I am looking to buy an Spanish made 12ga. double
for rifling, are they suitable?The gentleman doing the job will be Darlington gun works.What i need to know would the Spanish double be a donor?He mention that the thickness would be 5-thousand so can i check this before buying?Or should i buy the Steven311?Iam also looking that double also for the project.

Some of the older Spanish doubles, while very good looking, were made from very soft steel. The barrels were easily dented or bulged, the internals subject to frequent failures. I have no experience with any of the newer ones. Just buy an RBL that is already rifled and regulated?
C.G.B.

Some Spanish guns are good, some Spanish guns are poor. Just like the "English" shotguns of old.

What is on the outside - William Evans were notorious for this - does not always reflect the quality on the inside.

If you read Webley's records you will see entries, for example, for Evans like "4th quality engraved and finished as 1st quality".

So what is behind the "window dressing"?

The answer is to look at what old Spanish guns you see on the US gun auction sites or maybe Cabela's or in local gun shops.

That will give you an idea of quality. Because there doesn't seem to have been much of an industry in the US of repairing worn out Spanish doubles.

So those old guns that are ten or twenty years old have clearly been made to last.

Those that you see new in the shops but never for sale as secondhand at Cabela's or in gun shops clearly are not brands that are built to last long!

You'll see old AYA brand guns for sale but I doubt old Basque brand guns or Essex brand guns!

Also here in UK one well respected gun maker made a good living out of re-chambering and boring 10 bore Spanish AYA shot guns to 8 bore.

Such was the thickness of the barrel and the quality of the gun that it would take it.

Now unlike US all Spanish guns have to be proof tested. So a Spanish gun chambered for 3" magnum shells will have passed a far higher pressure test (about 4 tons per square inch) than one chambered for 2 3/4" shells (about 3 1/4 tons per square inch).

So anything chambered for 3" magnum will be strong! And usually as it will be bored full choke have good thickness in the muzzle area.

My advice would be to look at the long known makes that have always been imported under their own Spanish name.

The makes that were being imported into the US in the 1970s and are still being imported into the US.

AYA and Ugartachea for example although I would favour AYA.

The Spanish makes that came in with some sort of bogus US name or marked up as the US importers "own brand" I'd avoid.

Hope that it helps.