cwu girl

You are in a very long line of hunters that look at this same problem......a good double for under 2 grand. It is not easy to solve. I don't have an answer for you but can offer a few suggestions. The problem you face is quality versus price. The cost of craftmenship has and might continue to go up. My guess its more probable than not.

Doubles don't balance well with todays extra thick wall construction to handle non-toxic shot and the lawsuits that come from dumb people craming their own special handloads into them and so on.

Wood to metal fit, metal to metal fit, quality of wood etc, are things of the past for most of the market today. The idea of saving as much as two or three months salary to own the best you can is no longer considered. So, mfg have tried to do the best they can and madison ave. advertising exec. make the public think this is as good as it gets.

Along the transition period a couple of things were done that you can take advantage of if it suites you. In the 70s and 80s the Japanese
thought they could capitalize on this and built a number of guns using investment casting and lazers etc. The best of these attempts was a reproduction of the old Parker Shotguns, another good one was the "classic"
grade on the Win model 23 and still another was the Browning classic sporter. The Parkers are now priced out of sight. The other two are moving higher in value every year as their quality is compared to todays attempts to satisfy what shooters want and what they can afford to pay. Let us know what you find that you like.