If every vintage English rifle were a gem, then why are self-proclaimed "experts" advising to only buy one if you are "knowledgeable" and that it is important to "be careful"? It must be that there are quite a few low quality/broken down English guns in the used market. Also note that there are folks making their living by re-regulating and repairing the old English guns, which would not be the case if English guns were fault-free.

Also note that most (but not all) English gun owners like to talk about their rifles, but do not shoot them much. And then we have reports of those who do shoot them a lot, including one member here, who got into the practice of sending the English gun out once per year to be checked over and have the hinge pin replaced if appropriate.

I suspect that the romanticism of an English double causes a lot of people to ignore the warts and forget the investment in rehabilitating the gun after purchase.