rgp,

I think your first statement contracdicts itself.
"I do think they bought the name and then decided they
would try to improve upon it and came up with a loser."

How can they improve on it by bringing out a renamed Merkel
when they would have been competing against Webley actions and
Rigby Bissell Rising third bite actions ?

IMHO, What you effectively said without saying it is that they were
trying to pass off a lesser gun by using the Rigby name.

As to bringing in Searcy into the conversation, my comments were not directed
at Searcy at all and if you read my past posts, I am very cautious with what I say
Searcy - not because I don' like them but because I don't have enough personal
experience with them - however people opinions on this forum that I do value
I am happy to go along with.

Re English guns - I have also seen some English Junk and I think you may
suffer from alot of dealers in the US passing off crap as good - particularly in
the period where everything was being bought quickly.

500 Nitro