doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Don Zutz - The Double Shotgun

Stopped by the ex-wife's house to pick up some gear my son needed and she handed me a pound of some Starbucks Komodo coffee and The Double Shotgun by Don Zutz. Said she saw it at a used book store and thought of me.

I know what I think of the coffee. Does anyone have any thoughts about the book. It's the "Revised and Expanded" 1985 edition

I think a lot of fans of American classic doubles are likely somewhat put off by the fact that Zutz didn't much care for those guns, other than the Model 21. But as far as gun writers go, Zutz walked the walk. He was a pretty fair shot at both targets and game--although another reason some may not care for him much is that he was not a dog guy. Did a lot of dogless bird hunting.

That being said, there was a stretch of time when, if you read anything about shotguns, especially doubles (pre-DGJ and the rest of the "niche" magazines), you were going to be reading Zutz or Brister. Or perhaps a young up and comer named McIntosh.

Thanks Larry. I've done more hunting without than with dogs so that won't bother me. I had heard of him but don't recall reading anything by him.

He tells it straight with no sugar coat. None of this "Second to none" and "One of the best" stuff in his books, kind of refreshing though.

I always liked him....the revised part is more or less just advertising for all the new/available crap for sale at the time...

I liked Zutz early on, but feel i have outgrown him in needing his opinion.

That said he was/is consistent and fairly common sensed

Back in the late 1970s or early 1980s when I hit the line where he stated the "Super-Fox was a mill run waterfowling piece" we were done!!

He seemed a good generalist which most of us are. His "Ducks Unlimited Guide to Shotgunning" in 2000 was a particularly good job with information most gunners would be looking for (except for dogs). He died in 1998. RIP.

Brister, Zutz, or McIntosh? You have to be kidding. Brister could take either one of those guys to detention hall. I would kill to have a compilation of Brister's newspaper columns.

HA! Zutz actually was a teacher. And a Wisconsin state championship skeet shooter. And, a nice guy, although I don't think he ever wore a smile in any of the pictures of himself in his books.
Zutz also liked Lefevers, in addition to model 21s. If Brister or McIntosh ever wrote anything about tightening patterns back when Don was still alive, I missed it, but Don told you exactly how to do just that. All the guys that insist on orginal bores and chokes would be likely be surprised at how he could manipulate his results with the different loads he concocted. He patterned everything, even the stuff he bought to use himself that was in the discount pile, after the season closed.
I remember seeing the guts of a Parker spread out on a table at a gunsmith's shop in Cambridge, MN one day, and asking, "Hey, is that a Parker?" The 'Smithy told me, "Yep, and it is full of soft, junk parts, not just one, but, a whole bunch of them".
He was wondering if it was worth it to try to replace them all, or harden them up and refit them. Zutz had warned us about that possibility about 15 years prior.
He didn't sugar coat anything. I liked his writing. He wasn't the kind of writer who would spend a decade telling guys they should buy a model 70, in .270, while he shot a 30-06. But, he did think highly of the Winchester model 21, a gun I can't really warm up to.
I miss Don. I only met him once, but, he was a hell of a guy.


Best,
Ted