doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Your favourite working gun.

For 20+ years mine's been this customized 16 ga. M-21. Ray Cover's recent engraving work just adds to the fun.

Jay

My Sterlingworth 16ga ejector, 28" barrels, double triggers, 6-1/2 lbs. It was born in Utica New York which doesn't bother me one bit.

I was a young lad of 15 when I saw my first double in a Macleods Hardware store. I just had to have it and traded my Win 1200 for a Savage 311. I used that gun till I was 45 and in a hurry someone passed me two 3" steel shells. Bulged both barrels and so it sits in my gun safe. Now its a toss up between a Sauer Royal and a J P Claybrough for upland and a Browning Citori Lightning with 26" barrels for waterfowl.

Rather in opposition to what is shown here, I try to use most of my guns, there are no favourites, though some go more times to the field than others:

After rabbits, 16Ga BLE Ugartechea 30.
After dove, 12Ga AYA SLE Mod.51, 16Ga. Win21, 20Ga. Sarasqueta SLE 7E
After quail & perdiz, 16 Ga BLE Winkler, 12Ga. IDEAL 375 Prestige.
After pheasant, 12 Ga AYA SLE Mod.51.
Pigeon Ring, 12Ga Parker VHE.

Regards,

EJSXS

P.S., still there are some unnamed closet queens in the list.

For bird hunting (huns, pheasant, sharptail) in Montana - Parker VH 12 with 30" barrels and sling - weighs eight pounds. I also use it for NSTRA field trials.

For bobwhites in Texas - Today it is a little Fox A grade 16 that weighs 5-3/4 pounds. A couple of weeks ago it was a Parker VH 16 with almost identical dimensions.

Now ask me again in year and it will probably be different.

I am somewhat surprised no one mentions the Remington doubles. I currently have 3 but have not used anyone enough to call it my go to gun.

My favorite is one of my first acquisitions once I got the double gun bug. It's a Utica Fox Sterlingworth 16 gauge with 28" barrels. All the finishes are beat, there are a few chips in the stock but mechanically it's sound and it just feels like it should be taken afield and shot. It just works.

I favorite gun is an Ithaca Classic Doubles 4-E 20 gauge. It has two sets of barrels: (1) 26" bbls, IC/Mod, (2) 30" bbls with Briley choke tubes.
The gun was an "off the rack" model purchased at the 2002 Vintage Cup. I shot it so well that I had ICD make a second set of 30" bbls. and requested that they be choke tubed. The FE's are interchangeable to fit both sets.
It's been everywhere in all kinds of terrain and weather and can handle any upland situation.

I really don't have a single "go to gun." I try to use most all my shotguns on a yearly basis.

I do have some favorites though, that I use for the various upland birds I hunt.

A 20 ga Fox Sterlingworth for doves. An N. Guyot 16 ga for early season pheasants, chukar, huns and forest grouse. An SKB 280 E 12 Ga for late season pheasants and prairie grouse. A German Guild 16 ga for forest grouse and dare I say, a Rem model 11 and 11-48, both 16's; the 11-48 a 28" mod barrel and the mod 11 with 30" full barrel, for most of the above birds mentioned.

While I make an effort to "rotate my stock", in recent years, I keep going back to this one. An Ithaca NID ejector .410 with 28" bbls, choked Mod/Cyl



Although in recent months, this Parker Repro with CSM .410 barrels is getting the nod most of the time.