doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What's the least expensive "best gun"?

This has helped, and hurt, at the same time.

I looked at the William Larkin Moore inventory.

The Garbi is a very nice best gun, for $7,000.

The Arrizabalaga is an even nicer best gun, for $22,000, at just over three times the cost of a Garbi.

Then the Piotti is a cut above the other two, for $30,000, but it's over four times the cost of the Garbi.

And finally, there's a geniune Purdey London best gun, which is the nicest of the four, and it costs $43,500, which is just over six times the cost of the Garbi.

Dagnabbit, best guns are like all other things in this sin cussed world of woe, the better a best gun is, the more it costs!

For now, it makes me love my nice, lightweight, tired looking $600 V. Bernardelli, which looks better each night, as I rub it with a wool sock, then it takes another application of boiled linseed oil.

But the thought of a shootable five thousand dollar Purdey is truly an inspiration.

The quest begins, for a bargain best gun.

It's also not a Webley. It's a surprisingly high-end BSA. Typically, BSA made working man's guns but this one got a bit of extra attention. Not bad for $500 . . . (Despite the fact that the gun and I were not getting along yesterday.)

I have a unique memory, Bill.
I was going to buy it, and got distracted. My understanding was it went immediately out for complete renewal, and is in "as new" condition today.

People overlook that a "best gun" requires "best repair" after purchase.

Or you could be in my shoes, looking for a Prussian Daly diamond quality gun. You get the world's finest pre-war quality and best Damascus for 5-10k. They will stack up against ANYTHING.

If you want to get as close to best and spend the least you may want to look at one of the little know or no name Belgian sidelocks. The quality of some of these guns is excellent and they are undervalued. Buy the gun and not the name!

I mean this in the truest of all sincerity.

Why do you want one?

If it is for psychic income, I can say the effect is fleeting.

You can enjoy the gunmaker's art, and the admiration of friends and acquaintances, without purchasing a London Best.

I stand corrected. It's a BSA, not a Webley.

And looking at it close, my V. Bernardelli does have side clips, and a Greener cross bolt, and there's an extension through the bottom of it's sculpted frame to further lock it up.

But alas, my gun has no ejectors, no sculpted fences, and no checkered butt, and the case colors have all but faded away. The wood is also much nicer, on the BSA.

A best gun would beat them both, put together, wouldn't it?

At least it's pretty to think it would.

Blame Michael McIntosh.

He wrote about those dad blasted "best guns" until it flung a craving on me.

Besides, I'd get to take it all apart with my "turnscrews" and admire the innards, and think about how it was supposed to take a thousand man hours of labor to make it.

It doesn't have to be a London best.

A Birmingham gun, might scratch the itch, or a best gun from some other place.

I own a pair of J.C. Higgins Model 100 AyA guns, and a nice BSS, which has successfully warded off coveting a Model 21 Winchester.

But the V. Bernardelli Bladeswitcher sold me, just inflamed my desire for a sidelock best gun.

Across the board English guns are extremely high quality even when an obscure hardware store merchant's name is stamped into the top rib.

Look at Bladeswitchers BSA, does that look like a hardware store gun to you?

There are guns for looking at, and there are guns for shooting.
Seldom are they the same, and when they are, well, they are expensive.

That's just how it works.
This one is a second tier gun.
Well used, not abused.
And not mine.