His praise for the 'Mexican Rigby' was a bit excessive, perhaps caused in part by his ownership of one of their doubles as shown in the photos as well as his praise of the Empire imported doubles, which he also owns as shown on the cover.

Gun writers need to eat too. In legal circles, when discussing the credibility of expert witnesses who are paid to offer their opinions cloaked with the aura of 'science' the rubric is, "whose bread I eat, his song I sing.'

Now, nothing at all wrong or 'poor quality' about the Merkel actions nor workmanship. I have both boxlock and sidelock Merkels in the vault, and the inner workings are impressive and nicely finished. Some of the IWA and museum guns, which one can get through GSI (now Merkel USA) feature some exquisite and nicely executed engraving. What the new Rigby company does with them, and whether they are worth a premium for the name alone, is questionable.

As I pointed out above, the book's decision to ignore some otherwise current DR builders and praise for other, shall we say, 'lesser lights' is disappointing but perhaps just a result of commercial issues rather than intent. Searcy has been building doubles for some time and has a good reputation. Why Terry chose to ignore them is odd -- unless he and Butch have not had a good relationship. Who knows why, but this omission seems very strange.

So, take the book as a decent read, and with a large grain of salt. Dave