doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Game guns and target guns

I went skeet shooting yesterday using a circa 1953 M12 in 20. Great fun if not exactly great results. We then shot some trap and for this I broke out my 10 lb SKB lefty target gun. Still fun but...very different, including results. Comparatively easy after the skeet session and for several reasons. The later M12 actually fits me fairly well, but even with a 28-inch tube, it was hard to swing through and steady for me at times. Now...I was having way-too much fun shucking it (it's been too-long!) which is a distraction, and the winds were fierce which made the high-tower birds really dance. Even my shooting partner was grumbling about it (& he's a past State Champion). But the abjectly striking difference for me was how well/over under target guns work on clay targets....they simply work better in that set of circumstances. A game gun, which in my estimation the sun rises and sets upon, seems so out- of-place on a clays course. It's too-light, it's too-short, it obscures the targets, it isn't choked right....it's simply not at home there. This is a huge reversal for me in so-many ways and one I would have never seen coming if I hadn't started shooting more clay targets and then with the appropriate type of gun. Am I alone here or am I the only thick-headed, slow-learner on this forum?

If you shoot skeet like you would for game, ie low gun, etc., a game gun is where it’s at, in my opinion. After all, it’s a game designed to imitate various types of flushes. I don’t shoot for scores when it comes to skeet or sporting clays, I shoot exclusively to keep my reflexes sharp for the bird season. I can consistently shoot in the 20’s, and I rarely run a straight. I could care less about running straights. When it happens, that’s great, when it doesn’t (which is a lot), oh well, life goes on.
When I shoot my weekly 2 rounds I usually bring 2 guns, usually different gauges, maybe even entirely different action (ou’s, sxs, pumps, autos), it doesn’t matter what I shoot, I’m pretty consistent when it comes to breaking clays, some days are better than others. I don’t think about it too much.
I’ve shot in the 90’s a couple of times on sporting clays courses using a 6.5 pound English game gun. It felt right at home, even if it’s never, ever shot a “springing teal” in the field.


Trap….well, I don’t even bother. I’d rather put tabasco in my eyes than shoot that boring ass game.

The opposite may be just as true. An appropriately game configured over/under will hold advantages in all areas except if use of a third shell is offered?

I like shooting all clay disciplines, but, if I want to be humbled, shooting the duck tower at Metro will do it. I’m just trying to find my groove, and I try to shoot a round of skeet and a round of trap on the same trip, just to mix it up a bit. I change choke tubes, but use the same 20 gauge gas gun for both. It is a process, at this point, trying to get comfortable with my hands doing different things.

I seemed to notice I always shot way better on real birds than I ever did on clay birds, no matter what gun I was using, before the eye injury. I don’t have an explanation, it just was the case.

Best,
Ted

Just like you are unlikely to be successful, bringing just a knife to a gunfire, I learned that taking a hunting rifle to a rifle match is not a recipe for success in serious matches. I suspect the same is true of shotgunning, but I've never shot a target shotgun. The again, I'm not very serious about shooting clay pigeons, as much as I like to do it on a weekly basis.

AND there are morning guns and afternoon guns !!
After a long morning hunt, heavy lunch and brief nap,
I gravitate to a very light gun for the afternoon

My wife claims that I have Sunday guns, and Tuesday guns, and guns for the third Saturday of the month, and well, a gun for every type of bird and every type of occasion.

I would like to think so, but not yet. I'm still just one short

Game guns are much different that modern clay guns. One weighs seven pounds and the latter near ten pounds. IF you are looking for a double gun more suited for clay targets wild fowl guns which come in near eight pounds are more the ticket. Slightly barrel heavy and tightly choked they have a more modern feel to them. If your pocket book is deeper you can find the same gun which much better fit, finish and wood which we call pigeon guns. Same function but finished nicer and the market for them was well off shooters looking for a gun to kill live birds with and do so while wagering sums which would massive today. Nothing like a 250,000 pounds bet on a live bird shot.

Do you shoot Handicap competition with options? Have you ever plunked down $75 on 100 targets with 300 other shooters...and WON?
Handicap trap is far more demanding for gun control and mind focus.
Trapshooting is way more involved than old men on Wednesday afternoons making empty hulls at 16 yard targets!

I found out the same thing you did, about 15 years ago. I have always loved S X Ss, having learned to wingshoot with one as a kid. But, I was given a 1100 on my 16th birthday, and literally shot it to pieces, twice. I began gravitating back to S X Ss in a more serious way, and eventually bought a AH Fox A grade with 32" barrels. The barrels had been opened to .020" and .020". Restocked with a straight grip and long LOP (to suit me), and a BT forend ........ I reasoned I could be competitive on the NSCA tournament circuit, in my class, being the only one shooting a S X S. I shot the GA State Championship that year, in A Class I believe, with it. That was my one and only attempt at competing against the O/Us and the SAs with a S X S. One hundred targets with it convinced me it was not competitive, and that I wouldn't live long enough to make it so, regardless how badly I wanted to. Oh, I still enjoy shooting the S X S events at big shoots, and often do well. But, out of dozens of long barreled S X S guns I own and hunt with I shoot none of them anywhere near as well as my Perazzi MX 8, or even my Super X2, at sporting clays.

On a side note, I disagree with any notion that serious clay target shooters can't be ahead of the curve in the wing shooting field. Show me a man who is successful in FITASC and I'll wager my hard earned $$$$ on him on the dove field or in the duck swamp as well. Not having shot enough skeet or trap in my life to get serious about either, I can't say that about it. Low gun skeet ......... maybe. But remember, the max distance a skeet target is broken is 21 yards. That doesn't prepare you for wild birds at 30-45 yards. Sporting and FITASC will. FITASC requires a low gun when the bird is called for, and without a very good, consistent mount one is not going to be successful at it, or in the field on real birds.

Being a good clay target shooter and being a good field wing shot are not mutually exclusive. You just need the right equipment to do either. Earnhardt couldn't have ever been successful driving a showroom stock Buick.

Keep the vintage S X S guns doing what they are best at, killing wild birds and competing against each other.