The premise is quite valid in the lower price range. One can purchase an O/U shotgun of good quality for $1,500 brand new from Browning or Beretta. These are solid, proven designs that shoot where pointed and will last the user at least one lifetime. There is no comparable SxS. The Ruger which is now unobtainable was at least 25% more. The also unavailable RBL had a base price higher still. A 471 is close to 3 grand now.
There is no comparable price SxS that approaches the quality or durability of a basic Citori or 680 series Beretta for the money.
That's exactly why I originally posted my question, you hit it on the head. I look at the Citori and Beretta O/U's and say to myself, I should be able to get a SXS of similar quality for near that neighborhood, but you simply can't.
Although you called this the lower price range, and correctly so, there are a lot of other shotgunners on this forum site that think anyone considering spending $1,000 on a new smoothbore is crazy. All I can say is that if I measure the first new shotgun I ever bought while in my teens (Winchester M59 @ $120), in terms of tankfulls of gasoline I could have purchased at the time, most new decent guns today seem to be outright bargains to me.
