doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Save The Side by Side

There may be some who do not know how to find the bargains of a life time in best British made SxS shotguns. Therefore here is a link for you--a pair of AA Brown made best quality SLE guns for unbelievable price. They look like new. AA Brown who built guns such as the Holland & Holland Badminton and the Dickson SLE guns. They are best quality self-openers, that even a modern day built $40,000.00 (each) Spanish SLE cannot duplicate the quality.

https://www.elderkinguns.co.uk/product/gallyon-self-opening-modern-pair/

Excellent value, the price no doubt being depressed by the 25” barrels and the modern idea that you need 30” or 32” barrrls to engage high driven pheasants.

The “toes and scroll engraving” is probably prettier than it sounds.

Parabola

bushveld ,
Thank you , just goes to show what is out there , a friend recently passed away and his Purdey Hammer gun number 2 of a pair , virtually unused sold for £1200 and his H&H Royal (early ) sold for £2500. A local dealer sold a beautiful pair of AYA number 2's for £2500 last week .
What many do not realise is that SxS are perfectly safe to use Standard Steel Shot cartridges with providing the bores are in good condition and that shooting a SxS can overcome eye dominance issues .

I have a very modest five gun collection of English SxSs. I am very happy with them. I shall not be shooting steel through them, though, because I have doubts as to the lethality of steel compared to lead.

Instead I shall be using Bio Blue, once the lead ban comes into force, whenever that may actually be. It is a cheaper bismuth type alternative. I have now got to the point where I am shooting less, as age, opportunity and availability take its toll on me. I am not too fussed, though.

Every month or so I take one or two of the guns out to the shooting range and bust a few clays, to keep my eye in. Last month I was having a happy time when the great George Digweed hove into view, giving a couple a shooting lesson. I offered to sit it out whilst he carried on but he graciously said that they would wait. I can tell you, it is rather nerve racking shooting some 20 odd clays with George standing a few paces behind you! And I was testing myself by shooting my Lang & Hussey .410 converted rook rifle, just for a bit of fun. I've not concentrated so hard on my shooting for ages!

None of my children or grand children have taken to shooting, despite having been to see what it is all about, so it is unlikely that I shall be leaving any of my guns to them once I die, or even before I plod off. I have a nephew who might be interested, though all his shooting has so far been with an O/U. Meanwhile, I shall carry on enjoying shooting and admiring my guns and recall very many happy days afield with them, via reading my game books, which I have kept since I started shooting as a boy.

Which is all a rather long winded way of saying that my guns shall not be sold for the foreseeable future. When and if they are I might hope that the market has stabilised and values reflect the craftsmanship that went into building those wonderful guns by our forefathers.
wonderful
Tim

Salopian, this is the first time I have heard that the devaluation and imminent demise of the side-by-side gun in the UK is due to the Gun trade promoting O/U's. It seems that gun makers in the UK continued to promote and produce side-by-side doubles at a much greater rate than we see here in the U.S., where the industry all but stopped production soon after WWII.

Instead, we have heard various other reasons for the steep decline in values, and it seems it isn't limited to just SxS shotguns. We have heard about the recent lead shot ban for hunting as a major factor. And we have heard for years about the ever increasing number of anti-gun laws and onerous gun storage and licensing requirements imposed by anti-gun politicians there.

I don't know if you are looking for solutions or sympathy, but it appears that you are finding neither here. The majority of the responses thus far are coming from guys who seem hopeful that prices in the UK will drop even further, so that they can cash in on your misfortune. We see one guy with Trump Derangement Syndrome crying about the few extra dollars that Trump tariffs might cost him as he shops for once in a lifetime Best Gun bargains... at your expense. Yet he never uttered a peep about 20-25% Biden caused inflation! He is even providing tips and links for where to find some of these UK gun bargains. Then we have the Preacher relating the story of a friend who profited from similar circumstances after Liberal Left anti-gun forces created a similar anti-gun climate in New Zealand.

In my opinion, you have to be a Special Kind of Stupid to see the damage inflicted on gun owners in places like the UK or New Zealand, and to simultaneously continue to support the Liberal Left Anti-gun Democrats who constantly work to impose the same sort of restrictions here in the U.S. How is it possible that only Ted has the brains and ability to connect the dots between the Liberal Left Minnesota Democrats and their attempts to destroy scholastic shooting sports by imposing a lead shot ban?

But instead... we see the bargain hunters wringing their hands and waiting like vultures for prices to fall even further. And many will continue to vote Democrat, and act like they are not responsible for past and future anti-gun or anti-lead ammo laws. They are not just FUDD's. They are Idiots at the low end of the Idiot scale!

Has it changed much or is still about double the purchase price (in dollars) to import a gun from England to the US?

It has never been double the price unless you were importing a $500.00 gun. We do not know what TACO is going to do further with the tariff but before this screwing of American gun buyers, the cost to import a gun here averaged around $800.00 for the guns I have personal experience.

When I was importing guns I always tried to do 5 or more at a time. I would consider 4 but preferred not to. When you spread the costs involved over more units it not so bad. But when doing one or too, much more expensive. Some of the costs are fixed and the quantity does not matter, others are variable.

JOhn
Quality Arms

https://www.elderkinguns.co.uk/product/gallyon-self-opening-modern-pair/


That would not be a bargain for me, or many others I will bet. Twenty-five inch 12 gauge guns are useless for me. There is no game bird hunting nor clay bird shooting that I can possibly do wherein a gun thusly configured would appeal to me. Were they 30" or 32" guns the price would be many factors higher, IMO. That still could be a bargain, however. My point is that so many of the bargain priced British double are not configured the way many Americans would want them. There are apparently some Anglophiles that want a fine British gun just because it is British, but I am not among that genre. My grandaddy often quipped that just because you got a good price on something doesn't mean it was a bargain . . . . if you didn't need it it was still too much to pay.

Case in point, and not even British. https://stevebarnettfineguns.com/parker-1-shotguns-for-sale/parker-aah-live-bird-guns-pair-12-gauge

I have shot a fair number of grouse using a 6lb 25" barrel 2&1/2" 12 bore, worked great for me and I know quite a few others who agree. I shoot longer barreled guns at prairie birds but short tubes in a grouse thicket work out just fine.