doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Spanish Doubles

Precisely

There are folks who have no interest in guns made anywhere in Great Britain. I happen to be one of them, so I have no interest in a Boss gun. Don't get me wrong. If someone wanted to give me a Boss I'd take it. And immediately sell it so I could buy a gun that interests me. Not a Pedro Arrizabalaga. Probably a Lazaro Arrizabalaga. I've been eyeing a very nice, cased, two barrel Chacho Arrizabalaga made in 1952...

Please note I'm not disparaging Boss, or any of the English or Scottish made guns. Nor am I disparaging the folks who like and buy British guns. To each his own.

Kyrie, I don't think any reasonably tuned-up person disparages reputable guns wherever they're made. We're bundles of emotions, biases, preferences, rightly or wrongly or otherwise.

I'd buy any gun if it met my criteria of plainness, not a lot of gew-gaws, utility as a shooter, cost as no more than my others, because any time money and ego enters it's time to look at me.

Nothing is ever as simple as that, of course. We're also bundles of ambiguities. There are things we don't buy and places unvisited because we disagree with a particular country's politics. And that changes as they change.

There also many excellent Spanish SxS's. My 12 ga. Arrieta was made in the early 1980's, and I am very pleased with it in all regards.

One of my hunting parners visited Spain the late 1990's and was fitted for a new Grulla at the factory. It has proven to be a very fine purchase, and has served him well.

Jerry

There might be another thing to consider. If 40-60 years ago there were a number of crappy Spanish guns imported the likelihood is that they're long since worn out/broken. The "soft steel" poorly-regulated, bad-springs guns would have long since vanished from the active shooting scene. What's left is good.

I have bought a number of sidelocks from the 70s and 80s and they are well-used and quite robust. They handle a lot better than American guns and I like them a lot. They needed cosmetic work on the stocks/forends but that was it.

A few years ago a lot of these guns were appearing in the US market - they seem to have dried up.

Gnomon,
The Turkish guns have taken a nice bite out of the market once filled with Spanairds!!

Yes,they have! But not 30-yr-old Turkish guns!

I have been much happier with other European Guns - France and Germany come to mind.

Agree 100% with the sentiment, buy the gun not the name. There are some great non british guns out there that do not demand the same price for close to or in some cases better quality.

Many of these guns will serve any user well for a lifetime of use.

However one thing must be understood, investment grade guns that appreciate better than others are high grade British and American guns.

While I take great pleasure in the quality of an off brand high grade Belgian gun the reality is any resale is a challenge. That is a problem for my heirs (damm them if they don't hunt with them as I have)

That said I buy guns to use not resell and would recommend a quality Spanish gun to anyone who like me wants to shoot the thing and not stare at it on the wall.

I may have posted this before but if so I apologise. I own a couple of newish Hollands (not sure for how much longer looking at the way this year has been) but early last year took delivery of an AYA No.1 deluxe in 20 bore. I was in one of the big London gunmakers showrooms to buy some cartridges and to take it to the shooting school for a few lessons. As the head of the gun room said "Buggered if I know how they do it, 90% of the quality of a London best at 25% of the price, if you hid the names most people would never know". The gun is lovely but I would never put some of the loads you chaps over the pond use in your guns, best, Mike

Nope! I still have my first SxS . A 20 gauge loyola that I bought in 1970 at 14 years old . I must admit though that it hasn't seen extensive use for the last number of years. Although not the greatest of quality, it is a nice handling little gun.