Montana,

Thanks for your comment. It brings to mind a conversation I had with a gentleman who was staffing the H&H tent at the Vintagers this year. I asked him how light H&H could build a 12 gauge SxS with 30" barrels and 15" LOP. He said 6 lbs. 8oz. minimum. I said some other builders said they could get down at least another couple of ounces. He replied that H&H has a minimim barrel wall thickness (I forget how many thousandths) below which they would not go, even though a slightly lesser thickness would still be entirely within proof and imminently safe to shoot. He claimed H&H has this policy because the lesser barrel wall thickness reduces the useful life of the gun (from, I suppose, 200 years down to a measly 150). Seemed kind of academic to me.

Douglass A. Craig