doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Question for you Anglopholes

Yes, it was Colt, specifically Colonel Colt who made all men equal.

The Paterson was in operation in the 1840's out west.


"Most significant, however, were those revolvers reissued to units of the Texas Rangers. Among these border horsemen the Colt revolver first won its reputation as a weapon ideally suited to mounted combat. Using Paterson Colts purchased in 1843, Col. John Coffee Hays commanded a Ranger contingent in several uneven battles against depredating Comanches."

Here,


https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lnc01

"God created man, but Samuel Colt made them equal."

Stan, I think you make an interesting point when you raise the fact that Beretta has been in business for 500 years. Although, when you look into it, the direct linkage to 500 years in the past has a few tenuous links. Unlike say, The Hudson Bay Company, current parent to Sak's Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, which will shortly be celebrating 350 years since they were chartered by the British Crown in 1670, a full 100 years before your tea party.

And I have no argument with the idea that Beretta currently can make some lovely guns. But when was the last time anyone on this board wanted to discuss some lovely pre war Beretta? Or any pre war Italian gun? When we delve into the world of sporting doubles, which is what this board talks about when we aren't crapping on liberals, the Italians are noticeably absent until the post war era.

Which, to my mind, confirms the point Craig made way back at the start. The Beretta family can't hold a candle, long term, to any of the storied British gunmakers, nor some of the French or Germans, as "gunmakers".

But no other firearms firm that makes sporting shotguns can touch Beretta as a business enterprise. There is where the Beretta's family's genius lies.

By the same token, there is only one other firearms COMPANY that comes close as a business, IMHO. And that would be FN, the Belgian joint venture whose early years were driven by none other than Henri Pieper.

Beretta only dominates the vertical half of the doublegun market. They never have, and never will, dominate the horizontal half.

And just which one of those makes up the lion's share of doubleguns, Larry? Obviously it is superposed guns. Even the British shoot Italian O/Us now. Wonder why?

SRH

I believe you need to follow the money. In order to produce high quality firearms you need to have wealthy people. During the Victorian era England had a large number of wealthy people with significant amounts of discretionary income. That's why the number of high quality gun makers were centered there. The highest number of wealthy people were centered around London. I'm not saying that there were no other high quality gun makers in other countries but the number of high end manufactures centered in England. High quality requires skill and the number of high end manufactures in England produced many highly skilled tradesmen. It's well know that these highly skilled tradesmen frequenty moved from one company to the next, most likely to increase personal wealth and this resulted in a critical transfer of technology from one company to the next. This technology transfer and melding of one technology with the next is what really accelerated quality in English guns and in my opinion, for what it is worth, is why English guns in general are the highest quality and those made in London are at the very top.

The volume of guns produced really has nothing to do with the highest quality. Although manufacturers such as Beretta and Remington produced good quality and perhaps high quality guns, they did not produce the highest quality firearms. Even their high end, hand made guns did not reach the level of quality seen in the highest quality guns in and around London IMHO.

Its
"God didn't create all men equal Samuel Colt did."

The Brits made upland guns and the Americans made duck guns. England developed the industrial revolution. The US improved manufacturing. During the early days of the industrial revolution the US was involved in an exhausting civil war. It would not be until the middle of the 20th century that Briton would be brought to it's knees by two world wars. The Americans have never built a a quality SxS the Brits have never made a good pump gun.

Would you say that the demand for low price basic models had taken the lions share of the sales during the 20th century ?
To draw a parallel, the firm who could make an ever lasting stay sharp razor blade would probably only sell one to each person who needed one . What would they do then ? I assume they'd need to put a hefty price tag on that product or it just wouldn't pay.
That's off on a tangent from the original post but I wondered if a similar scenario contributed to the decline of the Brit gun industry.
There may be more guns on farms than in wealthier people's cabinets , while the wealthy may climb over a stack of beautifully balanced well made Belgian guns to pick a gun with a famous household name, did the market for a cheaper basic and solid gun which would probably see its owner out take over the world market ?

Not so.
The Brits made all guns. Light game to heavy waterfowl.
O.M