16ga.com ~ View topic

Hey guys,
There is one beautiful Browning Citori Grade VI Superlight or Upland Special ( not sure, can't remember bbl length ) on gunbroker.com . I'd list the link but don't know how. HOWEVER, the price right now, no reserve. is 2499.00!!
Hope somebody on here gets it as I can't afford it, but would really like one of my 16 gauge colleagues to recieve it. 6 days left.
Good Luck
-danny

Its a Superlight w/28" barrels. Would be better with 26" for this model. Too bad. I'd like a grade I for hunting. This one is for gathering dust in the box. Too fancy for the woods. Oh well.

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

Can't afford it Shocked

Do you have to eat EVERY day Wink

Yup. Some guns are for collecting, some are for hunting. Take this one out hunting, put one good ding in it, and there goes at least a cool thousand bucks out the window. Probably more if you hunt like I do. Thats a lot of money for ammo, and hunting trips you'll never see again. Gimmee the plain jane grade one with maybe a bit of nice figure in the wood to keep it interesting. A hunter's gun for a hunter's pay. I'd rather spend the time hunting rather than working to earn the extra money for the fancy shmancy play pretty gun. While hunting, I'd rather stay focused on the task at hand rather than not dinging the gun. Besides, I ain't looking at the gun when the bird goes up. Each to his own. 16GG

Member Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 1257 Location: Nebraska

The economics of guns like this can bog you down. Don't, however, let a focus on profit or potential profit, nor your perception of yourself as a man among men destined to come out on top of everyone else in your dealings, get in the way of a gun that may mean a lot to you personally.

I hunt and shoot with some guys to whom their gun is a tool. They could care less what they paid or what anyone else thinks of their gun. Some others like their shotguns for the results they get in the shooting, and some for what they mean personally, especially regarding family connections. There are others who buy guns for the pleasure of showing friends and acquaintances that they have "taste".

Everyone's got a dream or two. When I see a gun like this up for bid I have a hope the winning bidder is someone finally getting the gun he's long desired, rather than someone trying to pick up what was "left on the table". There'd be a multitude of reasons behind that desire, balanced against the economics involved, and considering personal impact plus the hope an optomistic bid will prevail. Not with an eye towards how the shotgun might eventually materially benefit, but rather to fulfill a part of a dream. Especially if it turns out to be that one gun that shoots where it's willed.

kgb

Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 311

I once met a gentleman from Texas who hunted with a very nice English hammer gun. He enjoyed the experience and was not obsessing over a possible scratch. I think we shooters sometimes get too hung up on the "gun is to pretty to shoot" thing. Heck, I've known guys who bought 870 Expresses because their 1100 auto was to pretty to take hunting!

If you can afford to buy the gun why not take it hunting? If it gets a scratch or two so what? Why worry about what the value of the gun may be after you are dead?

I don't remember where I saw this quote so I can't give attribution so here goes: "Life is too short to hunt with an ugly shotgun".

Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 787 Location: Indiana

Amen, Clay. I've hunted for 3 seasons now with a Merkel 1620 and some of the bogs I find roosters and ducks in are not pretty places to be. But it is a fine hunting gun and I'm an aggressive hunter. That having been said---it's been well cared for and is little the worse for wear. Use need not necessarily equate to value-detracting abuse.....

to those of us who can afford the extra money for a fancy gun, and can risk the loss of value hunting dings bring, fortune smiles on you to be able to do so. For those of us who must watch what we spend on a working gun, choose the one you are most comfortable with, as long as its dependable and accurate. All the fancy in the world won't put one pellet of shot on the target if the gun does not shoot straight.

In either case, for a hunting piece, choose the gun that shoots where you look or the one that can be modified to do so. Choose the one suitable for the task at hand. If its mostly hunting, get the most versitile piece you can that will allow you to put your birds down cleanly in the various situations you will find yourself in. Then practice until you can cleanly hit what you shoot at. Its always the indian and never the arrow when it comes to getting the job done, if the arrow will fly straight. To each, his own. 16GG

Member Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Posts: 1257 Location: Nebraska

While I have difficulty deciphering to which "those of us" groups 16gg is trying to indicate he belongs, and despite my personal confusion as to how fortune may "smile", or to a lesser degree, or not, on an individual, I find Wolfchief makes a key point here in support of CFT. Their guns please them to use, and dangers are accepted in their spirits intended. I find myself a member of that club and like it.

