You don't think that, maybe, the tariff of 1890 had something to do with those numbers? English gun production was on the skids in 1905 because America had imposed that protective tariff to allow for our own fledgling industry to survive. The domestic gunmaking industry was facing competition in one part of the market (the high-end) from highly-evolved English guns, and on the other end of the market (guess which one?) from Belgum. What we largely ended up with was an amalgam of English design (the A&D action had lost patent protection in 1894) and American production techniques.
Let's see now, we're comparing guns made in a long-established master/apprentice system to mass-produced guns(albeit, with some level of hand-work in the early years). American guns are hell-for-strong, because they had to be. Is that a measure of refinement?
Last edited by Lloyd3; 04/14/13 07:06 PM.
