AYA sidelock

[ArtS]

Please don't flame me, but I want to give you my honest experience.

I grew up following Jack O'Conner. He was a rifle guy through and through (why I read everything he wrote; just never got the .270). He did however have a thing for Spanish shotguns. Due to that I dipped into the market when I could afford it. Many were AYA and many were other more expensive brands. I ended up losing my shirt with everything I bought. Keep in mind this was years ago and I was not buying worn out or trashed guns. There was no need to because you could hardly give them away. No one that I ever bought worked out for me for several different reasons, many needed some minor work and no gunsmith I found would touch them without complaining. I also lost tons of money when I let them go even though I had bought them at bargain prices. Getting them out of my possession was the problem.

My opinion was that they were built in an isolated market where appearance and flash was foremost and things like metallurgy and design was pretty much blacksmith and seat of pants and common to the guild style industry in the area. They would not stand up to the long haul. At no point in the last 60-65 years can I remember a time when it was not common to hear "the old ones had some problems but the new ones are marvelous guns". That may be true now but I have finally beaten that notion out of my head at great personal cost. Scott Clay in Montana seems to sell a lot of these on his auctions, maybe due to his connection with Holt's. They are always beautiful guns, good specs and look to close in the $2500-3500 range. I am not ever tempted. You can only be tempted so many times.

My advice is that you simply can't stand to not jump in, jump into something as new as possible.Things may have changed. Buying a "Vintage" Spanish gun is not the path to take.