Gotta scratch that new truck shortly after buying it. Gotta have rain fall on that once-in-a-lifetime gun. If you find one that tugs at your heart, buy it if it's reasonable. At least consider it if it's not so much.

kgb

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

I agree with Wolchief. I have a Merkel 47E that isn't the fanciest thing going buy still a nice gun. It went every where I did this year hunting pheasants. Including into the swamp where I fell into the river up to my butt. No, the gun didn't go in but got plenty muddy while I was getting out. It gathered it's nicks etc in the stock this season but hey, it's a hunting gun.

My new to me Fox Sterlingworth which is in very nice shape will be used the same way next year. I might leave it home when it's really nasty out and take the Merkel in it's place but it will be used and not abused in the field where it belongs. Wink

I see no argument here. The original gun in this thread is a Grade VI Citori, the full dress version of its line. Neither of the two Merkels mentioned are considered the full dress version of their line. They are more expensive than a grade I Citori but are still basic working guns. It might be a different story if either were highly engraved and adorned models with exhibition grade walnut and with a price tag 4 times as high as the basic version. In short, within their own genre, the two Merkels mentioned are the equivilent of a Grade I Miroku. Or am I missing something here?

Some folks will spend the extra money for all the bells and whistles, then take the gun out and use it to hunt. However, these guys are fairly rare. As far as cars, suvs, and trucks, sure they will eventually get scratched or dinged. However, very few of us would spend the extra money for an exhibition or show car, then commute to work in it or park it at a shopping mall. Its mostly for status, for show, and to put in a collection. So it is with a Grade VI Citori. At least to me it is. Or again, am I missing something here?

Further, I sometimes hunt hard when its required. However, I don't go around bouncing my gun off rocks and trees. Laughing

But the gun does pick up a few scratches and such every season. Some can be buffed out. others are there for good. Its part of what a hunting gun must go throught and normal for the course. I do know I cannot afford to take an exhibition Grade VI gun out and subject it to that kind of use when my grade I will do the same thing. To me, its not a matter of money but more of common sense. Or am i missing something here?

However, if anyone wants to buy this gun for hunting, then step up with the money and plunk it down. Chances are your shooting is not going to be one whit better with this gun than it would be with the basic version. the extra money might be better spent on practice ammo. That would make a difference in how well you shoot. I follow this line of action. The end result is that when I go out hunting or shooting, I aint missing much! Laughing

16GG

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

I think you are missing something if you go strictly by $$ value. The 2 Merkels mentioned are both at or above the value for a Browning Grade VI.

Not as purty, but every bit as much invested. I still would take whatever into the field as that is what is intended for these guns. You don't abuse them, but you certainly use them.

My recent purchase, very nice orig Sterlingworth 16 ga. is going into the field the end of the month. If it gets a knick or 3, so be it. It's going to do what it "gets paid to do". LOL

I buy 'em to shoot 'em...

Member Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 1522 Location: NH

Boy, we are good at spending other folks' money isn't we. Laughing

I doubt anyone here stepped up with the 4.2K that took this one home. I also really doubt the guy who bought it intends to shoot it. Most likely, its purely for his collection and will not be shot. It is a rather rare configuration of a discontinued model. It could take years to find another just like it. The unfired gun could be worth many times what he paid for it in time. I wish him luck with it. 16GG

both the Merkel 2016 and the Fox Sterlingworth are the basic models of their lines. In the case of the Sterlingworth, the gun referred to was bought used I'm willing to bet. They are the equivilent of a GrI Lightning or Superlight. Finding an unfired, new in box full dress Fox SxS would take a very long time to find and many thousands of dollars to buy. Having a full dress Merkel 2016 is still possible, but would take a while to get and will also cost many thousands of dollars.

I really doubt there is one of you would would casually take such a gun out in the field to hunt with after spending the time and money needed to get one. Its very easy to say so in front of your computer. Its another to do it. I would not even consider such a move. My used Grade I lightning shoots just fine for me. The full dress version will not serve me one bit better. 16GG