While I have probably looked at 500+ doubles in the last year, the most interesting ones to me are the most elusive in the results I have come up for a general price structuring.

What do the trends tend to be running for a decent hammergun in say .500 BPE or .577 BPE? No best gun, but a name English maker, with good bores, barrels that could be re-blacked and mostly missing case colors? In example, a nice clean shooter.

How do the NE hammer guns stack up versus a boxlock or sidelock of the same quality name and condition for price? I am assuming these beauties are far rarer than their smokebelching breathren.

There is just something about the looks of a back action hammer double with an underlever that I find exceptionally sexy. Not that I do not find a sex appeal in either a boxlock or a sidelock, but they just don't seem as graceful to me as a hammer.

Hearing that Purdey is producing hammerguns again is great news, and for what I would have commissioned, I can expect the price to be roughly $120,000, but that does not help me get a mental picture on the pre-WW2 rifles.