Royal is a marketing term. It is also commonly used to refer to a type of engraving established by the Holland and Holland Royal Ejector.
Best Guns, as previously noted, are like porn: hard to define, easy to recognize. The highest quality materials assembled into a gun until no further work would improve it. There is a rough convention agreed: a hand engraved sidelock, double barreled, side by side because that is what the English, the originators of a society based around shooting sports, said it was. But then there are over and under's that rise to the level (Boss, et al), and no one would consider the top of the line Westley Richards drop lock side by side less than a best gun, and then let's not forget the Dickenson round action, and there is an agreed convention around "best" English boxlocks, and hey what about those crazy mo fo Basque makers with the crazy name of Arrizabalaga, and then the Italians like Fabbri who take engraving to a celestial level and then dare to mix in exotic metals like titanium receivers, and then in modern times or for that matter at any time has anyone ever made a "better" gun than Peter Nelson....
Getting the idea? It's an ideal, it's subjective, there really is no definition. At that level it combines wood, metallurgy, craftsmanship, vision, function, experience, and history into.....art. It's art, old horse, and nobody gets to say what's best because we all get an opinion. Well, except there's a bunch of experts who write about this crap for a living and in point of fact they get to decide what's best just as art critics get to decide that Picasso's are worth 120 large when most of us wouldn't pay 120 small for the weirdo's work. And then GLORIOSKY along comes this internet thingy and All of US, The Great Unwashed, gets us a platform to say all kind of wierdo opinion. Ain't it grand?
Seriously though if you can't articulate the difference between Verdi at La Scala and your local community college choir you really need to get a refund on your education. But, and it's a big but, if you can hear the difference at La Scala, and you will, you'll feel the difference between a best gun and one that's, um, not. Pick up a Purdey sometime, there's a surprising number of them in good gun stores all over the US. If you have any experience in handling and shooting break guns, you'll go "Oh, well, yes. I see now. Can I keep it?" And the salesmen will say "Sir, put the gun down and step away from the counter....." and you'll think "it's 15 feet to the front door, I think I can outrun this jerk to the car, if I can get to the car first........"
Last edited by robc; 02/28/13 05:44 PM.
