doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ideal Minimum Battery of Guns

Someone on this remarkable board (I think it may have been Rocketman, aka Don Amos) said that all of us double gun enthusiasts fall somewhere on the continum of shooters, shooting collectors and straight collectors. I find myself in the middle.

I buy because it is is clever, pretty or interesting but only keep it if I find that I can shoot it reasonably well. I have found a good local stock man so I am not afraid to have most anything bent to my dimensions.

So I find my collection to be somewhat like a bag of golf clubs. There are at least a dozen different wing shooting and target pursuits and I have enjoyed filling each of those niches with a SxS that best lends itself to each venue. A great trap gun, a doubles trap gun, a perfect wild quail gun, a true waterfowler and a number of guns that can cover a number functions, modern and antique versions. You get the picture.... I can almost always find a good excuse to buy another pretty SxS!

All that said, I Iike old colonel's question, if one had to clean out the safe(s), what would be the last to go? Choosing function over beauty, the antiques would head to Julia's. Assuming that I am still healthy and able to chase feathers, 3 guns would stay: a 28 bore AYA #2 with 29" barrels for quail and dove, a self opening AYA Model 53 16 bore with 28" barrels for wild quail, pheasant and western prairie birds, and a 12 bore Betts Birmy BLNE waterfowler proofed at 1.5 oz with 3" chambers and 30" barrels weighing just under 8 lbs. These three also cover the target games well and none weigh less than 6lbs.

Thanks old colonel for posing a question that made me take stock in my hobby!

Well said, perhaps like a Steinway or Bosendorffer Grand- timeless- and you can play it too!!

That reminds me of an old joke - the one about American millionaire and a British lord shooting together, the American with an Auto 5 and the Brit with a Holland&Holland. The American kept admiring the Brit's gun until he finally asked how much it cost and the lord answered.
- What's the point in owning such gun? - exclaimed the American - I can buy a thousand of shotguns like mine with this money!
- True - agreed the lord - but what would be the point of buyin a thousand guns. You couldn't shoot them all at the same time, could you?

I remember reading a sci-fi novel, forgot which and by whom, but there was a very smart bit in it about the existence. In terms of existence, a hero said, only three numbers make sense: 0, 1 and infinity. That is, something can not exist at all. Or there can be only one such object (a planet with sapient life, in that instance). But if there can be two of something, there can theoretically be an infinite number of this. I think that applies to gun collecting. The minimum useful number of shotguns is 1. As many said before, a 7 pound 12 gauge will do it all. Once you need more than one, you need an infinity.

The answer to the OP's question (as has been pointed out) is ONE!

But I doubt that anyone posting on this board meets that standard.

I believe twas me that said one....hard to get less minimal than one..unless zero counts,lol.
But I have a couple more than one.
If I had money, I'd go mental.
Franc

One, and it's manageable with a little more time on the range. Practise. I'm winnowing now and know if I'm bloody-minded and practise my 20-gauge, three-inch SKB Model 500 IC/M will do it all, grouse to geese.

Yes the answer to the convoluted question of the OP is 1! The fun of the answer then becomes which one in your collection is number 1?

In my collection it would be either a Clabrough sidelock because as well as damascus barrels and nicely engraved I shoot it very well or my MacNaughton which I don't shoot so well yet, but I am working on it.

The last gun to go for me would be the 870 Wingmaster Magnum. Not the prettiest, but the most reliable and the most flexible. CA has completely banned lead ammo for hunting, starting July 2019, so my one gun would have to handle steel and anything else I might feed it.

Ideal minimum battery? Three eights, four tens, five twelves, six twenties, seven twenty eights. However, I doubt that I could be happy with only eight fourtens. Of course, that only includes hunting guns. Maybe three or four pigeon guns and a couple of tubed skeet guns, and three or four single trap guns. I have not been counting, but that seems like a reasonable minimum battery.