The test of all gun designs is which one got made after the patents expired. The best ones did not always win, but no great designs were ignored and those which were solid and reasonable to make, at a profit, became the bulk of the market. Hence A&D box locks dominate doubles. They, like everything could be made to a price point, and came in all different levels of fit, finish and qualities of materials. Some of the lower grades are not too different from our Stevens or Fox B's and some were so nice that they were just a desirable and finished to a high standard as any Side plate ever made.
I like the mid grade guns which have almost no market at auction right now or some of the hammer guns which have recovered a bit in interest but still can be a value find. My 20 bore Pape hammer gun is a favorite Clays gun right now or my 12 bore Westly Richards, crab joint hammer gun seems to get a lot of action at the trap and skeet fields. A recent purchased Lang swept central fire, shot a decent score at Sporting Clays last month. Swept Central fire shooting is a bit different, but once you shoot a few stations you just forget about it and see the bird and shoot the bird. This Winter I am going to shot a few rounds with a left and right handed crossover double. You never know when you might lose an eye if WWI comes back, so those crossover guns might come back into fashion.
Even thinking about having a club shoot with a different gun to be shot by everybody on every station. Each station would have a gun and shells provided, so station one might be a Hammer gun, station two could be a 32" waterfowler, station 3 has a right shoulder, left eye, cross over double gun, station 4 is a swept central vision gun, Station five will be a left shoulder, right eye crossover gun, station six another hammer gun and station seven another long barreled gun. Skeet shot under old rules, low gun and option of delayed call/release. I did this a few years ago with a combination of pump and doubles which amused and confused most shooters.
