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Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1841 Location: Central ND

Tony,

........and it all started on a thread that had nothing to do with someone's narrow minded opinion of ethics, traditions, with a huge dose of arrogance.

After three threads, having the same basic responses, from the same members.....I think I got it.

Member Joined: 09 Jan 2013 Posts: 2168 Location: Florida

I never took any of it personal. I simply do not care if someone doesn't like that I shoot a gun capable of holding more that 2 shots .

I have semi autos , O/U's , and SXS's. I take which ever one I feel like at the time , bothers me none what other people think. Simple as that.

I also don't care if some thinks that I should not shoot at birds beyond a certain yardage, I know my limitations .

I say to each his own. We are hunters and would be better off if we didn't argue over such petty stuff.

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2125 Location: Hudson,Wy

Dang, never intended to stir up controversy, I advocated both ways of doing things and merely related my solving a mystery about myself. For a long time I wondered why I was okay with giving up my third shot. It took a lot of years for me to realize I just wanted to get things done the slow way. I wasn't preaching at anyone, that's for sure. I know I don't like that myself, it takes the fun out of reading.

I think this Covid/ post election era has us more tense than usual. My advice is to relax and be accepting of each other. After all, we are for the most part friends here with the same core interests. Odds are, the sun will soon rise on another bird season and we can get back out where we are happiest. Until then, we're our own support group.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1841 Location: Central ND

Wyochukar,

It's got nothing to do with your threads or responses.

WyoChukar,

Actually this was a very good thread, each man stated his own opinion. I am not offended that you may have a different opinion than me. You should not be offended that my opinion is different than yours. We have the right to live in different ways.

Each of us is allowed to believe differently, we live in the USA where we have the right to disagree with each other and live our lives as we see fit.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Member Joined: 09 Jan 2013 Posts: 2168 Location: Florida

Member Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 1863 Location: Wisconsin

I eagerly waited for someone to mention what I think is the best reason for shooting a two barreled gun, but that didn’t happen. We’ve all shot a variety of guns and when you find one that works for you by all means shoot the pistooey out of it. I come from a family of poor dirt farmers who prayed for rain (not too much pretty please 😃) and supplemented the domesticated meat sources with wild game. One grandfather was a market hunter in the winter to supplement his farm income; he always shot a repeater and I still shoot his ‘97 winchester.

To me, two pipes means more versatility. Two pipes means two chokes for different ranges. Two pipes also gives me the opportunity to shoot two different loads and often two different shot sizes. Case in point is my choice to shoot two pipes for turkeys so that I can shoot small shot in a more open choke with incredible density and kill power at close range and larger shot in a tighter choke for long range when penetration is paramount. As a child, I often hunted squirrels with a two pipe so I could load one barrel with buckshot and one with 6’s. That’s a pretty extreme example but it was great to kill a deer while still hunting for bushytales.

I’m both cheep and lazy; cheep enough to get the most out of my gunning experiences by shooting the most versatile gun I know and lazy enough to marry a pregnant woman. I take the time to make the most of the first shot and decide if a missed bird will be in range for a follow up. I also take the two pipe suggestion to the next level by insisting on two triggers. That way all I have to do is take the safety off and choose which trigger to pull based upon the range of the target as I swing the barrels. Even my mild dislexia doesn’t interfere with trigger/barrel/choke/shot size selection. I can’t make that choice fast enough with a barrel selector to be truely effective.

I love my old American repeaters but dislike that they only give me one choice of choke and shot size when I swing on a target. Given a choice between one and two pipes, I’ll take two please!

Reno (Two Pipe Shoot)

We all make choices. I'm trying to master instinctive shooting with a recurve bow, rather than using sights and/or a compound. Sights are much more accurate, but not nearly as fun, nor as challenging. When I do master it, and I'm fortunate to actually get an animal with it, even if it's a doe, it will be a true trophy in my mind, equal to a 7 x 7 bull elk. Wink

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2125 Location: Hudson,Wy

Two Pipe, everything you said pretty well covers advantages that I see in a double gun, I just figured that most of us knew it already, but glad you mentioned it. The two choke idea was something I used different loads for in my auto.

Since I had but one choke, I often loaded a cheaper factory load, then one of my tighter patterning hand loads, followed by a buffered hand load. It was a hassle to rearrange the shells upon re-stoking the gun when I only fired one shot, but it did give me the equivalent of 3 chokes. Oddly, birds have a way of negating some of our best intentions/ guesses in choke combo selection anyway!

And yes, I do like the way SxS and O/U guns look. Really like...

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1841 Location: Central ND

This is where I have gotten to after years of trying different loads, chokes and other equipment changes.

Whether I have two barrels with different chokes, loads & triggers, one barrel with different loads or one barrel and one load, for me, wing shooting skills trump all of it by a very wide margin.

There is no choke, load or modification to the shotgun of any sort that helped me more than to work year round at shooting.

I am down to 5 basic loads, two for clay targets (one in 12 ga. & one in 16 ga.), two loads (one being bismuth when I have to) for pheasants and grouse, one load for turkeys.

Chokes for clays .020" choke either gauge. For upland .015" in the 16 gauge (maybe .020" on certain days late season). Not sure about turkeys yet, waiting on the test load results from Precision.

At heart and in practice I am a minimalist and I like to travel light. So my choice for awhile now (even though I have tried other options) has been, one gun, one barrel, one load and one choke. I MUST follow the K.I.S.S. method, or Murphy shows up at the worst possible time.

...I was just reminded someplace here that my grandfather, who was born in Anaheim in 1890,owned two Model 97's. One 30" FULL, one 26" CYL. Both twelves.

I don't recall him ever putting three shells in at once; 'Said that "a duck was usually out of range by the time you got the third round off anyway. "

Maybe it was partly economics, but those old timers from that century's turn saw first hand many of the declines and in my recollection had a different view of ethics and conservation than we can imagine now..I was taught that fifty yards was max effective range on duck and why shoot it if it'll probably be a wasted cripple..That ethic might have something to do with many using the doubles still back then, and to this day.

He also had an M1895 30/40 KRAG. I have No Idea how many cartridges he put in that rifle...

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1308 Location: Western WA

In defense of the venerable SxS, I found that it is unsurpassed in heavy cover because of its fat wide barrel profile which greatly enhances the quick instinctive shot. Other than that, the O/U is preferable if two shots are sufficient.

I descend from a long of farmers and soldiers, the former who views the gun as a tool like a shovel or post hole digger, and the latter who sees it solely in terms of its effectiveness as a weapon, and in neither case do esthetics bear any consideration.

All that said, were I to pick one all purpose field gun today it would be a modern lightweight auto. One never knows when that third shot will be needed, so why discard that option if it comes at no penalty of cost or performance?

V/R
B.