Sleeving a best costs more than a finished pair of high quality Italian monobloc barrels. Arguably the monobloc barrels are a safer choice for such a project. Probably this avenue is avoided because of the visible solder line of the monobloc, in favor of planting new tubes in old breeches.
Why don't Purdey et al make monobloc barrels? Maybe the more valuable question would be why don't Bretta and Perazzi, whose guns see much more use in the hands of top shooters opt for chopper lump.
Bruce Owen, former production manager at Purdey wrote in Shooting Sportsman re the use of CNC machines in best gun production. The article corrects the notion that the manufacturing methods used today are the same as those of 1880. There is just as much CNC processing in a current London best as there is in any Beretta or Perazzi.
