Ted:
When I was getting into more-serious shotgunning (back in my late 30s), I was measured at a high-end gunshop in East Central Pennsylvania (their name escapes me at the moment, but they owned the Thomas Bland name then) by an American fellow that seemed to know what he was doing. He came up with that 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 number. I then watched an Englishman (Chris Batha) measure a friend of mine here in Colorado a few years later and he essentially performed the same functions, so I figured that those numbers should be pretty good. Both folks used English try-guns (the one I used had a very-heavy trigger!). Come forward about 30-years and I'm guessing that both of those "fitters" had it about right, but I'm guessing they both subscribed to the same school of thought, which is English and then based on driven game. I suspect that walk-up hunting provides a very different set of challenges, and with that in mind, different dimensions might be considered. It sounds from what I'm reading here that more drop is OK until you get to about 3 1/2 inches at the heel? Cast and pitch are a whole different can of worms.
Edit: I was fitted at Woodcock Hill (had to look that one up).
Last edited by Lloyd3; 03/31/23 11:37 AM.
