check out this auction bill for July 22 at Wallace Nebraska.

Wallace is SW of North Platte about 45 minutes.

Vapodog:

If I was young enough to hunt anymore (and close enough to that auction) the Franchi Veloce 28 looks like a real fun shotgun.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To my eye there is nothing uglier on a gun than a gold plated trigger, not even that tacky gold plated engraving. Pair them up with a high gloss polyurethane stock finish and I'm not the least bit interested.

SH

Snipe Hunter, you took the words right out of my mouth. I kept looking over the ad for something even desirable.

My favorites are pre 64 Winchester Model 12 shotguns.

quote:

Originally posted by Snipe Hunter:
I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To my eye there is nothing uglier on a gun than a gold plated trigger, not even that tacky gold plated engraving. Pair them up with a high gloss polyurethane stock finish and I'm not the least bit interested.

SH

I dunno, if I can live with a Steyr AUG, or an M4, a gold plated trigger on a working gun wouldn't overly worry me. Gauche, yes. Tacky, yes. Stop me from buying and using it in the field? Probably not, especially if I was having trouble (and I did!) finding a 28g.
Gerry, if you can find one, try a 28g. I think you will like it.

That's why my first sentence said beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I see nothing at all wrong with the guns you mentioned. All my rifles that I would use today sit in plastic handles and I like stainless steel or parkerized finishes or rifles. I hate them on shotguns. I definitely agree with the part about tacky and gauche. That said, below is the gun I have used more the last two seasons than any other. From an aesthetic standpoint I don't like anything about it (even with enough props in the picture to make it look a little better) but it gets the job done very well. A useful tool it is, a super shotgun it isn't.

SH

Snipe Hunter, I wasn't having a dig at you, sorry if you read it that way. What I was trying to say was that even an ugly gun can grow on you, provided it does the job in all other respects.
I know that, for a while, when looking for a 28g, I would have had no problems grabbing the first functional 28 I found, regardless of how tacky it looked, as long as it worked (28g guns being few and far between in OZ).
I did get very lucky though, and ended up with a nice 686S Beretta, (oil finished stock, minimal 'engraving', no gold trigger ) which shoots well and fits like a dream.
Doesn't stop me wanting that pair of Purdeys though....

Dave, I didn't take anything as a dig. Some of the things I dislike most on a shotgun make the best features on a waterfowl gun (durable finish, synthetic stock). I know what you mean about a 28. I chose the one I pictured above because it was available and the price fell well within my budget at the time. I had a tough time finding a .410 earlier this year and ended up settling for a CZ Bobwhite. "Settle" is exactly what it was because that gun was nowhere near the top of the list of what I would have preferred. I enjoy that gun and it will serve me nicely for now, plus it runs more along the lines of how my taste runs in finish.

SH

Snipe Hunter, just out of interest, what is the gun in the picture?