AYA Model 25?
- Thread starter foxpro
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spannulman
Well-Known Member
Three years ago I was given an Aya XXV by a friend’s father when he gave up shooting and I love it ( my friend doesn’t shoot) I’ve only used my 12b silver pigeon once since then and it feels heavy and ungainly. The short barrels do need more of a push but once I got used to them it was fine.
Perfect gun for sitting in a pigeon hide or walked up shooting. As others have said ,plenty of game entered into the books by 25” guns. But the market is not much interested in them so you may not get a decent price for it which is a shame. I believe they will come back in value over time. But even ‘proper’ Churchill XXVs aren’t fetching big money in shops.
if you want some history for it this link will tell you the year of manufacture by the s/n
Perfect gun for sitting in a pigeon hide or walked up shooting. As others have said ,plenty of game entered into the books by 25” guns. But the market is not much interested in them so you may not get a decent price for it which is a shame. I believe they will come back in value over time. But even ‘proper’ Churchill XXVs aren’t fetching big money in shops.
if you want some history for it this link will tell you the year of manufacture by the s/n
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enfieldspares
Well-Known Member
In reply to 20-250 what I've noticed in the last two, maybe three or so years, is that the Webley 700 (and yes the AYA No4 that I personally think is the better quality gun in terms of how it is built) prices have nosedived. For years and years and years a Webley 700 pretty much held around the £1000 mark with some just a smidge under but most a couple of hundred over. And the AYA No4 at around the half of that quid pro quo. But now I'm seeing for the first time the sub-£500 Webley 700 and wonder if they are either worn out or, truly, that the side-by-side if it is a boxlock is dead? All good guns but very much a bear market and the idiots at BASC didn't help much in February even before coronavirus.
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
The sbs isn’t dead but it’s definitely in intensive care, most of the younger shooters won’t touch them. I’ve loaned mine to a few guys and gals at the clay ground and had it handed back pdq, just too much for their tiny brains to process, which barrel to look down, which trigger to pull, safety off etc etc.
There are rows of them in the dealers not moving, but a cheap Italian ou hardly gets time to cool down.
Prices are beginning to fall, but the really nice ones still sell, generally to game shooters that always fancied a side lock, box locks are a lost cause.
CarlW
Well-Known Member
Yup. I sold one recently. Barely covered the commission.
That is beautiful - thanks for sharing
SAUER20222250
Well-Known Member
If a human was meant to shoot O/U their eyes would be one on top of the other...
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
A new Aya Sidelock is the best part of £10k, their boxlocks £4k,
I think second hand ones are one of the best bargains out there. Think earlier ones from the 50’s and 60’s are much better than from the late 1980’s when definitely being made to a price. AyA now only focus on the top end and on the mass market guns.
I think second hand ones are one of the best bargains out there. Think earlier ones from the 50’s and 60’s are much better than from the late 1980’s when definitely being made to a price. AyA now only focus on the top end and on the mass market guns.
The 25" is a marmite gun, friends have had them and sold them as they didn't work for them. I had a 12 bore 26" No4, it went when due to a hand injury I needed a single trigger and hence went to an O/U. Now I shoot a 27" No 2 20 bore, its probbaly more experience but I shoot better with that than the 12 bore.
S/S are so much nicer to use on a driven day, and used AYA are bargins.
S/S are so much nicer to use on a driven day, and used AYA are bargins.
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
My Pa's AyA No 3 which he bought in the 1960's is really well made and locks up with the snap of an English best gun. Its nearly 60 years old and had a good amount of use and still does, albeit Pa is now in his 80's and his shooting is mostly magpies with the 410.
Over and Under's have come to the fore mostly due to:
a) very good marketing,
b) most shooting schools now either Berretta or Brownings for instruction, and most instructors teach a very consistent sporting clays style of shooting,
c) most shooting schools don't have a clue on how to use a side by side.
With an over and under you have pistol grip so the focus os on the trigger hand and take a firm sight down the rib to track the line of the bird and then swing through and squeeze. The forehand is just there assist and take the weight of the gun. This works very well (I believe) to get real consistency and good results on clays.
With a side-by-side its much more akin to hitting a tennis ball or cricket ball with a racquet or bat. The long thin grip for the trigger hand means your trigger hand has very little to do. It's all about the forehand and eyes and hand / eye coordination. Starting with gun down, watch the bird - point at it with the forehand and and go bang. All the trigger hand does is to lift the butt. I say "go bang" deliberately - the trigger pull should be totally subliminal and instinctive - not the focus of attention.
It's an instinctive style of shooting, that you need to learn as a youngster and takes time to get results. I was very fortunate to be taught by Brain Edrich - one of the Edrich cricketing brothers. He was the cricketing coach at the boarding school I was at in Oxford, but he had also formed a clay pigeon (and snipe and wild duck) shooting club and once a week a motley crew of a few of us who were locked away in the boarding school would go down a piece of waste ground between the railway line and Port Meadow that belonged to the school and set up a couple of traps and shoot clays. It was a wetland and there were often duck and snipe. He very much taught us how to shoot side by side, because that is how he shot. Mind you, he did have an old Savage 5 shot semi auto, and I remember once he came and found me - there were lots of duck on the marsh. I got my gun from the corner of the headmaster's study and off we went. A flight of five duck came over head. He started at the back and they were all dead before the first one hit the ground. It was moments like this that kept me somewhat sane - being a scholarship boy dragged from Africa at an English Public School in the 1980's had its challenges.
He would have been in his mid 60's at that stage, but he was a superb shot and pretty handy with a cricket bat as well. He had been a Spitfire pilot in the war and expect he had been a useful shot with one of those as well.
Dunwaters
Well-Known Member
It’s a little appreciated fact that any game bird shot with a sbs goes straight to heaven, if the bird is shot with a “best” it’s automatically promoted to Archangel grade on arrival.
Every now and again a bird is bodily assumed into heaven, these are the ones that you know you hit but can never find.
Every now and again a bird is bodily assumed into heaven, these are the ones that you know you hit but can never find.
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