doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Question for you Anglopholes

Browning's new (and I can hardly stand to even type it) 'A5', is made in Viana Portugal, as American Rifleman reported in 2012.

Browning's website says as much, without actually stating it.

They also now use the once derogatory term 'humpback' as a sales feature. I've never understood that... show me a 'hump'.

A Browning with a Sjogren inertia action. Sheesh.

The barrel doesn't move? No glory? Nothing is reaffirmed? Too bad I lived to see it.

JM, I am taking you to task, not because you don't like Japanese companies but because you used that lame and inaccurate excuse....Americans won't buy Japanese products because of Pearl Harbour and WWII.

Don't pick on him too much, I think he also gets to vote.

All this talk about ways to get the public to move toward S x Ss by having top shooters start using them, or having some TV personalities shoot them, is ignoring the obvious. Top clays shooters will never abandon the O/U for the S x S because ......... their scores will go down. It's a fact. You can deny it all you want, but if you abandon emotion and sentimentality, the O/U wins on points.

I've been a competitive sporting clays shooter for so many years I am beginning to have a problem remembering when I started. I grew up shooting a S x S, so there's no shortage of sentimental attachment to them, for me. I hunt with them most of the time, and shoot them well enough at game that I don't need to switch to something a hair better. I love competing against other S x Ss with mine, and do so in S x S events. I have several that are suited to the sporting game, probably the best suited is the 30" BSS. But, I cannot shoot as high a score with it as I can my MX8 Perazzi. I tried, Lord knows I did. I wanted to be the man who took a S x S and beat the rest with their O/U guns. But I can't, and most others can't, either.

Get out of denial and admit what the rest of the world knows. The O/U is the king of the sporting, and most of the other, clays games. Because it works better for them. It is much easier to shoot in the 90s on a tough sporting course with a good O/U than it is with a good S x S. I know what many will holler ....... "Well, that's just because nobody builds a specialty S x S for sporting clays." Hogwash, anybody can put one together that wants to badly enough, and there are some out there that are already pretty specialized for target work. If you had rather shoot a good round of clays with a S x S than shoot a great score with an O/U I've got no beef with you. My hat's off to you actually. But don't try to pee on my leg and tell me it's raining, that a S x S can go head to head with an O/U and come out on top. It may once in a blue moon, but the odds are stacked against it.

The handwriting's on the wall ...... read it and weep. Beretta and the rest of the brilliant Italian makers read it, and acted on it. And ...... they're doing quite well and positioned for the future. My hat's off to them.

Just because you'd rather live in the past does not make it good business.

SRH

Brister told a story in his 'Art and Science' book about the 'Quail Championships'.

Turns out most of the gentleman hunters who previously wouldn't be seen without a small bore double showed up, when the money was at stake, with 12 gauge Remington 1100 skeet guns.

Shotgunjones,

It echoes my experience. All except one of my friends and acquaintances who own "best" guns hunt with Italian autos.

And guys who shoot Darnes hunt with Mossburgs....

Don't ever hold one in your hands...

I guess we could compare OU vs sxs to aluminum vs wooden bats. Aluminum has a bunch of advantages . . . but they still use wood in MLB. I expect part tradition, and part the fact that the top pros are willing to challenge themselves with an "inferior" piece of equipment.

There are relatively few "full race" sxs target guns out there. Too many shooters these days have never used them, so they're going to stick with OU's. In the same way, a lot of OU's now being used in driven shooting in the UK. Mainly because that's what those shooters learned on. And even the really good sxs shooters will advise that if you're after the really high birds, you're better off with an OU. Yet they continue to shoot sxs. Maybe because the challenge is more important to them than the score.

The shooting games all started as off season practice for hunting. Especially true of skeet (invented by grouse hunters) and sporting clays (originally called hunters' clays in this country). The focus then shifts to score. Let's see . . . let's allow skeet shooters to mount the gun before calling for the bird. And no variable delay. Voila . . . lots more 100 straights. But since you don't premount when you walk in on a point, and you never know exactly when the bird is going to flush, it's no longer as valuable as practice for bird hunting as were the original rules.

No reason one can't get very nice target type SxS......

SxS competition type shotgun....

Looks very impressive.
The only place I seen pics of one in USA was at Fieldsport LTD site.