It was 1967 when David set up his business, after being apprenticed to Alex Martin in Glasgow and then John Dickson and Son in Edinburgh. David started repairing guns, but his ultimate dream was to build his own guns.
He was very impressed with the quality of the Dickson Round Action and being a Scottish maker himself, he decided to resurrect Scotland’s most famous sporting gun, the Scottish Round Action which had been out of production for years.
The first McKay Brown Round Action side by side gun was manufactured in 1974. David soon acquired an excellent reputation and for a relatively small company his output of best guns was prodigious. David’s company went on to become one of Britain’s most successful independent gun making businesses in the history of British gun making.
In the early ’90s there was a large change in the type of guns being used for hunting. The modern shooters of the new era were turning their sights to the over and under type shotgun. To build a successful business David need a product with international appeal and in a gun of his own design he created the McKay Brown Round Action Over and Under. David completed the first gun in 1992.
When David officially registered his over and under, it was the very first new Scottish shotgun design in more than a century. Today McKay Brown continues to manufacture Best Scottish Guns on the Round Action designs. We encompass the latest manufacturing techniques while continuing the traditional manufacturing skills to create Best Scottish Guns.
After many years of successful gunmaking, the time came for David McKay Brown to retire from his business. He felt very strongly that the company should continue to be run in Scotland by a Scottish gunmaker. Grant Buchan, who had been making best guns and rifles for over a decade under the name ‘Buchan Guns’, was given the opportunity to continue to run McKay Brown.
Ever since Buchan acquired the company in mid 2021, it has rapidly grown and flourished into the modern McKay Brown we see today. Gaining craftsmen and machinists from around the UK, the skillset and capability is second to none.
