Ted, go to Cabela's and check out their Dickinson offerings. I didn't run through the entire list, but of the first ten:
1. All were smallbores. Not a 12ga among them
2. All had DT.
3. 7 had 28" barrels; the other 3, 30".
If the hot ticket item were a sxs with single trigger and 26" barrel, seems to me Cabela's would recognize that and would have ordered them that way--or at least SOME that way. Not like the Turks can't make short barrels and ST's.
We ARE the average side by side owners. This is where they come for advice and information. OU . . . although we discuss them on occasion, that's an entirely different market. Side by side folks are far more about classic design, but also show interest in "oddities" like the 16ga (not to mention guns with weird sliding breeches!) Where I do most of my skeet shooting, it's not all that unusual to field a squad with everyone shooting a sxs. And if they're not shooting a sxs, they have one (or more) at home that they didn't happen to bring.
Same situation when I lived in Wisconsin and shot at the Wausau club. Plenty of sxs in evidence, and not unusual to have an entire squad shooting sxs. In fact, the club even hosts a small sxs shoot. Of course they also host one leg of the Wisconsin Ironman--250 or so sporting clays shooters--and you'll hardly see a sxs at that event. Different groups with different interests.
Hunting with sxs . . . The Loyal Order of Dedicated Grouse Hunters (LODGH) requests annual reports from members. Birds moved, shots taken, birds killed, days and hours hunted. Also the make, type, gauge, and choke of guns. Around 300 reports/year turned in. What you'll find is that--compared to the gun Joe Average takes afield--sxs are significantly over-represented. As are the 16 and the 28ga. 12's, autos and especially pumps are way under-represented. That's pretty much where we fit.
The source of many of our sxs may be changing, Ted. But the trend is not. Gone are the days when Ithaca or Browning would import and sell thousands of sxs--all with ST, and many with 26" barrels. And all in either 12 or 20ga. Way more smallbores these days. Much higher % of DT's. And even new 16's--which neither Ithaca nor Browning nor Winchester brought in (except a few Parker Reproductions). We're a "back to basics/back to classics" bunch . . . although it does seem choke tubes in sxs are gaining in popularity.
