Vikram,
I am in agreement with Navdeep to an extent here. Yes, there is currently a situation where Holland and Holland, Purdey etc sell guns that could be resold for a big profit but the fact is that there are more and more skilled gunmakers coming up literally by the day. In bolt action rifles, some of the US gunmakers can offer quality that is the equal of any top gunmaker anywhere in Britain or Europe but at a much lower price. American custom gunsmiths are also very good at making single shot rifles - Waffenfabrik Hein make a superb dropping block rifle based on a modified Farquharson design made by Westley Richards that I doubt W-R could make today. And in the UK, new names like Trevor Proctor, Ron Wharton, AA Brown, T R White etc are producing guns that are at least as good as the big London and Birmingham names albeit at much lower prices. In Italy, you have Fabbri, Perugini-Visini, Renato Gamba, Famars, Piotti etc making very fine guns that are very reasonably priced compared to the big British names and of equivalent quality. And some of the very innovative new French gunmakers like Claude Bouchet, Christian Ducros and Alain Vaussenat are also brilliant in their work.
I am not at all convinced that the big British names are going to be able to command the kind of prices that they charge these days forever. They did make great guns in the pre war years but their post war quality has seen ups and downs which is something that people are not going to ignore forever. A recent article in the authoritative DOuble Gun Journal spoke about this specifically in a detailed analysis of Purdey's quality by Ross Seyfried, in my opinion the greatest current authority on guns and hunting. Also, some decades ago, John Olin who then owned Winchester, destruction tested a new Purdey best shotgun against a new AYA and a new Winchester Model 21. The AYA shot more than 50,000 rounds more than the Purdey before it went off the face. The Winchester shot 250,000 rounds more than the Purdey and still did not break down. Believe me, none of the fans of great British guns like being reminded about this particular test, details of which can be obtained from The American Rifleman's archives even now.
This is not to say that the big London and Birmingham names don;t make good guns - just that there are equivalent alternatives at much lower prices if you don't care about the name on your gun. Karl Webber of Hein told me that one of their clients had bought two 700 Nitro Express rifles from them on their dropping block action. The total price of both rifles, an exquisitely made matching pair with case hardening and engraving with the finest Denli wood in a leather case would be less than a tenth of the price that H&H are asking for one of their 700 NE doubles - a Grifnee engraved rifle for which they rejected an offer of $ 300,000 recently.
This is academic as far as I am concerned as I am not going to be able to afford the price of a Best gun, but, even if I had that much money, I know where I would spend it. Call it the Gujarati blood that flows through my veins if you want - I call it native common sense.
Cheers,
Mehul
. $400+ for those Perazzis is a lot of greed,despite their quality.
