By Chad Love

I am an unabashed anglophile. I love the British sense of humor and wit. I love British literature and film. I love British culture and history and despite my reservations about food products named after embarrassing medical conditions. I'm even growing fond of British cuisine. But what I love most of all, what I covet more than a personal serenade by British hottie Harriet Wheeler are British shotguns. I never thought anything could tear me away from my beloved and well-used Beretta BL-4. That is, until a few years ago when a local quail guide let me play around with his 20-bore Birmingham-made side-by-side. It was a revelation. That gun felt alive in my hands, and I decided right there I had to have one.

But thanks to the dollar/pound exchange rate even a plain-jane English boxlock double was more - way more - than what I could get by selling my spleen for medical research. Nevertheless, on our last trip over I had this crazy idea I'd visit some London gun shops and find a great deal on a plain workingman's English double. Yeah. My debit card didn't survive the airport and I had to find a co-signer just to buy lunch in Covent Garden. My plan was deader than Cromwell. So, dejected and broke, I resigned myself to life with my little Beretta, despite having traveled to Italy and, quite frankly, wondering how anything - much less a fine gun - could get made in a nation where the preferred means of interpersonal communication involves car horns and fist-waving. But then I saw this story and hope welled up once again.

LONDON -- The British pound fell to a nearly 25-year low against the dollar and a record low against the yen Wednesday amid mounting fears about the British banking sector and expectations the Bank of England will start pumping money into the economy within weeks.

So what if we're on the brink of the Greater Depression? Fine firearms are at least as good an investment as anything else out there. And let's see your 401k bag a rabbit for your starving family. So if ever you wanted a fine English double, now is the time to get it. What else are you going to do with what little money you have left? Invest it in a hedge fund?

Comments (11)

from Mike Diehl wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

If you want an English double made in England you may be out of luck. But I can say that I am *very* satisfied and pleased with my Italian made Weatherby Athena d'Italia side-by-side (2 triggers), and I didn't have to break the bank to buy it.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Mark-1 wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

Chad, You and I have likely spent sleepless nights trying to figure out how to buy that new [used] engraved double and still make the mortgage.

Granted the British Pound is taking a bath, but the US Dollar is in the same tub. I fear that round frame British 28-ga s/s, w/25-inch barrels, w/sexy engraving will always be a reach for poor sobs like us who are always bogged in financial quicksand.

I have recently corrupted “Hope and Change” towards the idea I just might obtain that small frame Beretta 686 in 28-ga while I still have good vision and self-locomotion to use that gun in the Uplands. :-)

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from chadlove wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

Mark, Champlin's in Enid, Okla. had a David McKay Brown roundbody sxs 20 that was only about $48,000 or so, IIRC. It has apparently sold but since Enid's only 90 miles away I got to hold it one day when I was over there.

It was like holding (insert choice of beautiful woman) in my arms...

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from tightliner09 wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

american guns are the best hands down forget those dam redcoats. ha ha

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from khillery wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

I have followed the market through the gun lists and the internet for years. I trade only occasionally, but I really do feel that now is a very good time to purchase. The auction prices are beginning to fall and there may be fewer buyers out there. I plan to auction a Lancaster soon, and plan to offer a relatively reduced price for my next trade up. If mine sells higher then I will pay closer to the asking price. The sellers of my last two purchases unilatterally came down 10% before we even started the trades. If you handle enough guns, you will know it when one of them speaks to you.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Scrap5000 wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

Chad, oh Chad...who knew you were a big Harriet Wheeler fan, too? Wow, she is a gift from heaven, no doubt.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from MLH wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

I dream ... but for now, I have to just settle for a couple of Barbour jackets and the occasional spotted dick.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from suburban bushwacker wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

let me know when your next in town, even with the state of the british rupee i'll stump up the first pint and i bet we can find you something english and affordable
SBW

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from chadlove wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

SBW, if between now and summer 2010 the world doesn't fall apart due to peak oil, financial doom, alien invasion, the collapse of the electrical grid, asteroid impact or general sloth and apathy I will most definitely take you up on your offer.
I'll ditch the wife and kids (not my own, the group of my wife's students we take to Europe every three years or so) we'll get good and tanked and then you can show me some London gun shops.
That sounds like a helluva lot of fun, actually.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from chadlove wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

Steve, thanks for the tip and link. I've bookmarked that site...

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from suburban bushwacker wrote 3 years 1 week ago

chad
Looking forward to it
SBW

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

Post a Comment

 

All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

from Mike Diehl wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

If you want an English double made in England you may be out of luck. But I can say that I am *very* satisfied and pleased with my Italian made Weatherby Athena d'Italia side-by-side (2 triggers), and I didn't have to break the bank to buy it.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Mark-1 wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

Chad, You and I have likely spent sleepless nights trying to figure out how to buy that new [used] engraved double and still make the mortgage.

Granted the British Pound is taking a bath, but the US Dollar is in the same tub. I fear that round frame British 28-ga s/s, w/25-inch barrels, w/sexy engraving will always be a reach for poor sobs like us who are always bogged in financial quicksand.

I have recently corrupted “Hope and Change” towards the idea I just might obtain that small frame Beretta 686 in 28-ga while I still have good vision and self-locomotion to use that gun in the Uplands. :-)

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from khillery wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

I have followed the market through the gun lists and the internet for years. I trade only occasionally, but I really do feel that now is a very good time to purchase. The auction prices are beginning to fall and there may be fewer buyers out there. I plan to auction a Lancaster soon, and plan to offer a relatively reduced price for my next trade up. If mine sells higher then I will pay closer to the asking price. The sellers of my last two purchases unilatterally came down 10% before we even started the trades. If you handle enough guns, you will know it when one of them speaks to you.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from chadlove wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

SBW, if between now and summer 2010 the world doesn't fall apart due to peak oil, financial doom, alien invasion, the collapse of the electrical grid, asteroid impact or general sloth and apathy I will most definitely take you up on your offer.
I'll ditch the wife and kids (not my own, the group of my wife's students we take to Europe every three years or so) we'll get good and tanked and then you can show me some London gun shops.
That sounds like a helluva lot of fun, actually.

+2 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from chadlove wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

Mark, Champlin's in Enid, Okla. had a David McKay Brown roundbody sxs 20 that was only about $48,000 or so, IIRC. It has apparently sold but since Enid's only 90 miles away I got to hold it one day when I was over there.

It was like holding (insert choice of beautiful woman) in my arms...

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Scrap5000 wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

Chad, oh Chad...who knew you were a big Harriet Wheeler fan, too? Wow, she is a gift from heaven, no doubt.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from MLH wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

I dream ... but for now, I have to just settle for a couple of Barbour jackets and the occasional spotted dick.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from suburban bushwacker wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

let me know when your next in town, even with the state of the british rupee i'll stump up the first pint and i bet we can find you something english and affordable
SBW

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from chadlove wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

Steve, thanks for the tip and link. I've bookmarked that site...

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from suburban bushwacker wrote 3 years 1 week ago

chad
Looking forward to it
SBW

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from tightliner09 wrote 3 years 2 weeks ago

american guns are the best hands down forget those dam redcoats. ha ha

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

Post a Comment

 

All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.