Great deals on Spanish guns all over the internet. A sidelock for right around a thousands dollars built on its own scaled frame. Overall weight per gauge is dead on and perfect for upland hunting.
But they sit, unsold, auction after auction.
Okay, the reason why some of these 1k guns are still on the market is they are overpriced junk. Just because it's a SL does not mean it's a best gun or even close. I hate to say it, as this has been said in the past, not all Spanish guns are these wonderful "Artisanal" works of art as some consistently call them . Artisanal means:"pertaining to or noting a high-quality or distinctive product made in small quantities, usually by hand or using traditional methods". Your low end Spanish guns hardly comes close to this definition. One can look at Zabala as an example, when you make 3,000 or so guns a year, not every one is "hand crafted" most were mass produced and machine made. A lot of these lower end guns look great on the outside, but the guts can be a horror story. As I've said before, I own some very nice high end Spanish guns and love them, but I've also owned a few dogs over the years. You can't paint all Spanish guns with the same "artisanal" brush.
As to frame size, depends on the maker as said, but also what the costs are to produce. Look at some of the Zabala 28ga/.410 guns, all they are is 28g/.410 bbls slapped on a 20ga frame. However, your better makers will produce gauge specific frames. All depends upon the gun and the maker. There is no one solid answer for this question.
Tut,to answer your question. Ugartechea does make scaled framed guns, even their low end models.
Best,
Greg
