Cosmi semi shotgun
- Thread starter alltieear
- Start date
Seems rather overly complicated, with a weird loading system with an awkward cocking method, without being able to handle different loads. To me, it screams "Why?". Sure, it may be beautifully machined but just a bizarre concept.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Interesting and beautiful buuuuuut, no.
- Location
- Planet Earth Wearing My Tinfoil Hat
There clearly is supposed to be a benefit. Best gun handling in a semi. Whether that benefit is worth spending that much money is another question. But SxS and O/U guns have price ranges from cheapest to most expensive that can exceed $100,000. Why not a Best semi?
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
The biggest benefit I see is the ability to have more than 3 rounds in the gun (if your hunting regs allow that) without the weight all being out in front such as it is with an extended mag pump gun or semi.
As with a sidelock double, there's nothing wrong with having the action so accessible so very accessible for drying out after a rainy day and of course for performing general maintenance. Also, I really like the idea of the magazine restriction mechanism, the lack of which I now realise has kept my lazy self from taking a pump gun into the field on really crap weather days if the usual plastic dowel hasn't been installed. Otherwise, you can really tell the Cosmi is a 19th century design, can you not? Jon there doesn't get into what the oddball market is that keeps them going, but clearly there is one.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I think what keeps the oddball market going is the fact that gun collecters are intrigued by things that are well made. If it was cheap and poorly made then nobody would give it the time of day!
When I said best gun handling, I meant "Best" gun, as in a London Best sidelock SxS like a Boss or a Purdey. For hunting, generally acknowledged as the standard by which all others are measured. It seems clear to me the Cosmi is/was an attempt to get close to that standard of feel and handling but with a semi. Most other makers can't do it with a SxS.
If you haven't heard the term "Best" before as it related to gun, it means a gun built for you (bespoke) with zero compromise for cost. Every aspect is to be made to the highest standard possible. And in today's dollars, if that means your new Purdey costs $150,000, well so be it. As the saying goes....if you have to ask the price.......
Thanks for the clarification.
Also I was giving it some more thought about these interesting looking semis. It seems that the posh UK shooters look down on semis quite a bit. These guns might just be a semi auto mechanism with the looks of the "preferred" break open shotguns over there.
Interesting design, to be sure, and attention to quality. The latter is rare these days. I think the ideal measure should be the best that can be made, as opposed to being the cheapest gun that will cycle rounds. I like the idea of a semi that can compete with a bespoke sidelock double on quality of design and build. I would love to see a Cosmi in the flesh.
It always strikes me odd that almost all gun designs have been pulled out of a remarkably small number of brains... and especially in the case of repeating weapons. John Moses Browning is a name familiar to all, but his son, Val, came up with the Double Automatic (an action I'd like to see built and stocked to the same level of quality as the Cosmi in the video). Christopher Spencer came up with the first pump action. More names come up in pistol and rifle designs, like Samuel Colt, Benjamin Tyler Henry, and Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. Many famous names simply built on their ideas, like Peter Paul Mauser building on the brainchild of Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse, resulting in all of Mauser's bolt-action rifle designs. In the area of semi-autos, I guess Rodolfo Cosmi can be added to the list of creators, as his design is inspired by, but not a copy of Browning's long-recoil A-5. A break-open semi-auto? Remarkable.
As to price, there will always be those who will choose the best, and swallow the cost. It is nice to admire a beautifully-made gun, and clever design, even when such guns are priced well beyond our means.
Thanks to the OP for posting the Cosmi video.
It always strikes me odd that almost all gun designs have been pulled out of a remarkably small number of brains... and especially in the case of repeating weapons. John Moses Browning is a name familiar to all, but his son, Val, came up with the Double Automatic (an action I'd like to see built and stocked to the same level of quality as the Cosmi in the video). Christopher Spencer came up with the first pump action. More names come up in pistol and rifle designs, like Samuel Colt, Benjamin Tyler Henry, and Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. Many famous names simply built on their ideas, like Peter Paul Mauser building on the brainchild of Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse, resulting in all of Mauser's bolt-action rifle designs. In the area of semi-autos, I guess Rodolfo Cosmi can be added to the list of creators, as his design is inspired by, but not a copy of Browning's long-recoil A-5. A break-open semi-auto? Remarkable.
As to price, there will always be those who will choose the best, and swallow the cost. It is nice to admire a beautifully-made gun, and clever design, even when such guns are priced well beyond our means.
Thanks to the OP for posting the Cosmi video.
I imagine with rounds in the buttstock rhe balance would be even further off.
Falconflyer
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I understand what your saying but it take a very large amount of weight in the stock to throw the balance off as much as weight out in front of the offhand, not that it can't be done but it takes a lot more.
