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Concepts of Best Gunmaking
Defining an Emigma

We did make the best guns tho`.......

Diggory should be applauded for articles that he is making available to us all,they have proper content and are unparalleled in the UK media ,which is just a product placement device . Thanks, Diggory !

Diggory is a fine man. He is intelligent, energetic, running several shows simultaneously, evaluating guns for prospective buyers, selling and restoring guns, writing the journal as well as actively shooting his guns. He is knowledgeable. David Trevallion believes he never worked on the benches but also that he has a comprehensive academic knowledge of British guns. Vintagegunjournal.com is probably now the best place to read about SxS's with the demise of DGJ (and he had a couple of very complimentary articles about that DGJ at the time).

He has been extremely helpful to me, publishing the original Reilly history in two parts in August/September 2019 and later the "dating Reilly" chart as well as regularly forwarding queries he receives on Reilly's based on the Vintagegunjournal.com article. He introduced me virtually to Mark Crudgington to research and discuss more questions which later influenced the subsequent Reilly history in the 1850's. His two articles on the life and death of Cyril Adams were well done.

Nevertheless, there remains at times a British condescension towards America. This is inbred apparently. Last February he published a pretty insulting review of a Texas gun show, commenting on everything from the wares to politics to the masks people weren't wearing. I sent him a note saying the article was inappropriate and since I can't find it, it may have been deleted.

This said. It is what it is. Everyone has their prejudices. These are unfortunately wide-spread amongst the British upper-classes (and amongst the Parisian French). It does not diminish the excellence of what he is doing. Just be aware that there will be occasional zingers like this. Don't take them personally. It is an opinion. Gene Williams

... and we can run elections properly using paper and pencils...

HB

A gun having "Soul", I fully understand the meaning as I can attest to having that personal feeling with English Best guns. I once went down to a local gunshop as I had been told by the owner, he had just received an HJ Hussey. Thinking I may have serious interest I packed up a couple of Parker Repro's I had in the safe.
When I arrived, I immediately could tell by handling the Hussey that it seemed to have something special. Whereas the Parkers being machine made guns just felt like lumps of metal in my hands.
Sometimes you can feel the "soul" in a gun that had numerous craftsmen work on it and made it special. And the previous owners that had carried the gun.

Not too long ago, I purchased a 16 GA H&H boxlock. It was turn of the century with a set of new barrels by a Scotish maker, so the rib was new. I am certain from the action marking (H&H) that it was one that was their lowest grade boxlock and only finished and adjusted by them, not fitted and finished like the boxlocks marked with the full name. I took it apart to clean and check, and was amazed. I literally had the thought that I wanted to find some way to display this gun with the lockwork shown. It was one of the most incredibly well finished and beautiful pieces of gun work I have ever seen. I purchased a Whistler about the same time. He was a Silversmith and "Gunmaker" who procured and marketed guns. The engraving on the boxlock was vey simple but a thing of beauty, as was the fore end tip which was small and engraved Sterling. I am sure it was from his shop. I am equally impressed by the almost perfect handling qualities of this whole class of guns.

On the other hand, I enjoy shooting them and experiencing their performance, but I recieve no visceral experience from them. I can't in my wildest dreams connect with the past experiences of the history of those guns. I can't place myself in the role of the people and culture who used them and really don't want to on a lot of levels for a number of reasons. On the other hand, when I hunt doves or quail with a vintage Parker or Ithaca, I am immediately taken back to my childhood in the late 50's and 60's when I started hunting with my dad and his friends, almost all of whom used plebian guns as strong as tanks and just as handy. Occasionally we would hunt with a someone who had and could afford serious hardware (and was good with it). They invariably owned a Parker, Ithaca or Lefever (but pointedly in our area not an LC Smith) and I spent the day wishing against any hope that I could own one. Those are still the guns that trigger an almost out of time experience in me when using them. Those are the guns to which I really become attached.

I buy and enjoy both types, but for different reasons and with different reactions. I believe that collectors are driven by location, society, history and life experiences and that there is always some one over riding trait that internally drives them (collectors, not dealers) to their opinions. Whether it is technical perfection or the experienceof the ownership, some internal drive dictates our views.

The British think they are better than everyone else . . . But they aren't

Honoured to be lumped in with Stan and Diggory. Good company!

It’s a fine political process. A boob got to the top and was disposed of in less than two months. How long have you had Biden, the senile old fool. How long was the corrupt Nancy Pelosi speaker of the house?

I find it laughable that otherwise sane, intelligent people go down this wormhole of a discussion trying to compare the output of American factories to the best guns made in various parts of the UK. And elsewhere for that matter. There is a giant difference between collectibility and quality. Sometimes those qualities align in the same product but often they don’t.