Truth, brother. Mostly.
I would beg to differ on the Benelli thing, unless you are talking a Nova. There is a SBE in the house that can not be considered “reliable”.
I believe it was Kirk Merrington that pointed out to me that no double is really maintenance free. Honestly, he pointed out the more expensive the double gun, the more expensive the maintenance would be. This ended my short period of ownership of English side lock guns, that I freely admit was aggravated by the fact that I only purchased clapped out versions of same- hey, I was a kid. He grudgingly noted that a Darne, sans under rib, would be very, very close to maintenance free.
He was my gunsmith for the Darne guns I imported for 20 years. He didn’t get much work from me.
Best,
Ted
