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Post by grasshopper on Aug 29, 2021 9:04:14 GMT -7
Hello all! I sure hope everyone is having a great Sunday morning and has taken the time to thank God for another fantastic day above ground! While looking around the forum I noticed that the topic of shotguns hasn’t really come up for going on 6 years now so I thought I would create a new thread.
What are some of your favorite shotguns and why? If you can I’d like to know what kind of shotgun you prefer, gauge, barrel length, chokes and load you use for each application. Living and growing up in the south shotguns are a lot more plentiful in the south I would say versus say MT where I would say rifles are used for most chores. Some of my favorites have been, my first gun of any kind is a Winchester model 37 in 20ga with a 26” barrel choked full. This shotgun was the beginning of my love for hunting. My father thought the Browning A5 was the only shotgun that mattered because in his opinion it was the best. I honestly can’t remember how many A5s I’ve owned over the years but a good guess would be at least 25. I currently own two, one in 16ga “sweet 16” as they are marked and called and a 20ga. The two shotguns I use the most are an older Remington 870 and an Ithaca model 37, both are in 12 ga and both have 24” barrels and both have screw in chokes. These two are my primary Turkey hunting guns although usually once or twice a season I’ll take my old LC Smith side by side in 16ga with 28” barrels and choked full and modified. The only other shotgun that I would list as a favorite even though it thankfully never gets used is a Winchester model 12 in 12ga. I bought this shotgun at a gun show in Anchorage. The man I bought it from said he used it when he was flying as a commercial bush pilot for many years. This model 12 is from back in the 30s and is marked Winchester nicklel steel, the barrel has been cut back to just over 20” and it has an extended magazine tube underneath, it will hold 8 in the tube and one in the chamber. This shotgun is my primary home defense long gun, if 9 rounds of 00 bucks can’t get it done I’m in serious trouble!
Those are my favorite shotguns anyway, I really hope I’m able to hear from a bunch of you what your favorites are! Hope everyone has a great day!!
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Post by Junior on Aug 29, 2021 12:57:35 GMT -7
Interestingly enough, I was thinking about starting a shotgun thread today.
I don’t know why, but I have a soft spot for the 16ga and kind of want a SxS 16, maybe like a old savage/stevens 311
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Post by missionary on Aug 29, 2021 13:08:41 GMT -7
I have always been partial to double barrels Not over-under types though. My favorite is a Fox B 12 Gauge that has been with us for near as long as my discharge papers. Has served us well in all situations and formed the base for my round ball ventures 30 years ago.
That receiver now has at least two other fitted barrel sets and a complete "cousin" that was an admirals double on an aircraft carrier that was de-commissioned after 1975. An arms room "chief"was given it by the Admiral for faithfully fulfilling his duties taking care of the Admirals firearms.
About 10 years back we added a Fox B 20 gauge for "lighter shotgun needs". It may yet go crow hunting but the "admirals gun" still gets first grabs.
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Post by grasshopper on Aug 29, 2021 14:04:29 GMT -7
That’s great! I have an older Fox, sterling worth 20ga that my wife’s father gave me not long after we were married and it’s a sweet shooting shotgun only weighing a little over 6lbs and has accounted for many dove. Sadly there aren’t many places in the south any longer that have any sort of wild bobwhite quail anymore.
Jr. I can sure see why you have a soft spot for a sxs 16, to me it’s just about the perfect gauge and you can do anything with one. The LC Smith I have in 16 I pretty much just lucked up on in a tiny pawn shop in Tennesse. The owner thought it was a stevens 311 and when I inspected it and told him what it was he just said “ doesn’t matter, you can still have it for $400” I couldn’t get the money outta my wallet quick enough! I’m much like our friend in Peru I’ve never had much use for an over and under. I just thought about it, do you remember a jacket I gave your dad when you were little that said something like AK Army Skeet champion or something? Won the jacket shooting skeet up there but knew I’d never use it. 😁
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Post by Junior on Aug 29, 2021 14:23:53 GMT -7
I don’t remember many shotguns in the house when I was a kid. My first gun was a Springfield M6 22 hornet over 410, but I don’t think I ever killed anything with the shotgun barrel. I also remember a Savage 24A 22lr/20ga and remember taking 1 pheasant with that. I do remember dad buying a NEF 12ga single shot when we were in Montana, but that’s the only shotgun I ever remember him using. I had a Biakal 12ga over/under at one point, it don’t think I ever killed anything with it either. We always just used rifles for grouse, and that NEF accounted for 95% of the peasants we killed in Montana.
