doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Why do people 'butcher' barrels....?

Chuck, I grew up in a fishing village of subsistence hunting with poachers as mentors and every shot had to count. They were good shots and a rally started with letting the ducks land in the tollers and "wait until they bring their heads together" to sluice as many as we could.

Gunning from tubs in the open ocean for Christmas meat was really something, nothing to bring in 125 sea ducks at a time--- mostly whitewings and scoters. In the harbour shooting from blinds, if a bird was crippled with the first or last rally we shoved off the skiff to finish it, every bird was retrieved. No matter what.

I may err in retrospect, a frailty of old men I guess, but looking back nearly 70 years I realize that I haven't had the pleasure of knowing such a breed of sportsmen since, compared to the gang today of sky busters, no dogs for retrieval, damned steel, letting cripples get away. Sportsman, bah!

There was another thing about those I grew up with before I went off to the big city as a pimply-faced kid. They were safe to gun with, pinched together in a rock blind, in a tub on the heaving Atlantic, crawling behind, snaking through brush and grass to get a shot on an exposed point.

Now I spend the best part of the first hunt or two looking sideways at a new comer to the party with get-up right off Cabela's cover. Only rarely do they not scare the pants off me. My village cousin/poacher was acclaimed best shot on our Eastern Shore, his last 40 years as consummate sportsman; I delivered his eulogy.

I totally agree...jump shooting dove in the desert areas around Yuma has always been twice the fun of standing around pass shooting them. It's even more fun with a .410 or a 12g using those Aguilla 5/8 oz loads.

We do a bit of dove jump shooting from time to time, too. In picked over cotton fields. You can walk the middles, as quietly as possible, which is not very quiet because of the dead stalks rubbing your legs, and get good jump shooting sometimes. Doves here love cotton fields. Don't really know why. Used to be because of a weed that grew in them named wooly croton. Doves love croton seed, but there's hardly any of it now that roundup-ready cotton is widespread.

When you're not doing "A BIT" of jump shooting, just how do you hunt 'them' the rest of the time...?? ......

Main Entry: opin·ion
Pronunciation: \ə-ˈpin-yən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin opinion-, opinio, from opinari
Date: 14th century
1 a : a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter b : approval, esteem
2 a : belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge b : a generally held view
3 a : a formal expression of judgment or advice by an expert b : the formal expression (as by a judge, court, or referee) of the legal reasons and principles upon which a legal decision is based

Opinion: I think that barrels on old shotguns should be left alone.

Opinion?: I think that those who open the chokes on old shotguns are butchers.

To cite an expert: "The tighter the choke the lighter the bag".

As far as I am concerned -hunting doubles considered here- the more I hit the
more I enjoy. The rest...

JMTC

JC

We hunt them over fields where they are coming to feed, and to a
lesser degree, over small watering holes. Watering holes are only productive heah in Jawja if it is dry, which is fairly common in Oct. and Nov. In the early season we shoot over sunflower and corn fields, but during the last season, which just ended a week ago today, we shoot mostly peanut fields, sometimes grain sorghum. I should add, HARVESTED corn and peanut fields. Peanuts is a very high energy food for doves which they need much more during the colder late season.

All y best, Stan

I spend a lot of time scouting harvested fields for doves each year. I really enjoy scouting and trying to determine if enough birds are feeding in a particular field to warrant getting up a group of from 6 or 8 to 25 or 30 guns for a shoot. Part of the fun of scouting the fields is also determining what time of the day they are feeding. It changes greatly with the weather.

Although dove shooting in my part of the world is usually thought of as a very social affair I do a fair amount alone. I have used the Mojo rotating wing dove decoys since the first year they were introduced and have found in the ensuing seasons that one can have a fine old time all by one's self in a large peanut field by using the Mojo and a few stationary decoys. Also works good at a waterhole. Not uncommon for me to have a very good afternoon's shoot in a 90 acre field by sitting under a center pivot irrigation system and putting my decoys up on top of the pivot's main pipeline. Doves will fly into the field heading towards another part of the field and see the decoys and turn and fly straight to me.

I have farmed for my living for the last 39 years which gives me great opportunities to spot and scout birds. Doves are a great joy to me, and fast becoming so for my 8 yr. old grandson, Jackson.

Going back to the original question "Why do people butcher barrels". And diving into a contentious subject that will never (and probably shouldn't) have resolution. There are some modifications that the makers expected the buyer to make. Chokes and stock dimensions being the most common. As I understand the boring of barrels all are choked full during construction and then opened to desired constriction during the regulating process. If a choke wasn't specified American makers would ship the gun bored full and full, allowing the owner to have them adjusted, if desired. And, of course, a great number of the guns were never opened. Americans have an obcession with "bigger and better", such as, magnum, maximum, fast, and full. Not that any of these mean superior. Just the way we are.

So, I see nothing sancrosanct about the choking of a double. I may be 100 years late adjusting it but I'm only doing what the Parker Brothers or Dan Lefever expected me to do in the beginning.

Stock bending or lengthening or shortening fall into the same catagory--it was expected. The manufacturer could only offer what he considered to be standard unless otherwise specified. I'm perfectly comfortable with this as long as it is intended to be an improvement for the user.

Let's all try to remember most of these guns are tools intended to be used. That many have attained a ripe old age of over 100 should encourage us to be considerate of their historical value. But not to the point of relegating them to the back of the safe just to keep them "original".

Having said all this drivel I've gotta add what really ticks me off is destroying the historical patina of these old guns by making them look like new with the barrels and stocks refinished and the actions case colored. Now THAT is a sacrilege--in my opinion. See? Told you--we'll never settle this debate....

Interesting post, Joe. An angle I hadn't considered.

Brilliant thinking Joe, simply brilliant! That oughta make the originalists spew whatever they're drinking all over their keyboard!

And an angle that I ascribe to, my great friend.
Hope you are weathering well.

Best,
John