Heres what I hope will be a fun pop quiz:
You come across a nice Spanish side lock, top of the barrels are marked Sarriugarte, and its an American Arms import. Who was the maker?
Its safe to assume the answers arent obvious :-)
Francisco Sarriugarte? Do I get a cigar? I have a Sarriugarte boxlock that I am well pleased with. Had it been a side lock I probably would not have bought it. I prefer boxlocks.
There are some seriously nice Sarriugarte box lock guns out there :-)
But a side lock marked Sarriugarte on the barrels, American Arms Import, model Derby, is almost certainly a DIARM gun. Not only do these guns have barrels marked Sarriugarte, they will usually have the makers mark of Armas Erbi (BEST) on the barrel flats and water table. The major tip offs with these guns are the model name and the proof year code. Derby is a DIARM model name and the proof year code will put their production in the DIARM years, after both Sarriugarte and Erbi went out of business to join DIARM.
Sometimes buying the name gets a gun that wasnt made by the name on top of the barrels or the maker whose mark is on the water table/barrel flats.
