Micheal McIntosh's Best Guns.

[King Cobb]

Just got done reading Best Guns for the first time by Micheal McIntosh. I enjoyed it greatly as I have the 3 other books of his I have had the pleasure to read.

However, some things did surprise me a good bit from McIntosh. It is common knowledge the man loved Fox guns, for crying out loud he wrote the book on the subject. I won't contest his opinion on which is better, but I was downright befuddled by his writing on two other guns and a third that he choose not to include.

The first was the Winchester 21. I am probably speaking sacrilige here, but I have fired a couple of 21s in my short time on this planet. They handle good, and they are a pleasure to shoot, but they belonged in a book on Parkers, Foxes, Ithacas, Lafevers, and Smiths about as much as Rachel McAdams belongs in the Miss America Pageant. Don't get me wrong, she is a gorgeous woman, but that doesn't make her something she isn't. The Model 21 was made in a completely different fashion at a time when most of the other great American Doubles were going away because of production costs. While it was never a cheap gun, it was made and built entirely differently then the other guns it was compared to. I was really surprised McIntosh considered it the quintescential american double.

I was also surprised at the inclusion of the model 32 and not the Superposed. I have shot Model 32s owned by other people on several occasions, and they are fine guns, but I have always preferred the superposed, largely because I was taught skeet by a bunch of old timers who didn't think you should be allowed on a skeet range if you weren't shooting a superposed, and don't you dare be caught with one of those fancy citoris. I guess the argument could be made that you the Superposed wasn't an American Double considering it was built in Belgium, but considering it was designed by an American and sold by an American company.....

Just some things that surprised me I guess.

Anyway, great book that I would highly encourage others to read if they haven't. He has his biases, but I learned a long time ago, an Author with a biased opinion is a lot better then someone who tries to be completely unbiased.