doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Spanish "Not so Best".

Lots of talk and photos of "Spanish Best" stuff on the board of late, so, I thought I'd post a photo of the single Spanish gun in my collection, and the reason it is there.




This is a "Falcon" built by Ugartechea in 1972. It was specified with 3" chambers, tight chokes (not anymore, they are about CYL/IC) hidden third fastener, and disc set strikers. I bought it to have a double when I was hunting in rough weather, or with a friends unruly Labradors, who have broken the wrists of two shotguns in the time I have known them, and lifted their leg and watered two others, none of them my guns (I know what to expect with his dogs) or when I was forced to use non-toxic shot, which, is mostly steel, in my world. The stock had a broken toe when I got it that had been repaired, and I had it bent over left, without any of the thoughts of resale that would go with doing that to a higher grade gun. I had a new recoil pad fitted to replace the spiffy "White Line" that was installed back in the day-nobody ever went broke underestimating American tastes, after all.
I use it as a traveler, also. The little tool box has spare strikers, and a tool for them, and a few other maintenance items in it, and fits in the K & K aluminum case, which, is Lab proof. I also have the duffle with the bottom compartment the case fits in, and it has been to Europe and South America, over the years.

I have a gun that is even lower rung than this, but, it isn't a double, and gets loaned out or used for trap more than anything else. I hate beating up anything that costs a bunch of money. A few years back, guns just like this were all over the auction sites at sub $500 price levels, something that seems to have changed these days.

This is why I have a Spanish gun. Most of my hunting is rougher than rough, and if it rains or snows on the day I have set aside to go, I still go-hunting days are scheduled and precious. I feed it anything I want, and I don't worry too much about the ramifications of that. If I lost it on a trip, I'd be bummed, but, not all that concerned and not out much money. I've actually given thought to having a tube put in the left barrel, but, the gun works just fine, for birds, just the way it is.

Best,
Ted

Not a POS Ted

Ted,

Seems the Best Gun to fit your needs :-)

A local smith takes some cheap doubles and improves their handling by removing bottom ribs, polishing internals, dimming the bright cheap finishes. The bottom line is about 1000 Euro for a SXS that handles extremely well and has no heirloom angst. They are what a poster said of a good shotgun: "makes you smile when you pick it up and not cry when you drop it". Ted's double seems to fit right in to that category.

Interesting that Drew posted a POS shotgun. I had a very good friend who had a 10ga Spanish gun he was going to use for hunting geese. Worked fine the first hunt, but the next weekend, both bbls wouldn't fire. Took it to a gunsmith who inspected it. Well, the firing pins were mushroomed. The other internal parts were so crude and one the gunsmith bent by hand. The smith said, it wasn't worth fixing. As the gun was bought new he returned it for his money and bought a 1100 with it. Soured him on doubles to this day.

The truth is a lot of cheap crappy Spanish gun have been imported here as we all know. If you look on some of the auction/sales sites you can still find them....for cheap.

That being said, some cheaper Spanish guns have gave and are giving good service. I have a few high end Spanish guns that are as good as some of my English guns and couple that are even better.

I like Spanish guns a lot, but I'm also no fool in thinking that all Spanish guns are "hand Made" like some maintain. Sure they are slapped together by hand, but not all have had the intensive hand work that the higher end guns are given.

Best,

Greg

Well, yes, on somedays. I was actually quite surprised when I opened the box after I bought it off gunbroker, at the stiff price of $404, shipped. The trigger pulls were decent, the checkering is much better than what one typically sees on a Spanish gun, even today, and the poor old girl had seen little actual use.

I do own better guns, Kyrie-It would take quite a bit more than $20,000 to duplicate this gun, a 28 gauge V19 Darne, with a new replacement, today:



But, I do still wonder why I own better guns when the "Not so Bests" have worked out so well.

Best,
Ted

Ted,

Your reasons for not taking an expensive gun afield makes sense. I bet you have a few nice ones, though.

I have three levels of shotguns, from best guns to mass produced pumps. I like them all as long as it is an honest gun. I use and shoot all three quality level guns during bird season, dependent on weather and field conditions and where I am hunting. Ironically, it seems that my best guns get scratched and banged up the most but I generally shoot a custom fitted, right weighted, gun better. However, at this point in time in my life, I am not unhappy to miss a bird and watch it fly away to safety.

Ted,

I do like the Darne guns, and have almost pulled the trigger on several of them. I'd actually be hard pressed to verbalize whatever it is that has kept me from hitting the "Bid" button.

Now, with tongue firmly in cheek, here is a Darne for the birds that want to shoot back :-)

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=474374545

I've dabbled in machine guns since 85 and that is the 1st one of those I have ever seen! One thing is for sure, that MG is Darne ugly!

I�ve seen the same thing happen in a Pedro Arrizabalaga. The problem of parts that are poorly heat treated, or not heat treated at all, is sometimes an issue with Spanish shotguns. The problem is not related to maker, or price point, and it�s just as likely to happen on a top end gun as a bottom end gun. The problem is just an artifact of the network of suppliers of parts and the inability of that network to scale up for sudden higher demand.

As an aside, this is one of the reasons I prefer used guns. If I buy a functional twenty year old gun I know that either it never had a problem with poorly heat treated parts, or the problem was detected and solved many years ago.