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Why do best guns cost so much?

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited February 2002 in General Discussion
Why do best guns cost so much?By Charlie Jacoby14/02/2002Ever wonder why best 12-bores are so extremely expensive? Here's a story where the names cannot be revealed - but you ought to know about it anyway.People in the gun trade have begged us to keep secret the names of a small group of extremely wealthy Americans. The men concerned are gun collectors - and rumour has it that they have been the main prop for the top end of the market for best English guns in recent years. They buy guns with blank sideplates from top London gunmakers and book the best engravers years in advance to decorate them with designs and intricate scrollwork. They are also major buyers of secondhand guns from dealers and at auction. From shotguns to rifles, they compete with each other over who has the finest firearms.Though not listed in the Forbes 400 richest Americans list, these guys are richer than Crosus. One of them is connected with an American football team and another with the biotech industry. One of them is said to buy guns with the stocks unfinished so that he can finish them himself. And there's a rumour that one of them has a collection of best English guns in the 100s. The word is that he keeps them in a purpose-built gunroom where he intends one day to be buried. The reason their names are secret is the gun trade's fear that they might take their business elsewhere. Not to other gunmakers, of course. We English are, after all, the best gunmakers in the world. They're worried that these Americans might suddenly develop an interest in cars or horses.Charlie Jacoby writes the Snapshots column in Shooting Times. http://www.leadshot.com/story.asp?id=452
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Comments

  • dheffleydheffley Member Posts: 25,000 ✭
    edited November -1
    And if I could, I'd be right there with them!
    Save, research, then buy the best.Join the NRA, NOW!Teach them young, teach them safe, teach them forever, but most of all, teach them to VOTE!
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  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    If I had all the money I could ever wish for, I doubt I would ever buy a 'fancy' weapon. Damn it, they are made to be shot & carried in the field. I'm too cheap a Yankee to take something w/ several $K of engraving out into the puckerbrush where it would be scratched. But what I *would* buy would be original early cartridge firearms I could shoot. A Rodman-Crispin or something. Just to say I shot the bloody thing. And I would strongly dispute that the British (English) make the best or the most beautiful. The Austrian and German 2-3-4 barrel weapons are equally beautiful and better engineered. I know a lot of people like engraving, etc., and I readily admit it is beautiful, rivaling fine art in that respect. But it *ain't* what shooting is all about. JMNSHO
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  • XracerXracer Member Posts: 1,990 ✭
    edited November -1
    Can't wait to get my Purdy .600 Nitro Express....it's being shipped in the trunk of a nice E-Jag.
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  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    My brother has a Purdy 12 gauge sidelock. He picked it up used from a small gunshop out in the California desert. He got it for a song(relatively) because there just aren't a lot of people around Barstow looking for Purdy's. He takes it out shooting all the time and doesn't treat it any differently than his other weapons. Of course I doubt that his is in the category of some of the really maxed out one-offs that have been made. I heard there was a famous actor or director who used to demand a custom Purdy in his contract for every film he did. Not sure who it was or even if it is an urban legend but I really think it might have been John Ford. Beach
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