Miller,
I hope Postoak will indulge me for a moment as I veer off topic (a bit) and back onto the Richland Arms story. I attended the local Ruffed Grouse Society's fun shoot last night with the ad copy from the 1968 Richland Arms catalog still fresh in my head, mostly due to this post. Low and behold, there was a 22" barreled version of the model 200 at the shoot, a gun I noted in the catalog, but, highly doubted I'd ever see.
The 200s were Spanish, and this one was built by Hermanos Zabala. The gent who brought it along was not the first owner. Not by far. The gun featured some Spanish housewife looking applied scroll and a blued receiver along with a cheekpiece for a righthanded shooter. It was also a 3" 20 gauge, with a grip cap and recoil pad, sans white line spacers. Absolute packing crate lumber applied, with requisite un-skilled fitting.
My comment that the Italian model 707 cataloged by Richland Arms was the gem may be the understatement of the year. This model 200 was a rough gun even when it was new, and it was a long way from new. It was hard on the eyes. The good news was the owner said he used it hard, for a long time, and had never had the least bit of trouble with it, but the gun was definitely built to a price point, and a low one at that. He had a hard luck ex-wife story about how he had better guns at one time, but, just had this one, now. He seemed OK with that.
Any notion I had of pursuing any further products from the Spanish end of the Richland catalog died right then and there. The Prendelli & Gasperini is the one you want.
Best,
Ted
