doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How much does top flight sleeving detract

A wall hanger Purdey has value of about $1830; BV1-OQ1-CC9.

DDA

I think those numbers are changing, perhaps more quickly than we imagine. The post on the reproofed English boxlock, that was worth 200 English pounds or so, in olde Blighty, was alarming.

Best,
Ted

It has been like that for years in the UK Ted. Very little demand for non ejector side by sides. It is only slightly better demand wise on thus side of the pond.

The market is now punishing those who hoarded good guns on the pretext of "collecting". Hoarding kept the prices artificially high for decades. It also prevented new shooters from getting to know the virtues of good doubles, they just could not afford them. So they opted for autos which have advanced, offering customising features. In Europe now you can buy top name Italian autos with stock shims, chokes and interchangeabl beads, cased for less than 1000 Euro new. It is the standard by which other options are judged.

I have friends who hoarded dozens of top doubles. Most of them shoot autos by the way.I cannot say I feel sorry for them now when they are trying to unload their "collections" and no young shooter wants them. How can you convince anyone to buy your Fabbris when you yourself shoot a Benelli Rafaello!

I looked into buying used guns, in France, and bringing them here to sell, circa 1997 or so. It wasn�t doable. Run of the mill Charlin and Darne guns were 3K. Nobody was going to buy them for that, here. Run of the mill boxlocks, sans ejectors, were most of 1K. Those numbers were skewed a bit, I think, due to the fact it was really only pretty wealthy people who seemed to be able to hunt, regularly, in France.
I believe that has changed, as well. Looking at French gun seller websites, everything has come down in price. It seems it is often just family members trying to unload some now dead ancestors pride and joy.
My kid, will be shooting his trap league this year with an O/U. But, I think he is the only one. He is looking forward to using the gun because it was his grandfather�s, not for any love of blued steel and walnut, that I can discern, but, time will tell.
Most of the kids have a black pump or auto. The club rental guns are the same thing.
Chris has been pestering me to shoot the gun since I gave him custody of the Beretta on New Year�s Day. We will try today. The weather has been awful, and he is excited to try.

Best,
Ted

Ted, it is not only in France, the situation is similar in Italy and Spain. The Italian site Armi Usate has many bargain priced SOs and the like.

There was a period of time, 10 years or so ago, when the Spanish government levied new taxes on gun ownership, and many were just dumped, here. The price of everything Spanish suffered as a result. I bought a clean Firearms Imports labeled Uggy boxlock for $400. It did not come from Spain when the tax was levied, but, became cheap as a direct result of it.
I think the decline of the Spanish gun market, including the wholesale shuttering of their domestic builders, began to happen in earnest with that tax. Since the social engineers had to realize the tax would never provide either a steady or increasing source of revenue, it always made me wonder if that was their goal, or, if it was just another (successful, by the way) method of disarming a population?

Best,
Ted

The European firearms regulations have an ostensible goal, ie to regulate the trade, but also tangible side effects that directly and I believe intentionally hurt that trade. As for instance the need for export and import licences when sending an already licensed and registered shotgun to the makers for warranty work. It needs FOUR licences to make the round trip, two export two imposrt licences. Each one takes weeks to obtain and the costs can climb to hundreds of Euro.