Best Gun - 2

In our previous post, we looked at the term "best gun". As we found in our previous post, this is a term that is used to refer to a high-quality double barreled shotgun with some very specific features in it. Quite a few of these are manufactured by British firms, especially London based ones, but they are not the only ones. W.W. Greener and Westley Richards, both from Birmingham, also manufacture "best guns", as do firms from other countries around the world.

Italy also has some well-known best gun makers, such as Piotti, Fabbrica Armi d'Abbiatico e Savinelli (FAMARS), Beretta, Fabbri, Benelli etc. Their products (and prices) are comparable to some of the finest British firms. These firms are usually located in Northern Italy, which was a traditional firearms manufacturing center for centuries. The town and region of Brescia was known for its fine firearms for at least 500 years and before that, it was a hotbed for production of swords for the Roman legions.

A best gun made by Piotti of Italy. Click on image to enlarge.

A best gun made by Fabbri of Italy. Click on image to enlarge.

The above two examples show the fine work of their manufacturers. The model made by Fabbri sells for over $250,000!

Not to be outdone, we have manufacturers from Spain and Belgium as well. The Spanish city of Eibar in the Basque Country region is a traditional gunmaking town from the middle ages, as is the town of Liege in Belgium. Predictably enough, the well known manufacturers of best guns come from these regions as well. Spanish best gun manufacturers such as Pedro Arrizabalaga, Armas Garbi, Grulla Armas etc. have a good reputation in the market.

A best gun made by Pedro Arrizabalaga. Click on image to enlarge 

A best gun made by Armas Garbi. Click on image to enlarge.

Spanish best guns are generally priced well below their English or Italian counterparts, but they are still very high-quality firearms.

The city of Liege in Belgium was also a traditional hotbed of firearms manufacturing since the 1400s or so. The various manufacturers based around this city used to produce firearms of varying qualities: see our discussion on spurious firearms for some low quality specimens. It has also produced some very high-quality products as well. Most of the manufacturers in and around Liege have gone out of business at the present time, but there are a few small manufacturers still in business and also the 800 lb. gorilla, Fabrique Nationale (FN), which continues to make best guns along with military rifles, pistols, revolvers etc. These guns normally retail for about $15,000- $80,000 or so.

Germany also had a few best gun manufacturers in history, mostly located around the town of Suhl, which (surprise, surprise) has a long history of gunmaking. After World War II, the town of Suhl went to East Germany and thus, the firearms industry in that town went into decline, as the communist government strongly discouraged private arms manufacturers. After German reunification, the town has recovered some of its former glory -- the school of firearms engraving and the Guild of Master Gunsmiths are now both located here. The only major manufacturer still in Suhl is the firm of Merkel, but some of the other well known German manufacturers such as J.P. Sauer & Sohn, Krieghoff etc. moved to West German towns after World War II and are still in business. J.P. Sauer & Sohn, founded in 1751, is well-known for their SIG Sauer line of pistols, but they also manufacture best guns.

German best guns tend to be heavier than their English or Italian counterparts and tend to be very strongly built. They also tend to have deeper engraving. Because their style is different from the "London Best" style followed by British, Italian and Spanish manufacturers, the demand is lower and hence they are lower priced. However, they have very good strength and quality of workmanship.

Finally, we have the United States. At one time, there were many best gun manufacturers in the good ol' USA: Remington, Parker, Winchester, Lefever, Ithaca etc. Most American best guns are heavier than their English, Italian or Spanish counterparts because they are designed to fire stronger American shotgun cartridges. American best guns are generally built for mass production, hence many lack some of the characteristics of the very best British, Italian or Spanish guns. However, the quality of engraving, checkering and finish are excellent on the high-grade guns and are comparable to other best gun products from other manufacturers. There are still manufacturers in the US that are building replica models of some of the finest shotguns made in the last couple of centuries.

Actions: Pump Action

In our last posts, we studied the lever action and the bolt action. In this post, we will study another action that works on similar principles, called the pump action or the slide action. Most people have probably seen pump-action weapons used in several movies, such as Terminator II. They are very popular in repeating shotguns, but there have been some pump action rifles as well.

The above picture shows a Winchester 1912 model pump-action shotgun. Like a lever-action rifle, this weapon too has a tubular magazine that stores cartridges under the barrel. However, the weapon is operated similar to a bolt action, except that the cocking lever is under the barrel. Notice the brown handgrip under the barrel. That grip can slide back and forth horizontally and is called the fore-stock or fore-end

The user initially loads the magazine with cartridges, usually from a port in the side, as is the case with a lever action weapon. Then when the user pulls the fore-end lever back, it unlocks the bolt and moves it backwards, ejecting the old cartridge. As part of the same motion, it also cocks the weapon and a new cartridge from the tubular magazine is pushed onto the lifter spring (also called the elevator spring), which lifts the cartridge from the level of the magazine to the level of the barrel. On the forward movement of the fore-end, it picks up the new cartridge and slides it into the chamber. The final part of the movement of the fore-end locks the bolt in place and ready to fire.

As always, let us watch a video of one of these in action.

Notice how the users pump back the weapon after every shot to reload the next cartridge. Also note how the cartridges are loaded into the tubular magazine before starting to shoot.

From the video, we may note several advantages and disadvantages of this type of action. Unlike the bolt-action and lever-action, it is not necessary to take your finger off the trigger, as the loading action is performed by the other hand. This means it is faster to reload than a typical lever-action or bolt-action weapon. It is also possible to keep the weapon pointed on target while performing the pumping action. Since the action is manual, it can be used with low-power cartridges as well. This allows the user to mix and match different types of cartridges as the situation demands. The user can also reload the magazine at any time and keep shooting. Like the lever-action, a pump-action also lacks "handness" i.e. it can be fired equally well by right-handed or left-handed users, as the pump action is easily accessible by either hand. In fact, in the video above, note that the first shooter fires the shotgun right handed and the second user fires the same weapon left-handed.

The disadvantages of the weapon are also fairly obvious. Like most lever-actions, there is often no separate detachable magazine. Hence, the user cannot pre-load a bunch of magazines with cartridges in advance. Some newer weapons feature detachable magazines, but it is not common. Also, as you may have noted in the video above, at least two shooters did not realize that they'd fired all their bullets, as there is no visible way to tell how full or empty the magazine is.

These days, most pump-action weapons are usually shotguns. These weapons have found favor with hunters as well as many police and military forces around the world.