Just picked up this Unceta y Cia sidelock. Better known as Astra and for their pistols, but they also marketed some shotguns. They made a nice boxlock on the Anson and Deeley design, but they farmed out manufacture of the sidelocks to independent Basque gunmakers. It's a nice, serviceable shotgun of the classic British light game gun style. Behind is a Saur and Sohn with nice Damascus barrels that leave it pretty much relegated to display, at least until I get into reloading and can work up some BP pressure loads.

Bill R

My mom bought my dad a new Lanber side-by 12 gauge around 1970. These are made in Spain, and besides shooting it well he dearly loved it. This one has both sets of barrels which he would change out from dove hunting to quail (yeah, back then we had quail). Somewhere along the way he acquired a matching .410 gauge which is pretty cool to shoot too.

Now that he's gone I take the 12 gauge out on opening day of Dove Season as my way of honoring him. It's fun to shoot and I'm not bad with it considering how little I use it. But being so heavy it's made for sitting and shooting, not for lugging around.

There's plenty of fairly inexpensive Basque Spanish game guns that are perfectly capable of years in the field. I have a Charles Daly branded 20 ga made but Zabala that's a great gun.

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
There's plenty of fairly inexpensive Basque Spanish game guns that are perfectly capable of years in the field. I have a Charles Daly branded 20 ga made but Zabala that's a great gun.

Oh yeah... There's a nice M Laranga 20g I'm following on GB right now. My "logic" is it will be a nice "easier to shoot" gun for guests.... Of course, that's not what you might call completely accurate. Mor like "I just really want a nice 20g"!

Bill R

Beautiful guns,guys

I'm a fan of off brand shotguns. Some of those older Spanish guns are really nice.

also procured a very nice Antonio Zoli Silver Eagle Deluxe 20 ga SxS for my FIL for Christmas a couple of years ago. Plain, tight grain walnut but hand-cut checkering and nice case colors. A lot of gun for the money.

Just adding a shot of one of my latest... Not really "off brand", a Husquvarna 100 in 12G:



This one is going to be fun!

Bill R

Nice addition!
Any other details on it?
I love the old hammer guns

excellent pictures as always!

quote:

Originally posted by GCE61:
Nice addition!
Any other details on it?
I love the old hammer guns

Not really... This was one of those "Saw it, Liked it, bought it" deals. I haven't been able to find out much about this specific model, but overall, people seem to hold the Husqvarna guns in high regard.

It seems to fit me pretty well, and has a great balance. I'm looking forward to getting some rounds through it.

Bill R

When I was about 13, my dad got me a Noble double-barrel 20 gauge Spanish-made shotgun. Shot many a bird with it.



Over the years I found a few different gauges in the double-barrels by Noble. They aren't very respected but I always laugh when someone tells me that they are worth only around $125.00.

Just think about it, when in the last 30 years have you EVER seen a double-barrel in a shop sell for $125.00 that is shootable?