Thank you, Mike.
It appears that the same would be true with my Marlin/L.C. Smith version of this gun.
What are your thoughts about the Zabala guns? I was more impressed with mine than I thought that I would be!
I was in need of a .410 SxS and the price of the Model 23 that I really wanted is out of hand. I ran across this Smith at McBride's in Austin and the price was right. I do wish that it had a straight grip, but it feels good anyway.
Purely FYI, there have been at least four different Spanish gun makers named Zabala :-)
The Zabala under discussion here is Zabala Hermanos (Zabala Brothers, maker's mark 'ZH'). They recently went out of business in a merger with Armas Laurona. ZH, like just about all Spanish shotgun makers, made guns to whatever price point the buyer was willing to pay. The vast majority of ZH guns we see here in the USA, are low price point, 'hardware store' guns (plain Jane BLNE guns). Here is an example:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=267260516 The last ZH guns imported into the US were higher price point guns, made for sale in the US. These were mostly BLE guns, SST, three or five choke tubes, American stocked, imported in 12, 16, 20, 28 gauge, and .410. A smaller number of these guns were imported configured with DT and fixed chokes.
A few were English stocked (and I can tell you where there is a minty Brittany in .410 for sale, if you want a straight stock, splinter fore end gun). Importers included Tri-star, BSA, KBI, Charles Daly, Marlin/L.C. Smith, and a bunch of other companies. All basically the same gun just configured a little differently to meet the requirements of each importer.
American Arms imported a very nice and upscale ZH SLE two barrel set (20 and 28 gauge) with hand detachable side locks, and a similar 12 gauge gun. Here is one of the 20 gauge guns:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=266731090 Just for fun, here is a gun from a different Zabala:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=266726086 That gun was made by Gregorio Zabala.
