Jack, can an elderly gent like you be expected to recall what it felt like to shoot a specific gun 25 years ago?
Again, per Thomas--himself a "convert", although not of the doctrinaire variety--the XXV is a gun with "little originality and no true invention", which is not "everybody's gun". A "logical choice" does not mean the best choice for everyone, or even a majority of shooters. (And nothing like a majority of sxs shooters has ever embraced the XXV concept.) Excess weight doesn't necessarily have anything to do with barrel length. I have a pair of British boxlock 12's that weigh 6 1/4#, with 28" barrels. There are a lot of shorter-barreled sxs out there that weigh more. Speed in action can be an advantage or disadvantage. Generally speaking, a lighter gun with shorter barrels is faster getting started, but also easier to stop. One reason the trend in target guns for all games runs to longer barrels is that where swing is important, more weight and barrel length help most people. Were that not true, the trend in target guns would be to shorter barrels. (And interestingly enough, the current trend in game guns--especially the very light smallbores--is away from barrels as short as 26", never mind 25".)
Jack, do you have any figures on the volume of early Churchill sales? Would you not say that the bulk of those sales--and in fact a higher yearly AVERAGE of sales--occurred in the 1920's and later, rather than prior to that date? I note that from your own information, Churchill was adding workers . . . in 1922, which is certainly in the 1920's. And the velocity tests conducted by "The Field" took place in 1925. Figures I have showed that E.J. Churchill sold an average of 67 guns annually from 1900-24; that average increased to 123 guns annually from 1925-57, a period that included both the Great Depression and WWII. To me, that's evidence of a very successful marketing campaign, during a generally flagging period in the British gun trade (as McIntosh indicated in his quote).
And finally . . . if the XXV isn't simply a marketing ploy--and I have yet to see any proof of GENERAL advantage, like that of the Model 21's strength or the Super Fox's patterns, rather than an individual shooter's preferences in barrel length--that would mean that the XXV also has some sort of demonstrable advantage over the many guns Churchill also made, with other barrel lengths. Personally, I believe that Churchill quality was high across the board, regardless of barrel length--but promoting the XXV was simply a way of attaining greater market share in a highly competitive and flagging market.
Churchill was a very clever businessman, Jack, whose company prospered when many others in the industry were failing. Were that company still in business, you'd likely have a good career as one of his salesmen.
