Ben,

I am not sure what the prices are but if you were to buy from the Russians in Russia, the guns would be much cheaper than buying through an importer, though the headaches of import licenses etc would be something that you would have to deal with. I do have some friends of my family, including old friends of my father's who used to hunt and my trip next year would be to meet some of them as they are getting on in age. My father died last year and I hope to meet them before it is too late.

I can tell you that my friend Alan is spot on about the quality of Russian guns. Their target guns are very nice - in the 80s their rapid fire pistols and free pistols did very well in Olympic competition and in any case Alan's Mrs is one of the top women shooters in the world today - he would know what good quality target guns are much better than I ever would.

I have seen some of their high grade shotguns in the past. They made all kinds - the highly embellished guns that Slavs seem to prefer as well as restrained models that are embellished like British guns. The fine doubles made there come with hinged front triggers, lovely fit and gold plated internal parts as well. I just might be able to try some of the newer guns out when I visit there. Let's see how this works out.

And I am with you on looking for bargains - in my case, being semi retired, I need to though, if I found myself wealthier, I would still look for them. Absolutely nothing wrong with that and it is, if you ask me, good sense as our ancestors used to say. A fool and his money and all that....

Good hunting!