doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The perfect ruffed grouse gun.

It's a 1931 Remington 17B 20 gauge (only gauge they were made in). While I was tongue-in-cheek about my comment, it is the only one for me. My hit/miss ratio with it this year was at 50% to include four limits and a weekend going 4/5. Past years I'd be lucky to hit a solid 1/5 birds I shot at. My nice svelte Beretta 20 and all the SxSs I've owned have never given me that kind of performance. (I wouldn't rule out just one heck of a lucky streak though)

You can't argue with success. Neat gun! What does it tip the scales at?
Looked that one up. Designed by John Browning w/later modifications made by Pederson, it was the precurser to the Model 31 and the Ithaca Model 37.

5lbs 14oz

John Pederson was an interesting fellow. His model 12 (Remington) pump action .22 seems to share some of the design features of this gun. A criticism I've read of his work stated that he would use five separate parts to do a job that reqired only two. No matter, it would appear that his work has withstood the test of time.

I have enjoyed the following:
Browning BSS, 20 ga. - 26"
Browning Citori, 20 ga.- 24"
Sauer-Sohn, 12 ga., w/ 410 ga inserts.
I also agree with the comment- it's the gun that fits you best.

hunted with a poly choked rem 17 20 for a while. shoots where you point it. still like that 6 pound sauer 12 bore. cant figure out how they made a 12 ga gun that light...and with minimum barrel walls at .050!

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Another old favorite. Which way are the birds?

OK, here you go

I used the same gun to take a limit of grouse and woodcock on the same day near Orr, MN in the mid 1980s, something I've done only once in my life. I have shot around the 50% mark on grouse with only two guns, that Remington model 17B, and a straight stocked, long barreled Darne 20 gauge that I foolishly sent down the road a long time ago. I didn't sell the Remington model 17, however. I bought it on September 17 (my girlfriend at the time, Roxanne's 17th birthday) 1977, from my Dad's deer hunting partner, for $50. For a long time, it was my only repeater.
Anybody remember the name Stan Baker? I was about 19 years old when I sent him the barrel of the model 17 to "do something" about the vented Cutts that somebody installed, which hurt the ears of anyone who was near the old gun when it went off. He called me, and asked what I used the gun for. Grouse hunting, in pretty tangled country in eastern MN and western WI, I told him. He sent the barrel back, shortened to 21", with two choke tubes, neither marked with anything, I just used my pinky to figure out which was tighter. He also did an exceptional job polishing the bore and I suspect lenthening the forcing cone. It throws amazing patterns.
That began almost a decade of crackerjack grouse hunting, during a peak in the MN grouse population, with an unforgettable Gordon setter out of Springset kennels in California.
I did buy a second barrel for the old gun, 26" with modified choke, that has almost no blue on it, but, the gunsmith says it fits just fine. I should get it blued, so my hands don't get rusty when I touch it. And, pattern it a bit more.
Might be the last gun I'd ever sell. Thanks for reminding me.

Best,
Ted

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Do Blue Grouse count as well?