Kyrie, you're wandering around in the wilderness. Live pigeon guns ain't driven game guns. They're a whole bunch heavier. Horses for courses, as they say. (Likewise, the specialty guns for very high driven birds are also longer, heavier, more like sporting clays guns.)

Just to clarify, pre-Civil War Spain is almost WWII. What was going on in the way of driven shooting in Spain between, say, 1870-1914? What guns were they shooting? If the Spanish makers were producing guns in any kind of numbers in those days--or, for that matter, between the wars--why do we see so few of them in this country? (Make that almost none, if we're talking pre-
WWI production.) In contrast, there are THOUSANDS of between the wars Brit game guns still seeing regular use in this country and the UK; for that matter, THOUSANDS of pre-WWI Brit game guns as well. Where are all those old Spaniards? Did many of them exist at all, or have most of them fallen to pieces from the hard use--perhaps combined with a lack of periodic maintenance?

I look at the inventories of the major doublegun dealers in this country, and I have no problem finding older German guns, older Belgian guns, older French guns. Rare to find a pre-WWII Spanish gun, although lots of postwar ones. To paraphrase the late Pete Seeger: Where have all those old Spanish guns gone? Gone to graveyards every one?

As for passing proof, the only way to know for sure is to submit the gun for proof. Otherwise you're whistling in the dark. Which reminds me of the modern Spanish 28ga from one of their best makers which passed Spanish proof with a thin spot of .014 in one barrel. Blew the barrel with a standard 28ga target load, injuring the shooter.

When we compare guns, we don't go by weight. We go by design. The fact is, the Spanish copied Brit designs, like the Holland sidelock and the A&D boxlock. All they did was make them somewhat fatter in many cases, especially 12's. Bravo for them. The Brits themselves did the same thing, long before the
Spanish ever thought of it. You can make a pigeon gun or a wildfowl gun based on the Holland sidelock or the A&D boxlock, just as easily as you can make a game gun based on those designs.

And by the way, if you find a 2" 12ga that weighs 6 1/4, it ain't gonna be British. It will be Spanish. I've seen a couple Spanish 2" guns (with 850 bar proof) that weigh over 6. Most of the Brit 2" guns I've seen are down around 5 1/2. Some less than that. That was part of the idea behind the 2" 12: Lighter gun, lighter shot charge, basically for women and youngsters. But some grouse hunters on this side of the pond like the idea also.