English Best compared to a Parker

[Bill Zachow]

I wonder how many of the “best” gun manufacturers in England have a few hi tech CNC milling machines hidden in a back room in their shops. I would be willing to bet, ALL.

[Big D]

When I toured the Holland and Holland factory about 10 years ago, they said that they had most of their frame designs on CNC machining, however they had several other designs, which they chose not to put on CNC machining, because they did not want to lose the capability of doing unique frames by hand.

[Setter Man]

Originally Posted by Bill Zachow

I wonder how many of the “best” gun manufacturers in England have a few hi tech CNC milling machines hidden in a back room in their shops. I would be willing to bet, ALL.

https://youtu.be/qUXoNUzAyvk

[edgarspencer]

I could watch that all day. Unfortunately, there's snow to be moved.

[Big D]

I was given a 4 hour tour of the H&H factory by the plant manager about 10 years ago. He said that most of their different frames (shotgun, (SxS and O/U) rifle (Double and bolt) were done by CNC machining, but that they kept several frames to be done by hand, - not that they couldn't program them for CNC, but they didn't want to lose the talent of doing it by hand,so presumably there will be a young apprentice who will learn to do it the old way one of these days. Parts of the plant still looked like the 1800's

[William Davis]

Nice,video, See how the barrels are wired together & bent with wedges to regulate ? Thats why it’s so difficult to open chokes after a good double is regulated & the ribs are laid. Nothings straight to guide the reamer when opening, the reason you see out of round muzzles. If all open jobs were patterned to check regulation you would see many with different point of impact.

It’s not impossible to open chokes. but simply running a reamer in the bore piloted close to the choke taper is a good way to ruin a nice SXS . Factory single barrel gun it’s not a difficult job. All alike and straight.

William

[Setter Man]

If you add up all of the guns made by those producing “best” guns between 1900 and 1940 I would imagine the total would be a small fraction of the guns produced by Parker over the same period. The majority of Best guns were bespoke, not production guns. They were made with considerable attention to detail, inside and out.

[John Allen]

The "Best" guns were hand built for aristocrats,and are works of gunmaking art.The Parkers were built for American sportsmen of all economic classes,and from the Trojan to the Invincible they are a testament to what makes America great.

[Ken Hill]

Mr. Vicknair did another comparison of English Best with Parker https://vicknairgunsmithing.blogspot...pparently.html. The comparison is hand-made vs. machine made.

Ken

[edgarspencer]

If you can finish reading it without stopping to breath, or take an Ativan, you’ll probably accept what he’s saying, albeit with a hint of a chip on his shoulder.
All of his pomposity aside, we can love our ‘home made’ guns as much as we want, and deservedly so.
I worked part time, for 16 years, in a steel research foundry in England. In total, I guess I was there about 4 months each year. I learned, very early on, to love proper ale, and spent more than my share of time in the local. A very friendly bartender/ sheep farmer told me once “ Once you get beyond our ‘not invented here’ attitude, we’re not a bad bunch of blokes”