doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Preference: Extractors or Ejectors?

The idea that ejectors causes you to have to pickup empties off the ground is rediculous as is the notion that ejectors don't aid the speed of reloading. For me, with .410s, I often have to remove each shell individually from the chamber with extractors. Ejectors get them out of the chamber and into your hand quickly.

When hunting behind pointing dogs I prefer extractor guns. My landlord wants me to pick up the empties and I pick them up wherever I hunt - except Argentina.

I prefer the Parkers I collect to be extractor guns as the Parker ejectors are problematic. If the ejectors do go out on a Parker it can still be used as an extractor gun however.

For clays I prefer an extractor gun as I reload and I frequently fumble the catch out of an ejector gun.

For shooting the 15 dove USA bag limit I prefer an extractor gun, catchabiltiy and reliability.

I was fortunate enough to go to Argentina a couple of times for dove. Definitely prefer ejectors for that. Took a nice Parker 16 with 32" barrels. The right ejector went out on me.

In general I prefer the guns I collect to have extractors. When I buy them the purchase price reflects the extractor configuration. Ejectors add very little to my enjoyment of a collector gun and have a high risk of being a problem with the expensive trips to out of state gunsmiths.

I do own many old doubles with ejectors.

Best,

Mike

Put me in the extractor crowd.

I have no problem catching the empties from any o/u. Due to the heavy cocking action on opening and perhaps lack of barrel wgt. leverage of an AYA #1, I never have a palm available to catch the hulls from that one as at time of opening my right hand is still around the grip. I disabled the Southgate mech. with a setscrew a la G. T. Garwood.

jack

I much prefer ejectors and don't own any doubles without them. How people can say and believe that the empties are hard to catch is beyond me. How can this (apparently) be so difficult?? And I never leave empties in the field.

The "market" prefers ejectors, as values are universally higher. Personally, I prefer extractors on older guns where parts are hard to find, as I do no volume shooting where ejectors might be an advantage. I take newer guns as they come, usually with the "poppers".

Here's a twist on the theme: since you have to look at the breech area twice with an extractor, (once to remove fired empties and once to load the chambers) you're twice as likely to remember to perform the ancient (and prudent!) ritual of looking through the bores.

Ever notice how O/U shooters never look through the bores?

Hey guys. I'm going to be a snob and mention self openers cuz nobody else has. Frankly I don't really care if the gun has extractor or ejectors because I just don't care about killing every bird that gets up in front of me anymore. But I do like to bird hunt and I hunt a lot! I can't tell you how many times birds go out, I shoot two shells and then I'm standing there with a dead gun and then the stragglers start getting up....and I mean easy shots. In this situation and if I was a killer then a self opener with ejectors would just be the ticket. But if I was a real killer and I know it's forbidden to talk like this on this forum, I would leave the pretty doubles at home and get out the Browning 20 ga Humpback and just go to work!! Buzz

Well, I'm AM a killer. Up to the limit. And there is no "high ground" to not wanting to take a limit, IMO. I delight in all my time afield, but it's a little different for me, I guess. I'm a farmer by trade and by choice, and spend every day afield, so when I go out with a gun and dog I go to kill birds. Not to pretend to enjoy being skunked and say, "Yes, but, it sure was a lovely afternoon to be out".

I want to take a limit of doves or ducks every trip. Of course I don't, but not because I didn't do everything ethically possible to do so. I can't quite understand the reasoning some espouse. I go to the bird field with a gun which I have chosen to shoot as well as I possibly can. I choose the very best loads to kill the game I'm after cleanly and lethally. I study my quarry in order to most effectively encounter it. I use calling, in the case of ducks and some other birds, to get as many to come to me as I can. In short I have done everything in my power to place myself in a position to get as many good shots as possible. And then, I'm supposed to feel bad because I use an ejector double which allows me to reload quicker? I don't get it.

Here's how it works for me. I kill and retrieve 15 doves as quickly as possible. I then sit back on my stool, light a good cigar, and the balance of the afternoon enjoy the show of everyone else's shooting. I can't tell of the hours I have spent just quietly sitting and watching the birds AFTER my bag has been filled, and the birds have been iced down. I get great delight out of just watching ducks or doves fly in and feed, and spend many hours each winter scouting and just watching them. But, when I take that gun to the field it is not to feel the comforting weight of it across my arm. It is to bring a limit of birds home to the table.

To each his own. Ejectors is my own.

SRH

Even with ejectors I look in my barrels but I also stick my nose in the chambers and inhale. I love the smell of burnt gunpowder. I really don't care if there are traces of lead in the smoke either. After 34 years of farming I'm so full of toxic chemicals that I probably glow in the dark anyway.