And, 400NitroExpress comments to my statements cannot go unreplied:
1. Buyers of high end guns behave, specially international ones, as they do, not as you think they should.
But probably not as you think they do.
2. Testimonials from out-workers stating they cannot reveal for whom they work in the London Gun Trade is hard evidence,
No, it isn't.
buyers that cannot check the ultimate provenance of their prospective guns does matter to them always, what does have little weight is circumstatial evidence from one individual that passes as an insider.
Show me where I said otherwise.
3. Prices of best sxs guns from British gunmakers of the third group start at the following: William Powell €45.000; Jeffery €38.400; Watson Brothers €48.600; William Evans €47.350. My hypothetical case has a solid price base, is a matter of adding some few more specs and it reaches the €53.000 mark. If any of these companies were getting a Spanish shotgun in the white it could make the trick,
One more time, if certain parts or work is sourced outside the country, it isn't a secret, and hasn't been for a long time. If you don't know, all you have to do is ask them.
Powell isn't London. At Jeffery, ask Paul Roberts or John Resteghini. I have, and they're happy to discuss it, and both have done so at considerable length with me. At Watson Brothers, ask Mike Louca, who I have also found quite forthcoming. You can always visit their workshop and see what they do in house for yourself. Likewise, I've never found Evans evasive in the slightest. When I asked about the possibility of replacing one of my Evans rifles, a screw grip, they said straightaway, without being asked, that the action would have to come from Italy (A & S Famars), because there was no longer any source for the screw grip action in the UK, which was true, and that the gun would then be built by their workers in the UK. If you talk to Evans and aren't sure you've gotten all the information you want, ask John Resteghini at Jeffery. He spent 14 years at William Evans.
None of the above have ever bought in a Spanish gun in the white, stocked and finished it, and sold it as British or best, or at a British best gun price. Your suggestion otherwise is your own invention, and is utterly baseless and not supportable. With the above firms, all you have to do is ask and, as long as you are not insulting about it, you couldn't ask for more transparency.
My responses to you have been neither unsolicited nor patronizing. You posted the question. As it is clear that you know little of the British trade, I thought it valuable to disabuse you of the notion that you professed to be concerned about. Your question is irrelevant because what you suggest isn't happening.
So, who is really kidding himself?
You are. I'm beginning to think that you just wanted to start a nasty rumour.
4. Next time read all the thread and go to the meat of it.
I did. You should read it more carefully.
