Guerini

[enfieldspares]

5 hours ago, BobbyH said:

Can i just ask, if the gun fits, how is a £10k+ gun any different to a £500 gun?

Balance and that used to be achieved on side by side guns by a skilled craftsman "striking off" the barrels. That is by drawing a file along them to remove metal for the outside to reduce the weight towards the front of the barrels. 

In "best London" guns it used to be said by some that Boss guns were the acme of this and were taken down to within a hair of the minimum safe barrel wall thickness.

Years ago I shot a standard Birmingham 28" barrel boxlock and a friend's 28 barrel Purdey sidelock. The Purdey literally was "alive". By comparison the Birmingham gun shot on its own did the job and did the job well. But shoot the one after the other and the Birmingham gun felt like a weaver's beam.

The other reason is quality of the metal. Cheap guns are made over thick in the action, in the breech, in the barrel walls. To gain strength from being over engineered and over built. And that cheapness also reflects that they wear out more rapidly than a gun made from better quality metal.

Also there is fit. Especially metal to metal. But in today's world where a machine can be more repeatedly and consistently accurate than a man that is less important. Today for example I'd say that if God made cars they'd be Japanese cars.

Last and not to be under estimated is price point. Why do XXX sell their product be it gun, car, wristwatch at a higher price that can YYY? Simply because they can and the market is happy to pay that price for the fuzzy warm feeling it gives the potential owner!

[London Best]

5 minutes ago, enfieldspares said:

Balance and that used to be achieved on side by side guns by a skilled craftsman "striking off" the barrels. That is by drawing a file along them to remove metal for the outside to reduce the weight towards the front of the barrels. 

In "best London" guns it used to be said by some that Boss guns were the acme of this and were taken down to within a hair of the minimum safe barrel wall thickness.

Years ago I shot a standard Birmingham 28" barrel boxlock and a friend's 28 barrel Purdey sidelock. The Purdey literally was "alive". By comparison the Birmingham gun shot on its own did the job and did the job well. But shoot the one after the other and the Birmingham gun felt like a weaver's beam.

The other reason is quality of the metal. Cheap guns are made over thick in the action, in the breech, in the barrel walls. To gain strength from being over engineered and over built. And that cheapness also reflects that they wear out more rapidly than a gun made from better quality metal.

Also there is fit. Especially metal to metal. But in today's world where a machine can be more repeatedly and consistently accurate than a man that is less important. Today for example I'd say that if God made cars they'd be Japanese cars.

Last and not to be under estimated is price point. Why do XXX sell their product be it gun, car, wristwatch at a higher price that can YYY? Simply because they can and the market is happy to pay that price for the fuzzy warm feeling it gives the potential owner!

Good post ES.

[BobbyH]

1 hour ago, enfieldspares said:

Balance and that used to be achieved on side by side guns by a skilled craftsman "striking off" the barrels. That is by drawing a file along them to remove metal for the outside to reduce the weight towards the front of the barrels. 

In "best London" guns it used to be said by some that Boss guns were the acme of this and were taken down to within a hair of the minimum safe barrel wall thickness.

Years ago I shot a standard Birmingham 28" barrel boxlock and a friend's 28 barrel Purdey sidelock. The Purdey literally was "alive". By comparison the Birmingham gun shot on its own did the job and did the job well. But shoot the one after the other and the Birmingham gun felt like a weaver's beam.

The other reason is quality of the metal. Cheap guns are made over thick in the action, in the breech, in the barrel walls. To gain strength from being over engineered and over built. And that cheapness also reflects that they wear out more rapidly than a gun made from better quality metal.

Also there is fit. Especially metal to metal. But in today's world where a machine can be more repeatedly and consistently accurate than a man that is less important. Today for example I'd say that if God made cars they'd be Japanese cars.

Last and not to be under estimated is price point. Why do XXX sell their product be it gun, car, wristwatch at a higher price that can YYY? Simply because they can and the market is happy to pay that price for the fuzzy warm feeling it gives the potential owner!

Wow! Thanks for that,  was a very interesting read!

[enfieldspares]

On the other hand thick barrels....Gough Thomas who was one of "the" top read. British gun writers in his day also rated highly the feature of balance that in handling becomes a benefit of the humble Greener GP.

All about what he called "half weights". That half the weight of the gun (if you chopped in into pieces ike sharing a jam roly poly) should be in the twelve inches of it between the two hands as you held it to fire it. Or somesuch proportion. And Greener GP barrels are like scaffold tubes some say! Yet the "half weight" of a Greener GP does fall nicely between the two hands.

The other thing I didn't mention is the wood. On a true bespoke gun whilst figure in the stock may be a consideration for some....not me I prefer a stock with a grain pattern that shows the stock is strong) so is WEIGHT of the wood. Walnut varying in weight from one piece or "block"  to another piece or "block" of identical dimension.

This even (possibly by luck or maybe intelligent wood selection at the layout stage) means my factory long stock of my humble AYA No4 actually at 6lb 9ozs actually weighs less than many a standard length stock 28" barrel AYA No4. As the blank used was of less weight.

Edited September 5 by enfieldspares