Gazette: L.L. Bean Adds New Doubles at Flagship Store

When I was a kid, we stopped at the original L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine, every few trips north to my father’s native state. The details of those visits are lost to me now, except that I remember wide, pine floorboards that creaked underfoot and that the store reminded me of an old-fashioned hardware store that went on forever.
    Bean’s now has more than a dozen retail locations in the Northeast and into the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, but the company’s flagship store—updated and expanded many times since my childhood—is still open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The company’s hunting and fishing heritage seems almost incongruous now amid the upscale retail environment its traditional appeal helped build, so it’s been heartening to see the family-owned business sustain its commitment to the less-fashionable “blood sports” by not only doubling the size of its dedicated Hunting & Fishing Store but also adding a nice pair of Bean-branded double guns to the racks of the firearms department there. The expansion of the Hunting & Fishing Store also has allowed the addition of a full-service pro shop, which offers firearms servicing and cleaning by a knowledgeable staff.
    Gun sales are still a mainstay of the almost-100-year-old outfitter. “We’re doing a terrific business buying and selling used guns,” said company spokesman Mac McKeever. “At the same time we’ve expanded our offerings of new guns.” McKeever noted that Bean’s has long offered double guns tailored to company specifications.
    Regarding the new doubles, Bean’s product developers and Bill Gorman, great-grandson of the original L.L. Bean and host of the television show “L.L. Bean Guide to the Outdoors,” worked with the gunmakers at Caesar Guerini to develop the New Englander over/under and those at AyA to introduce the Double L side-by-side. In each case the guns offer upgraded wood, denser checkering, longer stocks and gold triggers as a starting point for modifications.
    In addition to the proven robust build of all Guerini guns, the New Englander offers extensive scroll engraving, with gold inlaid “L.L. Bean” on the right side of the boxlock receiver and “New Englander” underneath. The guns feature a hand-rubbed oil finish, hand-cut checkering at 22 lines per inch and a Prince of Wales grip. They come in 12, 20 and 28 gauge as well as .410 with 28" barrels and five standard choke tubes.
    The Double L is a nicely dressed version of AyA’s  classic boxlock ejectors with features that include disk-set strikers, chopper-lump barrels, double triggers and removable/replaceable trunions. The Double L features light scroll engraving and gold inlaid “L.L. Bean” on the right side of the receiver and “Double L” on the underside. The straight-grip stock is hand-checkered at 24 lpi and has a hand-rubbed-oil finish. Similar to the New Englander, the Double L will be available in 12, 20 and 28 gauge as well as .410 and with 28" barrels, but chokes will be fixed Improved Cylinder and Modified.
    The price for the New Englander O/U is $2,850, and the Double L side-by-side will cost $3,595. Both are available at the Hunting & Fishing Store in Freeport or by calling L.L. Bean’s hunting hotline at 800-785-8268.  —Ed Carroll