doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - Upsurge in SxS Guns & Shooting them

Well good news for a change.
There seems to be renewed interest in SxS here in the UK also more interest in shooting softer recoiling cartridges which overall cannot be a bad thing. I recently took my Purdey hammer gun to a club shoot and whilst shooting Hull Comp X 21gram cartridges acquitted myself very well , causing lots of interest and comments from the O/U boys who many of which requested to 'have a go'. Lots of smiles .

I just had one of my SLEs repaired by my gunsmith. Broken firing pin and needed a new screw made. He is in his 70's. I have no idea who is going to fix my guns when he retires.

I see the lack of qualified gunsmiths as one of the biggest impediments to the hobby, waning interest issues aside. There is limited quantity of good old guns, and less people to service them.

I am tempted just to buy some more guns just to have him get them into serviceable shape for the forseeable future as a prophylactic measure.

I sold my last non SxS a while back. Hunting, clays, it’s all SxS shotguns going forward.

True, side by side guns here in the U.K. are going for absolute bargain prices. Put an O/U 20 bore Berretta up for sale and it will go in an instant. Excellent well made English SxS boxlock guns seem to sit on Dealer's shelves for a long time. Continental boxlocks are just about unsaleable. Not complaining too much as I am adding one or two interesting things to my collection. Not as investments but just because they interest me. Any American double gun enthusiast would be like a kid in a candy shop here if they were looking for a decent boxlock. Top sidelocks still seem to command a price but Provincial ones are good value. I recently picked up a cased Robert Lisle of Derby sidelock ejector up with game scene engraving for just £600 and a boxlock ejector with 90% original finish for £175 to add to my collection of locally made guns. Lagopus.....

I agree. I am using my Webley 600 to good effect, whilst another uses his Beretta Silver Hawk. Just called in to Greenfields in Salisbury. Last year they displayed only over/unders; now this season they have 24 or so side by sides on view in the shop. A very pretty Army & navy 16 bore side by side caught my eye... Do I need it??

The only time "need" is a consideration is if the "need" satisfies the "want". Gil

DoubleTake:

That is the right answer! I'm just back from two days shooting in SW Scotland, with pheasants crossing over us (mere mortals standing in the burn) about 40 yards above us. Most survived, but we had a great time. The previous party of Austrian double-gunners plus loaders did no better than my Webley 600 with 3/8 and full choke.

Same reason why some people (like me) still drive manuals when automatics are, on paper, better in every way - they're fun!

Traditions are about identity and history; trust in memories of the "way things were". When the world seems to be falling apart, holding on to traditions can be comforting, and stabilizing. I think the recent coronation in Great Britain is an example.
Almost no one at Ben Avery is using a vintage double, because Arizona doesn't have that tradition. The few that do are transplants from the Midwest, where "tradition" is likely a new fangled autoloader for the big family opening day in SW Kansas in the 60s. But there was often grandpa's double in the house. And as we get older, a sense of connection to the past becomes more important.
Most of us have probably been through a bunch of pumps, SAs, and O/Us, which we shot well, but now find pleasure in using a vintage (or new) SxS, esp. when we show up the hotshots Some are even using pinfires and single shot MLs!!

I've been corrupting some of the people I shoot skeet with. Five years ago I was the only one who shot skeet with a vintage SxS. While the ones I've corrupted haven't bought vintage SxS, three have bought SxS (CZ, BSS, Rock Island & Baikal) to shoot skeet with and a couple of more have dug deep into their safes and dragged out some SxS to shoot skeet and scap with. Prior to me being a bad influence, almost all of them shot skeet and the skeet league with O/U.

I certainly don’t see an uptick in people interested in using or buying sxs shotguns here in the mountain west. Myself and 1 other guy are the only ones at our relatively large, busy gun club that shoot SxS’s. We are known for being the “sxs guys”. There’s a lot of young shooters at the club though, middle school and high school shooters (a lot are young females) that shoot on teams and leagues. That’s a good thing, but none of them are using or seem very interested in using SxS’s.
A lot of folks are curious about guns with side by side barrels at the club, but I don’t see anyone else shooting them or buying them. Kreighoffs, Kolars, Brownings, & Berettas etc are king at our club. O/U’s, autos.
I rarely ever see good quality pump guns being used either.
Everytime I shoot my Win. 1897, it draws a small crowd.
I think myself and my buddy are the only ones that also shoot old Winchester pump guns at the club. I’ve only seen a couple of model 12’s or other vintage pumps in the last decade or so.
In the past 10 years I’ve seen exactly 1 other person shooting a sxs….I was so curious I walked over to talk with him about it. It was a Turkish made 28 gauge with a single trigger that wouldn’t fire the second barrel. Needless to say, I don’t think he stayed enamored with the sxs, haven’t seen him or that gun since.


Dustin

I am depressed by this post….I’m just beginning my addiction to these infernal things. No one warned me that the old SxS stuck in back of the safe would one day take over my life. I managed to ignore it for 25 yrs, now I have 3 and looking for more. The new a400 now occupies the back of the big box. I hope the few guys Ive seen at Rio Salado course with doubles aren’t the only ones….

I've been shooting a skeet league of 300 targets, first three weeks conventional & last half all doubles w/an A grade Philly Fox bored CYL in both bbl.'s & ¾ oz of reclaimed shot. Shooting it all from a 'dead gun' start as well, just as one would in the field and having a blast! It draws some attention w/its double triggers as well, but I've not noticed anyone particularly interested in buying a SxS because of it. My score of just over 75% on the first 150 targets could have something to do w/that. Had I broken them all, interest would probably be higher. Shooting, in some ways, is like golf. What kind of clubs is the BIG DOG using?

We've a member only SxS Fun Shoot coming up on 11/11. DGC It will consist of a 100-target main event and a 50-target 20 bore event. All sporty clays and on dif. courses for ea. event. They are great shoots and we've had as many as 60 participating in them prior to the Wuhan virus. 40 something seems the new norm but I'm hoping we see a bit better number of entries this time. A lot will be predicated on the weather we draw. We have them annually but there is sufficient interest and participation to do one twice a year and some of us are advocating for that to happen. Meantime, anyone that wishes to utilize a SxS for any of the target games may do so and there are number of members who are doing just that. The interest is there but it is limited.