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

Stan: Your last post about being a 'killer' shook me up a little bit. I used to be a killer too but now I hunt so much (I hunt quail, grouse and a few dove and ducks) that I just don't want to clean and eat all the game I could harvest. Also Quail, as you may know, are becoming more scarce every year. The Audubon society lists the bobwhite quail as the number one declining bird in America. This is a terrible problem. I strictly hunt quail in Texas now and we have been noticing a decline in population even there. I am very concerned that the decline of the bobwhite quail seen in the midwest and deep south is now heading west. As I have gotten older, I have developed great respect for this fine game bird and coupled with this respect I have chosen to let many, many birds I could harvest, just fly away. I think there is a lot more to hunting than just harvesting game. For example, I have several bird dogs that I get much pleasure from watching them do their work, seeking out objectives and hunting with their innate intelligence. I like to see young dogs 'come along'. I do love being in the great out of doors too and well, there is just alot more to it than me pulling the trigger on that shotgun. I hope this makes a little sense to you, but if not I would like to make a suggestion. If your only goal is to kill birds, then I would put the pretty doubles away and go to a Browning A-5 or a Model 12 Winchester, because these are bird killing machines!!!

Buzz,
Can you not understand that Stan likes his predator role, but he also takes that position responsibly? I certainly can. Just because you have "moved on" to a different position regarding taking gamebirds does not mean every one else should feel compelled to do so. Just because you see declines in bird populations where you hunt doesn't mean he does. Just because you have bird dogs that you enjoy more than the shooting doesn't mean he does or needs to.

The Bob White Quail has been in decline for 35 years over its original range, and Texas has such wild fluctuations based on rainfall alone that it's impossible to make any sense of where it's going.

Your suggestion for Stan to go to a magazine gun is pompous and arrogant. Why don't you go to a bow and arrow or spear?
JR

Sorry I shook you up, buzz. There are many others that feel the way I do, but do not say so for fear of being misinterpreted. I could understand your position on wild quail, except that I feel you are over estimating the importance you play, as a predator, in the overall quail population. When you accept the fact that 80+% of all quail and doves will die before next season anyway, killing a few quail out of the population doesn't have much of an impact.

I DO limit myself at times, according to my conscience, to less than a limit. Sometimes WAY less. I certainly do not even approach a limit of wild quail here in Georgia. I do however, hunt them even though there is only a fraction of the birds that were here in the '70s. Heck, I couldn't kill a limit of wild quail here if I hunted from daylight to dark. But, the same coveys that I take a few from each year on my land are there again the next year. The population here is very low, but it is stable, and may have even come back up a little.

buzz, if you couldn't see from what I said in my earlier post that there is more to it for me than just the killing, than I would make a suggestion to you, as well. Go back and try to read it without letting your emotions cloud the print. You don't spend the time scouting and watching birds feed after killing a limit that I do without having a profound respect for the quarry.

If you feel so strongly about this then maybe you should take it up with the game and fish departments, who set the limits.

SRH

You girls need to get over yourselves.

Sorry guys. I didn't intend for my comments to be so inflammatory. I was just trying to explain things from my point of view. Certainly, I did not intend for the mention of the A5 or Model 12 to be pompous or arrogant. I truly believe these are both excellent guns, and believe me, I know first hand they are both quail killing machines. When I was younger a buddy of mine and I , both using A5's killed 9 birds on a covey rise. It made me kind of sick at my stomach and the next year, that covey was no where to be found...this was in Kentucky. I truly believe we wiped out that covey. This is when I decided to go a double gun because there just aren't enough birds for that sort of wanton killing. So, you see, I was a killer too, not that I'm proud of that and I'm glad I changed my ways. Sorry if I ticked you guys off. I didn't mean to . Buzz

No problem here, buzz, there's enough room in this world for both of us.

I defend your right to have the opinions you do.

Kinda weird how we got here from extractors vs. ejectors, eh?

All my best, Stan

Interesting! Most prefer extractors, but most of us buy ejectors, maybe because the manufacturers think that their inclusion is a selling point.

I prefer extractors due to accumulated bad experiences with things auto. Which leads to extending the preference to mostly manual actions like hammer guns and my attempts to design a rational hammer design with coil springs and a minimum of parts. Someday I will get there.

BUT and this is important. The simplicity and manual nature should not be an excuse for lowering the quality of the double.

Ejectors are the little gun within the gun. Never let a good idea rest until it's taken over like weeds.

jack