Larry,
RE your comment that American doubles were, generally, built for hard use. Some, really weren't. A gun with the amount of wood between the action and head of the stock (little) and corrosive solder/flux used to knit the barrels together, not to mention the lack of support for the toplever spindle and other Rube Goldbergian screwups that an LC Smith is a showcase of, is not intended for hard use. The "Old Reliable" is a complicated mess inside, and has a perfectly designed splitting maul for an action, riding on the head of the stock. Yes, the village idiot has seen some, but, the really good gunsmiths have often seen the light.
The very expensive English guns, purchased by the well to do, did get the service you spoke of (they were unbelievably expensive, even then) but, for every one of them were half a dozen game keepers guns or lesser boxlocks that didn't, and many, many, of them seem to have survived, and keep right on chugging.
There is much to frustrate Murphy's law on an A&D pattern boxlock, constructed in England. I believe that the reason we have those wonderful best buy guns you refer to is that the companies that produced them, in Italy, Japan, or wherever decided to copy and improve where they could the typical Anson & Deeley, and NOT something like the Elsie.
The Petric is still alive in the form of the Petric, by the way Larry. They have been produced in St. Etienne for about a decade, now. Nice gun. Expensive gun. Nobody here knows about them.
Best,
Ted
You missed your calling, Ted. You should have been a propaganda minister, somewhere. Probably here.
JR
