S&W S/S shotguns

[Wild Skies]

As Kirk and Rick have said, the S&W Gold Elite was made by Akus in Turkey, Cabela's and a few others are now marketing them under the Dickinson Estate name. I often dreamt of owning a Parker Bros. DHE .410, but it wasn't in the budget for a gun that was going to see limited usage, so instead I bought a Dickinson Estate in .410 from Cabela's and am happy as a clam with my purchase. The Dickinson Estate and the S&W Gold Elite are made in the same factory to the same specs and are virtually identical with only a slight variation in the engraving pattern. To reuse some overused terminology -- they are a lot of gun for the money. Where else can you buy a gun that has a true trigger plate rounded action, platform lump barrels, brazed ribs, chrome lined bores, Southgate ejectors, true bone & charcoal case coloring, Turkish walnut wood, 24 lpi hand checkering, hand engraved (their description-not mine) and a lifetime warranty for under $1700 when new?

Having said the above, there have been several reports of heavy trigger pulls with the early guns, but more recently they have been lightened from the factory to a more acceptable ~ 5lb. pull weight. Also the early renditions had a high gloss finish applied to the wood that was highly susceptible in showing scratches, Cabela's recent offerings are oil finished to alleviate the issue.

Dickinson Estate .410