Good question Tim. Most of the German shotguns (including the Drillings) have the cheek pieces, inset trap doors for gadgets (not like the BP on a M-1 Garand or M-14 for cleaning rods)sling swivels and some have the garish carved stocks- But last Sat. I looked long and hard at a Lindner Daly 10 bore- 32" made for the US market I'd guess- DT, AE- spinter, half-pg- fine engraving, top of receiver cocking indicators, and for it's 9.5 lbs. weight-better balanced than my former HE Fox (same aprox wt. and barrel length)- Very impressed. Just because I have read and re-read Capt. Paul A. Curtis' 1934 book doesn't mean I buy" his views 100%- much has changed since 1934 in the World gun trade-
I am a bit "Old School" however, and just as I have hated to see the machine tools, etc. go "Chi-Com" (I treasure the Brown & Sharpe, Stanley, Lufkin, and Starrett tools of my relatives that rest in Gerstner (made in OHIO) lined tool boxes in my "Den-gun room") and they feel as right in my hands today as when my GrandFather taught me to read a micrometer "sticky tight". So even back in 1934- assuming I was "in the chips" like Joe Kennedy or Dr. Charles Cadwaller Norris of Chestnut Hill (old money) I'd have bought an American side by double, and nopt one from England, Germany, France, Italy or Timbuktoo.
I saw a fine Sauer und Sohn 12 ejector double, DT, pg, splinter believe 28" metric equiv. length for $900.00- Heavy like a 12 gauge M21 or a VHE Parker on a No. 2 frame- but closed like a bank vault and very fine triggers and well timed ejectors (I used snap caps with the owner's permission).
Still keeping that older BH 16 in mind for you- I only will buy a 12 or possible an older std. 10 bore gun, not just as an "investment" but that's what I shoot best-but unlike you and your boys, I don't hunt "small birds"- no grouse or woodcock or quail in my game plans-RWTF
