doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Apples and oranges?????

While in Germany visiting a friend who I served with in the Navy, I got into a discussion with a neighbor of his who was comparing the relative hardness of American steel to German steel. He said that back in the 1800 or 1900's an axe with a German steel head could not be sharpen with only a file but would have to be grinded whereas the American axe head can simply be sharpen with an old wore out file. My friend said that's probably right however the American was designed that way because on the frontier if a farmer needed his axe sharpened he had to do it himself with the tools he brought with him or had at hand.
I started thinking is it really accurate to compare an American built shotgun to a shotgun built in Europe? The American shotgun built for the farmer that probably only had one firearm or could only afford one firearm and that would probably be a shotgun that way he couild hunt everything from birds to rabbits to deer to elk for that matter. So the American built gun had to be stouter and heavier for that type of work. The European shotgun on the other hand was built for a one specified type of hunting, driven birds and because of that could be refined to a light and lively handling firearm. So is it like comparing apples to oranges when comparing the American classics to the European classics???
All the best

Treblig,
I think the Greener Empire was built in responce to exactly that type of thinking...I assume "Empire" meant that the gun was built to go out into the far reaches of the British Empire where gunsmiths were few and the gun needed to be stout in every way. Also, stout simplicity lent itself to any frontier repairs that may arise. I say "think" because I've never actually owned an Empire grade.

Shotguns were manufactured to different "price points" on both sides of the Atlantic. The were excellent guns made in many different countries; as well as cheap ones for the mass market.

The valid comparison would be among shotguns of similar prices; although one should also try to adjust for the differences in the custom duties and tariffs in place at that time. Its probably not a worthwhile exercise....

Jerry,
Actually the exercise is gone, if you know (from period catalogs) for example that a particular grade of JP Sauer cost $130 + $28 tariffs and tax, bringing the total to $158 in say 1926, you simply plug in $158 and 1926 at this free relative worth calculator and it spits out the relative worth to be $1800 by the consumer price index...and over $6000 is unskilled wage (based on the US dollar of 2006).


http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/compare/

The "driven bird gun" was most definitely English. This type of hunting was not done for the most part in other countries, but again, it would vary upon social class. Certainly in Germany a drilling would have been more appropriate, while in Sweden or Italy a gun that could handle a slug or buckshot for Moose or Boar respectively would have been favored.

By the mid-1930's Beretta was moving more toward pigeon, trap and skeet than field guns. Finding an older Italian gun that we would consider a goose gun is nearly impossible.

I believe that most American makers produced a trap gun or two. Also, American makers gave the customer a wide choice of weights and lengths even in a field gun. For no extra charge you could get 32" to 26" barrels, thus tailor the gun to the game.

Pete