Revenant O/U from Caesar Guerini Sets New Standard
These ringnecked roosters swooned from the sky when they saw the Caesar Guerini Revenant shotgun being raised in their direction.
Most hunters cannot understand why anyone would spend $6,550 on a Rolex Explorer wristwatch. Or $10,000 for a Honma 5-Star golf club. And who would buy a RAM 1500 TRX 4WD pickup for $71,790! Good grief! A brand new base model Toyota Tacoma will get you down the road for $25,630.
But $13,895 for a Caesar Guerini Revenant shotgun? That might make sense.
Hey, there’s real gold on it! And nothing knocks pheasants out of the sky better than an inlaid gold version of a pheasant on the sideplate of a shotgun.
Yes, I’m being facetious again. But that doesn’t mean you and I can’t appreciate a shotgun as well built, balanced and beautiful as this Revenant over/under. We might not be able to justify its cost, but someone surely can. Wrist watches, golf clubs and pickup trucks have already established that.
But why/how can a simple two barreled shotgun cost so much when basic models can be had for around $1,500?
Obviously there’s that gold pheasant. And its many engraved friends, including quail and maple leaves. Lots of autumn maple leaves. When you see engraving like this, you know it’s coming with a price tag. The amazing thing is not that this Revenant costs nearly $14K, but that it doesn’t cost $80K.
Seriously. The level and quality of hand engraving on this gun — not to mention the wood-to-metal and metal-to-metal fit — could easily run you five times the Revenant’s MSRP for a traditional double because of the painstaking time artisans must put into it. Caesar Guerini reduces those costs by using computer driven lasers for the bulk of the engraving. Twenty-five hours of that are followed up by 15 hours of hand chasing.
Say what you will about computers taking over the world, but computer-controlled manufacturing is the reason this shotgun is this tight, precise, functional, and beautiful without costing somewhere from $50,000 to perhaps $80,000!
And you thought $13,895 was a lot of money.
What the Revenant does is set a new benchmark for shotgun manufacturing and pricing. By incorporating the latest precision machining techniques with traditional shotgun design and handwork, Caesar Guerini is able to match custom gun prices at 1/3 to 1/5th the price. You can see some of this in these photos and the accompanying video review, but to truly appreciate this gun you should handle one. That probably won’t be possible at your typical neighborhood gun retailer, but select, high-end gun dealers should carry a sample or two. They are available in 20- and 28-gauge with a 12-gauge line extension anticipated.
The video covers most of the details of this gun, but in case you don’t like watching videos, here’s a quick list:
Box lock action with false sideplates
Round body action including slightly rounded sideplates
Monoblock, 28” chrome-lined barrels
Backbored and long forcing cones
5 screw chokes
Solid top rib
Single, non-selective inertia-set trigger
Manual safety
Boss style forend iron
Anson-style push button release with silver estucheon surround
Turkish Circassian walnut with machine-cut checkering
Removable, checkered walnut butt plate
Long trigger bow
And, of course, deep, textured, multi-toned, and extensive engraving
Despite the Revenant costing considerably less than equivalent shotguns made the traditional way, it’s still beyond the reach of most of us. This does not, however, mean — as some have suggested — that guns of this quality are unjustified. I believe strongly in and celebrate the human impulse and drive to innovate and create high quality tools like the Revenant. That they can simultaneously reduce the costs so significantly makes it even more special.
Striving for this kind of quality and precision is what has pushed us down from the trees, out of the caves, and into the expressive, innovative tool-making primates we are today.
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