I do remember one other shotgun I had as a teenager a Smith and Wesson sawed off pump 12ga, but I’m not sure I should tell that story on here though, because I may stir up some long forgotten disappointment from the old man.
As an adult I’ve had several shotguns, but they never stay around long. In the words of Matthew Quigley, I never had much use for one.
However, I want a side by side 16ga. Why? Couldn’t tell you. I just do.
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Post by Bullshop on Aug 29, 2021 17:57:03 GMT -7
OK I have a confession to make, I don't have a shotgun. Not much use for one here. I refuse to pay for a migratory bird stamp so don't hunt ducks and geese. The only reason I ever consider getting one is that MT F&G law requires a shotgun to take sage grouse. Interestingly all other upland birds can be taken with either rifle or handgun or shotgun. Upland bird season opens 9/1 and Joy and I are planning to go out. She was just pressing me today on what guns we will take.
If I ever had a favorite it would have to be the double 20 Stevens I hitchhiked across the country with when I was still a teenager. In my back pack was a take down fishing rod with a Mitchel 300 and the Steven double 20 broken down to its three parts. A good knife and hatchet sharpening tools some ammo and lures completed my pack. What more could a guy need or want when hitching around the country ? I fished and hunted in many of the places I had read about in field and stream. The good old days Ah!!!!
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Post by shootist---Gary on Aug 29, 2021 19:01:20 GMT -7
Hello Grasshopper. In all of my 78+ years, I have probably owned about a dozen shotguns. As a teenager on a 106 & then 181 acre farm in Mahoning County (Youngstown area), i learned to hunt rabbits & ring necked pheasants with an old W. H. Davenport single barrel 12 ga. that my dad bought at a farm auction around 1950 for a few dollars. I shot my first rabbits with it. Sometime in the late 1950's dad borrowed an old Model 1897 Winchester 12 ga. full choke, 30" barrel takedown model from the widow of a family friend, so we could go rabbit hunting together. After season was over, I cleaned & oiled the old "97" & returned it to Betty. We borrowed it again the next winter, & returned it after season ended. I then bought a Montgomery Ward "Riverside Arms" 16 ga. double barrel with external hammers, for $25. Betty died in 1964, & left the Model 97 to my dad in her will. Dad died in 1971, & I have owned it since then. Serial # E728480, made in 1923. I also own a Lefever Nitro Special field grade 12 ga. double, that had belonged to an old family friend that was like a grandfather to me. When he died in 1970, he willed this gun to my dad, & mom gave it to me. When I am finished with it, it will be donated to the local historical society where we lived. I don't ever want it to be on a dealer's table, that it wouldn't have any sentimental value to. I also own a H & R single shot .410 that I shoot varmits in the yard with.
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Post by grasshopper on Aug 29, 2021 19:27:08 GMT -7
I have always wanted a 1897 but for some reason I’ve just never come across one that was in really nice shape I could afford. I just always thought they were a well designed and beautiful shotgun and the takedown feature was just icing on the cake. Thank you for sharing your experiences!
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Post by shootist---Gary on Aug 29, 2021 20:09:54 GMT -7
Grasshopper, the real reason that I like the Model 1897, Or "gaspipe" as some old timers in our area called them, is that I shoot left handed, & the safety is the first notch on the hammer, so I don't have to fumble around with a cross bolt safety, as my old Stevens Model 620 A had. While recuperating from kidney surgery in 1961, I removed the safety from the trigger guard, filed the protruded metal that blocked the trigger, & had dad take it & have a spot of weld across on the other side, filed it down to size, & presto, had a left hand safety.
