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Gent's, I visited Giles today - he certainly has a treasure trove there! I did not buy the Paradox. This should not stop you guys from buying it, it just looks a little too refreshed and restored for my taste so I am going to wait until he gets a hammerless double in that I can afford. Down to details; the paradox bores are .739 and .742, the chokes are reasonably sharp and are .695 as measured by Giles in my presence. The top strap is about 30-40 thou proud of the comb - Giles said it is from India so the heat has shrunk the wood a tad below the strap. The stock has really nice figure! The forend is very fresh looking but matches the butt stock. It is on the face ok. I think it is a good buy at £6000 but just not for me.
Well, Holland Royal paradoxes are difficult to come by. There were only about 1500 paradox guns made in all configurations and gauges (when Roger Lake's book comes out perhaps we will have exact figures). Take off two or three hundred or a tad more for 8's 10's and 20's and the 4 28 gauge guns made. Then subtract several hundred more for the hammer guns, the grade 3's and 2's and the first generation dipped edge royals. Subtract some more that didn't make it back from the field or had the chokes removed and the handful of good paradoxes that will in all likelyhood remain in India. Take in account that the paradox does what it was advertised to do and for that fact they were used and used a lot. A pristine Holland paradox is practically an oxymoron. Yes, a Holland Royal paradox is a very special gun indeed.
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Re: Paradox for sale - any thoughts?