doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Godwit gun

Well it is time for the next installment.

I hauled a target frame out back and cleared the timber of trespassers (mushroom season is hell for trespassing).

At 20 yds, I found that the Short SKB shoots the improved barrel to very nicely to center. The Modified barrel is slightly high and very slightly left.

The Long SKB shoots the Modified to center, and the Full barrel is slightly low and right.

All of this was very disappointing, as I anticipated great differences between each gun. Nothing that would explain my poor shooting however.

I hate to think that is just the orange bead that has me shoot it so much better. But all my other guns have silver beads on them, like the short SKB yet I shoot all of them just fine.

Unfortunately, the barrels will not swap between the two guns. They are close, but they won't go, so I can't see how each shoots on the other's action. Not sure what that would prove anyway. However, as best as I can line them up side by side, I see no major differences in stock drop or anything else.

Larry, I thought that all the short SKBs had silver beads on them. I was sure of it. Do you know how these things are attached? If I can swap them, it would be interesting to see how they both do on the other gun.

Brent

hmmm, I see all the SKBs on Gunbroker have the orange bead.

Brent,
Over the years(too many of them 😀) I have come to the realization that I do not shoot short barrels doubles to my satisfaction. I have had a number of 25" Ithaca/SKB's, V. Bernardelli's, and various Spanish guns. Even a 24" Parker. Barrel regulation on all of those guns was fine and stock dimensions were close enough. Only problem was not enough birds fell down. A few years ago I faced reality, I do not shoot short barreled guns well and sold all of them.
My current favorite upland guns both have 29" barrels. Very satisfied with my shooting.

I have been working at a private club for the last 15 years. When I set sporting clays shooters up with loaner guns I never give them a gun shorter than 28". If they can handle the weight I'll set them up with a 30".
IMHO short barrels don't work well for most folks.

Dennis

Brent, the RayBar was an Ithaca "thing". You've doubtless seen SKB sxs, made after Ithaca stopped importing them, that have the standard front bead sight.

DLA, back when I first started shooting skeet (early 70's), the vast majority of skeet shooters shot guns with 26" barrels. Seemed to work well enough for them. The difference, I think, is that those guns were not both short and light, which is the case with the Ithaca SKB Model 100 in 20ga, and with most short-barreled sxs. Skeet guns may have been short-barreled and choked for close shots, but they weren't made for grouse and woodcock hunters. Too heavy to tote through the brush.

That being said, Mr. Churchill seems to have done fairly well convincing British shooters that a 25" barreled 12ga can work out quite well on driven birds--which is a game where swing is important, as it is at skeet. His guns were lighter than skeet guns, but heavier than the smallbore shorties--which don't work so well when you get a lot of crossing shots or other opportunities where swing is a big factor.

When I'm hunting grouse and woodcock, I carry a 5 1/2# Parker Reproduction 28ga. I don't own any guns that weigh much over 7 pounds. But I'll shoot consistently better at skeet with a 30" British 12ga that weighs 6 1/2#. Not a typical target gun for sure. Nor, on the other hand, is it the gun I want to carry when I'm wandering through the woods and doing a lot of one-handed carrying. But then swing isn't as big a factor shooting grouse and woodcock as it is at skeet or sporting clays. And weight is a much bigger factor than it is when one is shooting targets.

Larry,
I agree that weight is a major factor on short barreled guns. Short and light SxS's is what the manufacturers and outdoor press told us we needed in the early 70's and we bought into that. All of my field guns had "fashionable" 26 inch barrels. I can remember passing on a Parker CHE because the barrels were too long. One of my larger gun buying mistakes. And don't forget that era's white line spacers.

Regarding Mr. Churchill and his XXV's. Perhaps the design was a solution to a problem that didn't exist. Mr. Churchill wanted to sell guns and had great marketing skills and shooting ability. I believe that those points were responsible for the XXV's success.
I can't remember seeing a single XXV on a driven shoot. Today barrels are likely to be over 30" and probably an O/U.

Dennis

Brent,

The Raybar sight screws out and will very likely scratch the top of your rib.

I did some looking around last night and discovered that they do unscrew. I'll give it a try later this week.

I am not convinced that I shoot it so poorly because it is short and light. I have missed too many straight away pheasants and quail with it. However, I cannot provide a better explanation at this point. So, operator error seems to be the only viable explanation, regardless of how I feel about my shooting abilities.

I'll shoot it some more and see what happens. I'll try swapping beads between the two guns too and see how that changes things.

It has been an interesting comparison to play with so far.
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Brent, hang the guns from a string with a loop to check the balance point. The longer gun may be enough weight forward to help achieve a better follow through. Let me know if you are going to part company with the short one. Mark Robson PS glad your face healed up for your incident.

Dennis, an XXV would certainly be out of place on a "high bird" shoot. But then from what I've read (having shot only "normal" driven birds for the most part), ANY sxs is regarded as a less efficient tool when one is after the very high ones.

I agree that Churchill was looking for something different, and seems to have found it. Those guns, I think, were popular enough "in the day" to show that it wasn't all hype. But fads come and go. For a pretty long time, a game gun with 30" barrels was a pretty tough sell. Now, with longer barrels being the current style, they're more sought-after.