doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A Brace of Featherweight Prussian Daly/Lindners

I started out with a Browning A-5 and was about unbeatable with it at turkey shoots against some incredible AA shooters. I was especially good at back up shoots because I was such a quick shot. If I did miss my backup shooter had a normal shot because I was so quick. Next, I traded up to a Browning Broadway trap and could hardly hit squat with it becase I couldn't get down on the stock. I couldn't come close to hitting birds with it. I looked at a Browning classic straight grip 20 and it was even worse. I settled on a Browning 20 Superposed and used it for everything for 30 years. It fit. The 3" drop gun hated by some is no problem for me as I prefer 2 1/2" drop. 2" and it doesn't work as my facial bones get in the way. No one has mentioned yet those horrible 26" guns, instead giving the kudos to the 28-30" guns that "swing" so much better. My preference is for the 26". I am QUICK! I get on the bird QUICK and need less lead. I hit more birds because of just that. Light weight HELPS me be quicker.
Now that might not work for some folks. When I am 90 (God willin) it might not work for me. But it does now. I do not find it hard. I find it natural. I don't besmirch others for either their opinions or infirmatives. But those who are inexperienced should not listen to the opinions of others as it my be perfectly wrong for them as they experience life.

To me, a quick, lightweight gun is an absolute joy and the best gun I shoot. Let the others judge for themselves...and then be a bit more subdued about it. It will make you seen smarter (maybe more than you are).

As for wild engraving, I enjoy the art, but prefer fine scroll or conventional scenes more. The main problem with much of this (mainly Italian) art, is that many are by combined artists. Some do the scroll, some the background, and some the figures and the problem can be unbalanced art that LOOKS like it was pieced together.

As for photos: my old camera has given up the ghost as the battery died and is no longer available. My new camera is complex and came with no manual. They ask you to "download" the manual. I have dialup...SLOW dialup. I'll download it next week at work where I have high speed (civilized) internet.

I wasn't really trying to piss on anybody's purchase, and I'll more than likely be in the club with the "OOOOHS" and" AHHHS" when we finally get to see the guns. But, to avoid a whole lot of typing about what works best for us as individuals, I likely should have posted, "Tough FOR ME to shoot guns that light".
I was really just thinking out loud. Maybe I shouldn't have posted anything.
But, over the years, I have picked up guns at shows, shouldered them, thought that it would be the next, greatest thing in my arsenal, parted with hard earned and heavily taxed cash for them, and got them home, only to discover I couldn't hit that well with them. That experience is heavily weighted toward nice, light guns. Now, before someone implies I can't hit well with anything (somedays that notion is correct also, but, not everyday) I do have guns I can pick up and get into a groove with right away. A few, it is as if I have never put them down. As I've gone along as a shooter, something I've discovered is the constraints of a 40 hour week and a family tend to bring into sharp focus that I want to use the guns that I find it easier to get out there and connect on what I'm shooting at, right away.
I suspect all of us have had a similar experience on a gun purchase. Everybody I know, that shoots, has had that experience, and I doubt my small group of shooting friend is all that different from anybody elses. Of late, I gravitate toward the guns I shoot very well. The easy guns to shoot.
Not the ones that are hard to shoot. Not the ones I need to practice daily, weekly or whatever to stay sharp with. Although, I confess, I love to handle and look at those light guns. I just don't buy them, anymore. I have a 6 lb 12 that I have given up shooting clay games with, because I struggle with it, at that. But, I shoot OK with it on wild birds. I have a 4 3/4 lb 12 gauge folding shotgun that seems to have some of the ingredients to allow for use as a trap gun, 30" barrel with 49 points of choke, but, I don't shoot it very well at anything. I killed a hare with it, one time. He was sitting still.
I did just enough coaching on my local clubs fields to note that people who were new to clay sports got more success when you started them with a heavier gun. I didn't take notes, but, one of a pair of Remington 1100s, that were rental guns at the club, got the nod almost always, for a rookie who wanted to learn to shoot. By the way, our league was sponsored by the insurance company I worked at, and we had lots of women who showed up wanting to try the sport. I think a big, old, gas gun is a great place for someone new to shooting to start.
That's it. Jay, a guy I refer to as "Chas" in honor of the memory of a great dog, got the gist of what I was running with. The pictures of my wife, a lady far above what I suppose I deserve in this life, were just having some fun and needling Pete when he implied I might not like "girls".
His word, by the way. I really meant no disrespect to the other gender.

I want to see the pictures too, Pete. Of the guns, anyway. And, I hope you shoot them as well as anything you have ever shot.

