"seem to consider yourself an authority on British fieldsports."
I never promoted myself as an authority on anything. Others, like Gough Thomas (with whom I had a long correspondence, Geoffrey Boothroyd (who wrote for a long time for my magazine), have documented the evolution of the British best gun. IT was developed for a specialised form of shooting which is not seen outside the UK, namely driven shooting. I have said that best guns are specialised for this type of shooting and expressed amazement that these implements, that do not fare well in what is called hunting elsewhere, were blindly copied when their patents lapsed.
I am also fascinated at how truly inventive British people, like William Baker are ignored by the proponents of "best". Baker's genius in simplicity is exemplified by the BSA Single XII but I have never seen it included in any list of great British guns.
Some craftsmen improved the basic types.Stefano Zanotti improved the basic Holland lock by giving it a rebounding feature and more efficient sears. He also reinforced the lump geometry. Perazzi improved the Boss system and made it almost infinitely repairable. Beretta took the boxlock and in the model 626 gave it an engineering refinement that surpasses the Anson-Deeley hands down. In view of these and other improvements and innovations it is a bit of a stretch for someone to say that British guns are "best". The evidence says otherwise.
All very interesting shotgunlover but fails to address your earlier mistaken contention that
“There is no British hunting over public land ,in other words none for the common folk”
I hope I have been of some use in enlightening you that this is not the case.
PS your name dropping of Gough Thomas and Geoffrey Boothroyd failed to impress I’m Scottish not American.
