Once again, Jones, that price differential is mostly due to volume of production. How many gazillion 680 series guns does Beretta make, compared to 471's? And Browning no longer makes any sxs--other than a few pretty high dollar sidelocks which are "finished" for them, in Belgium, by Lebeau-Courally.
One rather obvious answer to why you don't see sxs at serious competitive shoots is that almost no sxs are made as purpose-built competition guns. Lots of OU's are. Also, when you're shooting competition, you're likely to shoot what you're most familiar with. Very few shooters these days "grow up" shooting sxs. They may start with a pump or an auto, but because there are lots of moderately-priced OU's around (with single triggers, no less--so you've got a similar "sight picture" plus a similar trigger configuration to the pump or auto you started with), it's fairly easy to make the transition to an OU. And you can start with an OU field gun, like a Citori or a Beretta, and switch to a competition version of the very same gun. You start with a sxs field gun, and you pretty much finish with a sxs field gun--because that's pretty much all there is available.
I don't know that there's any advantage to a sxs over an OU as a field gun, although some would say there is--but I don't think there's any disadvantage either. And because it's easier to find sxs with the superior double trigger configuration, that's certainly one advantage over OU's in the field--right, Jack?
