doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Can "best" mean Anson & Deeley?

Believe whatever makes you happy.

Is it not simply a marketing term coined by the big London makers?

I think that the William Reed is a stunning shotgun. I would be proud to own it. But I have been told that one of the arbitrary criteria for a best Gun is not having a pierced bottom. Regardless of the material Quality or engraving.

GMCS, boy, I'm sorry to hear that. I've seen some spectacular continental sidelock guns (Ferlachs and German guns) that have double pierced bottoms with the most elaborate barrel lumps protruding through in uniquely engraved patterns.

It's hard to imagine that is a fair judge since one of the cheesiest things on some boxlocks (IMO) is the paper thin metal hatch underneath that hides the bites from view.

Barrel Lumps and the bites can be things of beauty!

In the UK, "Best" always referred to the level of craftsmanship and decoration with which a maker's gun was imbued. The style of mechanism had little to do with it.

Early on, it just happened that a lot of makers dealt with sidelocks, not the Anson & Deeley style boxlock.

As many have said, "Best," is a quality. Not a mechanism.

I believe lugs penetrating the bottom of the action have nothing to do with the quality of the gun. I know this is going to give some of y'all heartburn but the design allows an action to be somewhat lighter and thinner in profile. Also, perfectly fitting those lugs into the cutouts required a great deal of skill and time, which I guess the London smiths didn't want to do. It'd be easier not to penetrate the bottom of the action. Therefore, the reverse might actually be true--cutouts indicate higher quality than those without. I think the whole idea is another snobbish marketing ploy. (Oh, the cutouts also make it a lot easier to thoroughly clean the action)

Yes, boxlock actions were made as best quality. So were trigger plate guns and of, course hammer guns and sidelocks of various types. BTW don't let Graham hear you call a Greener FP a 'boxlock'!

It would be hard to convince me that some of the higher grade Fox or Charles Daly boxlocks should not be considered "best" guns or on a par with "best" guns. Fieldsport currently has two sub-gauge boxlocks that are really pretty, one is a grip safety gun with 6 gold animal inlays, 20 ga by Sauer as I recall, and the other is a Daly 16, nicely engraved. I feel that if there is something better than those, I probably shouldn't know about it, due to the danger to my kid's prospective inheiritance.

Actually what appears to be a barrel lump on the bottom of the Reid is really part of the cocking mechanism and stays with the action when the barrels are removed

This question needs a bit more definition to be understood across the board. "Best" can have many definitions; the two most relevant to this question are "London best" and "Best work."

"Best work" is a gun of design, material, and workmanship when made that left off only extraordinary embelishment. "London best" added the stylistic cues of SLE, no thru lumps, and stocked to the fences. As far as I can tell, gunmaking shops were "run by" masters who could do/recognize best work, knew what they could do in-house and knew who to contract for out-work. Men capable of economical (getterdone on time and at going price) "best work" were well known within the trade. The system of in-work/out-work was well established.

So, one should not assume any brand name assures best work or excludes best work. With the possible exception of Boss, all brands at least dabbled in less than best work guns. On the other hand, one occasionally finds a best work gun with a brand name normally associated with much more pedestrian product. One needs to look, hopefull with guidance, at enough best guns to get an intuitive feel for what best work looks like.

So, my answer to the question is, "Yes!" But, they are fairly rare; really good ones, maybe half a notch off best, are far more common.