With such the vast array of patents and designs if you could piece together your ultimate dream gun what would you include and how would it be styled?
Now that's an interesting question. Some patents and designs are fiendishly clever and represent the highest, and I mean highest, pinnacle of handmade gunmaking. But they wouldn't necessarily be the strongest, or most reliable over a lifetime, a concern if access to skilled gunsmiths is limited. Some designs have an unmistakable beauty to them, either as a classic form, or dazzling simplicity. As quality goes, it would have to be a 'best,' not defined by geography, but by excellence in materials and craftsmanship. Before production went from workbenches to factory production, just about any serious maker was capable of producing 'best' guns, if the client was willing to pay, so I'm not excluding any particular makers.
I've handled and studied more mid-19th century British guns than most, I suppose, so I have a certain bias. It's not so much about wanting a gun from that period, but using what I've learned about what constitutes excellence in gunmaking, to judge where real improvements were made where it counts. So my 'ultimate' gun was probably made between about 1880 and 1914, though I'd be ready to accept anything up to the 1960s.
If I could have any one gun at all, it would probably be a James MacNaughton 'Skeleton' bar-in-wood trigger-plate round-action double gun. Google it, and weep. Though MacNaughton 'borrowed' the idea of the trigger-plate action from the German gunmaker Coster, his was the best; Dickson copied the design from MacNaughton. Only a few hundred MacNaughtons were made. The sheer beauty of MacNaughton's 'Skeleton' is amazing, though I've never handled one in person. But if I could, I'd get one, and hire a reconstructive surgeon to make my body fit the gun. Being a Scottish gun, I would be happy with whatever fanciful engraving it left the shop with.
Second on my list would be a classic British hammergun, with beautifully sculpted fences, made by any competent maker. Standard acanthus scroll engraving all the way. Figured walnut stock, flat top chequering. I like hearing the locks 'speak' as I ready on my quarry. Top-lever Scott spindle with Purdey double underbolt action out of preference, but I wouldn't discount any snap-action, or an inert action like the double screw-grip. I prefer back-action locks to bar-action locks, but not enough to turn down what could be a 'perfect' gun.
But for a more modern gun, in truth I would be equally happy with any well-made British hammerless sidelock. If money were no object, then a Holland & Holland Royal, or a Beesley/Purdey, a Boss & Co., or anything that went through the hands of James Woodward. Or, a well-made British boxlock from the same 1880-1914 period. Though simple in design, the British boxlock is still a gorgeous gun, and a true delight to own. Again, with a straight-hand figured stock and acanthus scroll. I tip my hat to the ingenuity of ejectors, but I'm perfectly fine with extractors.
While some of these are reserved for the private-jet-owning, champagne-swilling crowd, beautifully well-made British guns, boxlocks and sidelocks, can be had from Intersurplus and others for $400-$2000, or less than what a new factory-produced modern gun goes for. A 'dream gun' does not have to be impossibly expensive. Or rare (except for that MacNaughton). It just has to be one you'll keep for a lifetime, one that will give you joy whenever it is in your hands. IMO.
Oh, and if I couldn't have a British gun, then it would have to be a top-grade Darne or Charlin. Yep.
But if I reach the end of my life with what I have now, which includes a Charles Lancaster 'best' hammergun, a William Ford boxlock, and two early Browning Superposeds, I will still die happy and not feel like I've missed out (except for that MacNaughton).
