I believe the DIARM years were the late 1980s. One of the best sources for info on Spanish shotguns is the Yahoo Spanish Shotgun Group. There's a lot of disinformation floating around about Spanish shotguns. One is about "soft steel" and another is about barrel quality. Not to say that there haven't been QC problems with specific guns, but much of the negatives have been way overblown. Most of the time it's been an issue of using guns for purposes they weren't intended for, such as using light/medium game guns for heavy use such as in duck hunting. The Spanish industry was/is like any other country's, they produced requested guns to be sold at specific price points, with the quality to match. It's also an industry with rich and interesting traditions, primarily small artisan shops producing limited numbers of guns much like Birmingham, Liege, Suhl, or the Val Trompia..
There's quite a few deals on Spanish shotguns out there, I personally know of quite a few, from basic AYA boxlocks for a couple of hundred dollars, to sidelocks running around a Grand. If you're interested, I posted the sidelock info over on the Yahoo group thread when I ran across them. If you can't find the posts, PM me and I'll try to give you a specific link.
Last edited by Ken61; 05/24/14 05:01 AM.
