What company is your favorite and why?

[B. Dudley]

I personally like to break things down in my mind in different types of categories.

I think Parker is at the top by way of overall quality and reliability across all grades of guns. I think Fox is top when it comes to simplicity of design and serviceability. And Fox's base grade gun had more options available to it.

For sideplate/sidelock guns, Smiths have a great bolting mechanism (like Fox guns) and their ejector designs are simple enough, but when it comes to an overall package taking look, feel and engineering into consideration, it is hard to beat a Lefever. In my opinion, Bakers are the bottom of the barrel. They have a simple design, but the fit and finish on the lower grade guns is lacking.

Ithaca's wide offering of doubles does not have any one that screams out at me in any of these categories, except for maybe the Flues. All the others have their own downfalls and some are just way more complicated than they need to be. Anyone ever taken apart an NID? They have more parts than a Parker!