Best,
Ted

Mike,
I was thinking about your post and the 1963 Corvette, a car I'd never own (we can talk about it someday) and I think if Larry and I were looking at one, the correct statement would be "Too bad it has a POWER-GLIDE instead of a four speed".
1963 Corvettes could be had with a 'glide, not a paddleshifted 8 speed, and a 'glide has more in common with 3" of drop on a gunstock, for me, anyway.
Nobody builds cars with 'glides anymore, and nobody builds guns with 3" of drop, either.
Yes I've tried guns with 3" of drop. Yes, I've tried PowerGlides, too. You can have mine, in both instances.
Better?

Best,
Ted

Hi Ted:

My point being that in 1963 Chevrolet did not make Corvettes with an eight speed auto transmission shifted by a paddle on the steering wheel. And you might say "Tough to drive Corvettes that come with a clutch and manual transmission..." But the 1963 split window Corvette Coupe with a 4 speed manual transmission is a classic none the less. And, if you can work a clutch and a manual transmission, fun to drive. If you don't know how to drive a sports car with clutch and manual transmission you can practice until you do. And then you can drive a 1963 Corvette with manual transmission well. If you already knew how to drive well.

But, until you learn to drive a manual transmission, I think you should not make a blanket statement that it is "tough to drive classic Corvettes that come with a clutch..."

Mike,
WIth enough practice, do you think you could shoot eightbores crossover gun well? Would you put 5-10,000 rounds through it, to find out? Do you think you could ever hit 25 straight with it?

Think it might be tougher than a gun with 3" of drop?

The car with the manual transmission is tougher to drive. Tough ain't impossible, however. Some folks prefer the manual, too.
But, not everyone is Ronnie Sox, either.

I think my gun range is open today. I have 4 hours until dinner. See you, later.

Best,
Ted

Well, a crossover is not a classic gun. It is somewhat akin to those cars equipped for paraplegics, where all the driving is done with the hands. I have owned several sports cars, all with manual transmission. I had to learn how to operate a manual transmission though. I have never longed for a car because that is equipped for a paraplegic. Have drooled over many classic Corvettes and Mustangs, even owned a few of them, again with manual transmissions.

But many, many, classic cars come with a manual transmission. And, as in my example, if you have not learned to drive a manual transmission I don't think you ought to make a blanket statement like "Tough to drive classic Corvettes that come in with a clutch..."

Want to drive a classic muscle car? Learn to operate a manual transmission.

Want to shoot a classic bird gun? Take one out and practice with it until you can shoot it well.

I wish you good shooting this afternoon. May you break them all. I am going to my in-laws for Easter Dinner.



Best,

Mike

Fortune often finds me hunting with Mike and I must reluctantly attest to his prowess with lighter guns, especially his little 28 gauge Parker on a 00 frame. I'm secretly envious of an ability I'm unable to share with him. Oh, I've got a couple of great little sub six pounders that just scream "quail!" Sometimes I fall under their seductive call and with great trepidation take one for an outing. Under the morning sky the little gun feels good and I know I look good carrying it and all is well in the world.....until the covey explodes underneath my feet. This was the moment I secretely feared since my last sip of cold coffee. The little gun seems to weave and wobble in every direction possible, except where I so desperately want it to. Mike always has kind words to curry my shaken pride, while he quietly tells his dogs "no bird". On the next rise his little 28 surely accounts for a clean double while I just stand there and weakly mumble something resembling a compliment. At lunchtime I'll slip to the back of the car and magically transform my little gun into a real bird shooting machine--likely a 6 1/2 pound or better 12 bore. And the rest of the day (aw, life is sweet) I hear the delicious words, "dead bird" again and again. "Mike, did you get one? Oh, I'm sorry but I did have the easier shot......lets go find another covey."

Ronnie Sox, now there's a blast from the 1963 past. No sissy split window coupes for him.

Any pics of the Linders that started this topic? I would enjoy seeing them...

Joe,
Soooo, two questions, if I may? Do you find lighter guns "Tougher" or "Impossible" to shoot well?

And, is that picture in the beautiful canyon you posted showing you, some other guy, or, your girl?

Eightbore, nobody handled a 4 speed like Ronnie.

Mike,
You will no doubt be pleased to hear that as I was heading up the stairs with a couple gun cases, my wife asked for a "little help" with a curtain rod in the kitchen, which, lead to a 2 1/2 hour list of honey-dos, and me heading back downstairs to put the cases away and clean up in time for Easter dinner at my Mom's.

I was hoping to spend time patterning today, and would have stuffed a few in a little 28 gauge Darne with MOD and FULL chokes, to see what I could see, and some more time with the Spanish boxlock 12 that seems to be a much more reliable killer of stuff for me.

But, it was not to be. Hope you had a splendid Easter.

Best,
Ted