the quality of the work and is not going to employ an expert of his own. Then he must rely on brand name work. "By others" has a slight taint to it.

DDA

"if the buyer is not competent to judge the quality of the work"

It is useful to have some experience of metal work inorder to appreciate others' work.I do not mean qualification, just some attempts to file something properly. You do it once,, you realise how hard it is to get it right and you appreciate and value the work of those that do. Most people don't have such immediate experience of metal working hence the reliance on brand names.