RBL'S November Surprise

Tony Galazan continues to astonish. While waiting patiently for my RBL 28 to arrive, I also was keeping an eye on Connecticut Shotgun’s pending November 1 new-gun announcement.

I would have bet the farm that it was going to be an RBL 16-gauge. It doesn’t take too much to adapt some 20s to handle 16-gauge barrels. Other gunmakers do it all the time. It wouldn’t require a huge production shift.

But an RBL 12 and a 16 together at the same time? Atta boy, Tony! Way to go. Who woulda thunk it? You can read the specifications for both guns at www.connecticutshotgun.com/byog/gauge.html and www.rblshotgun.com.

The little details haven’t come out yet, but the pricing is a surprise. The RBL 20 Launch Edition started at $2,799. The RBL 28 raised the base price to $3,650. I just assumed that subsequent models would continue the price rise. Shows you what I know. The RBL 12 and 16 both start at a base price of $2,950, a full $700 less than the 28. Of course 28 gauge always was for the carriage trade.

Even with the Euro dropping almost 20% from this April’s high of $1.60, a $3,000 12 or 16 side-by-side of the quality of the RBL will send shock waves through the European market. One can only speculate on what it will be like when, not if, Galazan decides to make a popularly priced O/U.

The more I think about what CSMC is doing, the more impressed I am. CSMC states that the RBL 12, 16 and 20 have sized receivers to fit the different-gauge barrels. Clearly, with the company’s Fox, Model 21 and deluxe Galazan guns, CSMC has the equipment to make all the gauges. But making two different gauges simultaneously by the thousands on the scale that the RBLs will require is something entirely different. It means that Galazan’s capacity and resources clearly have grown. As some domestic shotgun makers struggle, CSMC is soaring.

When I was last at the CSMC plant, at the beginning of the RBL 20 production in 2006, it was just after the firm had moved to the huge three-acre ex-Stanley Tool Works building. To move into a new plant, introduce an entirely new gun line and keep producing the existing four high-end gun lines all at the same time requires prodigious talent. With that in mind, perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised at the 12 and 16 coming together. There was a lot of unused floor space in the factory when it started. I’m sure that there is less now.

I won’t get the chance to see examples of the new guns in person until the SCI show in January. In the meantime, if any of you visit the factory, please report back and tell us what you see.

From what you read in the web notice, what do you think of the two new offerings?

That’s it for now. Boots off. Beer open.