Rise & Fall of American SxS's

[Mills]

I have tried to get some of our top shooters at our gun club to give side by sides a try and they just don't want to do it. I haven't given up though.

[Kirk Potter]

I never personally knew anyone who shot one, but so much of upland hunting for me has to do with the history of it.. I never saw any beautiful old painting with setters and autoloaders.

[C.O.B.]

IMHO there are no experts left in places like the Gun Library. The "collector guns" are a finite resource just as the people who are knowledgeable in these guns are. The employees look at a computer screen and see what was paid for a similar Parker, Fox, Winchester etc and base there values on that. I'm currently trying to deal with the Reno store on a rifle but they won't answer my questions. Remember this as well Cabellas has a minimum mark up of 30% on the rifle I'm considering there trying to make 50%+.

Perhaps we as SXS aficionados are a dying breed and maybe we won't recover the value we put into a gun at least monetarily speaking. The enjoyment I get from carrying a light well balance small bore following a pointing dog in the grouse coverts or pheasant fields transcends any amount of money.

[J. A. EARLY]

Originally Posted by Pete Lester

I suspect it's a combination of factors but my guess is this particular Cabelas and probably many of them in the country have a hard time finding staff who can properly identify, evaluate and fairly appraise antique side by sides and they are not taking them in like they once did. This would lead to missed opportunities, overpaying then overpricing a gun, taking in guns with defects but not pricing them accordingly leading to a smaller stagnant inventory.

I've been to the Cabelas in Richmond, VA and am just amazed at the prices. The other night there were two 12 gauge Trojans that looked as if they had been run over by a truck. One was missing a floor plate screw that had been drilled out. Stocks could not be saved with a refinish. The prices were $1695. I asked where did these prices come from and I was told it was based upon what they paid. Poor suckers. I looked at an A5 Light 12 in similar condition. $999. The Parkers were $300 guns at most and the A5 was the same value and that is stretching it. They never check chokes to know if the barrels are cut or not, just set a price. They had a 20 Trojan one time and told me it was Mod. and Full. It was cyl/cyl with two inches whacked off. You don't want to ask the price. With prices like this, you can see why none of the new generation will ever buy a vintage double.

[Southpaw]

Dean like your story with the Perazzi guy. Too funny. I learned a long, long, long time ago to never underestimate or overestimate someones shooting prowess based on what kind of gun they were toting. I know too many country boys that would show up to a dove shoot in blue jeans and a white T-shirt shooting a beat up pump shotgun and walk out with bag of mixed shells and not miss a dang bird. They just know how to shoot. Also got the misfortune of quail hunting the same area as this guy using that same old gun. He had a decent dog, but that guy was a covey killer. He was hunting for the pot so there is no convincing him about fine qualities of a double barrel.

The French say hunger makes the best sauce. I say hunger makes the best shots.

[Ed Blake]

Originally Posted by John Dallas

Can you say "Single Sighting Plane?

I’ve never bought into the single sighting plane thing. When I shoot i don’t see the sighting plane, whether it’s an O/U or SxS. I think that originated as a marketing catch phrase. JMO. And Mills is right about furniture: young folks want painted, utilitarian, cheap stuff from IKEA. Try and sell a piece of walnut furniture. It will be interesting to see all the deals at the Southern this Spring. If dealers/sellers want to move guns they will put realistic prices on their stuff. And bring cash.

[Ed Blake]

Originally Posted by Jerry Harlow

I've been to the Cabelas in Richmond, VA and am just amazed at the prices. The other night there were two 12 gauge Trojans that looked as if they had been run over by a truck. One was missing a floor plate screw that had been drilled out. Stocks could not be saved with a refinish. The prices were $1695. I asked where did these prices come from and I was told it was based upon what they paid. Poor suckers. I looked at an A5 Light 12 in similar condition. $999. The Parkers were $300 guns at most and the A5 was the same value and that is stretching it. They never check chokes to know if the barrels are cut or not, just set a price. They had a 20 Trojan one time and told me it was Mod. and Full. It was cyl/cyl with two inches whacked off. You don't want to ask the price. With prices like this, you can see why none of the new generation will ever buy a vintage double.

The Richmond Cabelas is staffed with people who know little or nothing about much of anything. Remington had a special on Gun Club shotshells. Staff there had no idea what Gun Club ammo was. Sad. Most of the stuff in their gun library is a POS. The demise of the SxS is understandable.

[Michael D Hankinson]

The Cabelas in Grandville Michigan really changed recently after they were bought out and the competing Gander Mountain firearms Supercenter closed about a year ago. Many of the guns in their Library have been reduced by 10%, without any pattern that I can see. Doubles , Autos, does not seem to matter and many are still way overpriced. They have two Parkers currently, a V grade for three grand plus and a D grade for about six grand now. At the two recent local gun shows I attended in Grand Rapids area I saw a reduction in prices overall for everything from $100 .22 rifles to old Savage 99's etc. Never seem to see higher quality doubles at these shows. Two major changes in the Gun Library are when they first opened they would buy for about 70% of a guns value, now more like 50% and they are under direction to never buy anything that has a crack in the wood, or even a slight possibility of a crack. None of the original Gun Library personnel are still there and the age of the group appears to have dropped from 65 to 35. Guess that tells us a little.

[Kirk Potter]

Don’t get me started on Gander Mountain.. They priced themselves out of existence.

[Mills]

Gander Mountain was a joke. Some of the online retailers are as well. Some guns have been on Gunbroker and Gunsinternational since I began going on there.