I had no idea Beretta had been around for that long. Fair play , that's impressive. Their modern guns clearly have a well deserved reputation too, as do Browning with their brilliant designs which was said earlier.
Cogswell & Harrison have been in business since 1770 and there were a great many gun making firms which were in business before that but didn't survive as long, but I'm guessing it's breech loading shotguns were talking about here.
I think the brit gun trade borrowed/refined several European designs (french and German ?) Which led to the handful of much copied actions we still see in use today. The A&D boxlock springs to mind along with the famous sidelock and O/U designs. Maybe it's things like choked barrels and reliable ejector and trigger systems and the non stop research into balance, patterning and ammunition that helped give the English/British shotgun it's fine reputation back in the day. We also churned out millions of basic trade guns and some patent guns which didn't really work very well. Some were tools, some were built for the more discerning customer and other firms chose only to make the finest guns (even if many of these were born on a bench in the Midlands next to a utility grade gun the same pair of hands were working on.)
One thing is clear, there were amd still are superb guns made in many countries.
Some firms such as SKB had been around for a surprisingly long time too . Beretta may take some beating though.

Last edited by El Garro; 03/25/17 07:43 AM.
Rust never sleeps !