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The rationale being as follows: 1. Unlike Pumps and Auto loaders you can see instantly if the weapon is loaded or not. 2. With the same length barrel, it will be 3-4 inches SMALLER than a pump or auto (No action needed to work a round into and out of the Chamber. 3. Given most situations, two shots is all you need, if you need more than two shots you are over your head anyway.
Additionally the "Double Barrel" looks more like the gun old farmers had and thus do not look as "bad" as a pump or Auto. Think Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, Elmer is always shooting Bugs with a Double Barrel Shotgun (Which at times is a Double Barrel Pump when it was needed for a Joke). The Double has that "Appeal" of NOT being a weapon of attack. Something you have to think of when buying a weapon. Remember if you have to use the weapon, a double Barrel will look Less like an "assault Weapon" to every member of a Jury than a Pump or Auto. You want every edge you can get and the additional rounds Pump or Auto has will rarely be used.
All told the "Coach Gun" would be my ideal defensive weapon.
As to the lack of Double barrels over the last 50 years, that has more to do with Manufacturing methods of the last 50 years. Double Barrel were popular till WWII, but the mass production system adopted during the early 1900s finally reduced cost of pumps and Auto way below the cost of making a tight fitting double. With the interchangeability's barrels for pumps and Auto, you could change a barrel to do the kind of hunting you wanted to do. This was almost impossible with a Double Barrel. These two "events" meant that the pump and the Auto would be the Shotguns of the post WWII era.
With modern Computer driven machines, the tight fits needed to make a good double can now be done by machine with minimal hand fitting (What every double needed prior to advent of Computer assisted design and machining machines). Thus I have seen a return of the Double over the last 10 years (With many coming out of Russia where the hand tooling is still done but at lower rates than in the USA).
Note, I did not address the over/Under Doubles. Popular to this day and easier to mass produce than side by side doubles but still expensive. Over and Under survived do to skeet shooters who liked a double but wanted to look over only one barrel. Still more expensive than pumps or auto but held on to its share of the market do to the Skeet and Trap shooters. Price tend to be double the price of the Pump or Auto.
Just my opinion as to Double Barrel Shotguns and why they are making a comeback after 50 years.
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