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Post by grasshopper on Aug 30, 2021 7:15:45 GMT -7
Good morning Gary! Sounds like a slick piece of work to make a custom left handed safety! I’ve never heard anyone refer to the 97 as a “gas pipe” before, pretty interesting, I guess I don’t know enough about pipe to understand why they would call it that though. I have a book all about Winchesters somewhere by a guy named Wilson I think and it has some great pictures of some of the 97s that came out of the custom shop. Most of those shotguns have lots of gold inlaid animals and such, very pretty but I doubt very practical. Looking at the blue book of gun values and what they sell for at sites like GB all of the 97s seem to bring quite a bit of money these days and especially the ones that had a Monte Carlo type stock. Way back in 1995 I think it was we were getting ready to invade Hati and while we were drawing our weapons from the arms room I noticed in the back there was a rack of shotguns, once I walked in and looked at them I saw they were all model 12 and model 97s in both riot and trench configurations, the trench versions complete with the bayonet even! I asked the first sergeant if they were assigned to anyone and if not could I draw one out. His reply was “ I don’t mind you grabbing one Doc but I don’t have any ammo for them” I told him that wasn’t a problem and had my wife bring me two 25rd boxes of OO buck. We didn’t make the jump for the invasion as Mr. Clinton turned us around just as we were getting ready to jump. I just thought it would make more sense for me to carry a shotgun instead of my usual M4 because anyone I had to shoot would be inside 50yds while I was working on a patient. I really wish they still made quality guns like they did 100 years ago but there’s no telling what it would cost today to turn out one of that quality today.
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Post by Bullshop on Aug 30, 2021 7:23:29 GMT -7
That is a big difference today in the plastic disposable era. People only look at today and don't consider tomorrow.
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Post by grasshopper on Aug 30, 2021 7:42:17 GMT -7
Amen brother! Amen!
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Post by todddoyka on Sept 6, 2021 11:44:40 GMT -7
well, i really haven't been a fan of shotguns. i've used 12, 16, 20, 410 and the beautiful 28 ga, while i owned the 20 ga savage pump(piece of junk, made in the early '80s) and 12 ga mossberg 500. altho i used the 12ga with deadly efficiency(grouse and pheasants and rabbits), it just wasn't fer me. the most beautiful gun was a engraved 28ga AH fox double barrel that belonged to friend/gunsmith(RIP). normally when the steel is engraved, i think cheap, but it was soooooo beautifully done that i almost cried. but my favorite has to be a 16ga double barrel and double bead(i dont know if it was sears or montgomery wards). it had a plain jane walnut(or lookalike) wood stock and it fit me perfectly(back then i was 13 or 14yo and about 5' nothing). it was my best friend's dad(i called him dad #2) gun but i was allowed to it whenever i want, provided i had the 16ga shells to take. 16ga shells at the time are the manufacturers' choice. you could either buy them or wait a few years for the manufacturers to make them. boy the doves, squirrels, grouse, pheasant and turkeys that i have killed could have feeded an army!!!!!! oh wait a minute(suck in the stomach).......  what army? . i'm like Dan, i gave my 12ga mossberg to my oldest son because he likes small game. |
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Post by grasshopper on Sept 6, 2021 15:58:42 GMT -7
Great post Todd! I believe those Sears and Monkey Wards(what my little brother called them just learning to talk) we’re pretty Much all Stevens or Savage 311s I may be wrong but I believe I heard that somewhere
Growing up in the south I suppose I was just always around shotguns more than anything else so they still hold a special spot in my heart. I never got to go deer hunting with my dad but I did get to do a bunch of quail and dove hunting with him. I still have the Browning A5 light twelve that he bought new and it’s probably still my favorite because it was his.
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Post by todddoyka on Sept 7, 2021 7:20:34 GMT -7
monkey wards !!!!!! that one i'll have to remember. my first year of hunting(including deer) was a 20ga savage pump. i might have a box or two left of 20ga remington foster slugs. i was able to hit a paper plate at 100 yards. dad figured it was good as the shots on deer were around 30-50 yards. i think it was in the late'80s that someone(manufacturer) came up with rifled shotgun barrel with a scope. i wanna say mossberg, but i'm not sure.
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Post by grasshopper on Sept 7, 2021 10:00:33 GMT -7
I started hunting everything with a Winchester model 37 in 20ga, I got my first deer with a bow but I shot several more with that 20ga using what my dad called “punkin” balls just a 2 3/4 slug. I’m not sure about the rifled barrel either, if I were guessing I’d say it was Hastings or Ithaca. I know Ithaca made one for their deer slayer and Hastings used to advertise in the Cabelas and Gander Mt catalogs I looked thru like they were an Xmas catalog! I know in the old days folks would hunt deer with buck shot also but I think using it is just about outlawed now.
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what army?