doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Special use guns...

Somewhere in your accumulation phase, you cross from general purpose ordinance to specific-use stuff. Realistically, you can probably use one gun to nearly do it all but...where would the fun be in that? If you're interested in or motivated by art and history then by all means shoot something that scratches that itch. If youre more focused on targets then knock yourself out and get the specific "target" gun that suits your needs, and if upland is one of the Gods you worship well then....you'll probably have to consider a 2-inch gun eventually, right?

Working at MW Reynolds over the years exposed me to a number of these guns and I coveted almost every one I handled, imagining using it on the grouse trails that I walked as a boy and that I continue to walk every Fall. With the prices of most all double guns slowly coming down these days I was finally able to "justify" (for lack of a better word) picking one up.

Better late than never, eh?

Am I going to be impressed or ultmately disappointed? I had clients that absolutely loved them (even using them on pheasants) but I also had folks that couldn't wait to move them on. Ammo has always been the challenge and it continues to be unless you reload (which I can). Haven't seen it yet but...a kid at Chrstmas couldn't be more worked up.

Mossberg .410 pump, purchased for wife and son to use at gun safety training. Kid was 12, and was shooting a 12 gauge about 10 minutes after he got on the range. Wife couldn’t swing the .410, but, wanting to shoot, she spent the whole afternoon shooting at the patterning board. One of the pullers at the club was a state skeet shooter, and she finished the wife’s round of skeet I paid for, while I pulled for her.
Great day.

Hasn’t been touched since.

Best,
Ted

🔫

Most people end up with a closet full of guns they don’t shoot.
You get older, you shoot less.
Ultimately you stop.

If you factor in repairs that take them out of use for more than a year at a time, their use really plummets.

The best solution I came up with was

Don’t spend your lunch money on another fancy shotgun,

and don’t worry about it,

and find somebody who can dispose of everything for you fairly when you’re done looking at them,

and hopefully you live a long time and get a lot of enjoyment out of them.

Forget about the money, and just do what you can do.

CZ: Thankfully, this isn't about "lunch money".

It's more about staring down my pending 70s and finally letting go of the "delayed gratification" mindset I've been living for most (if not all) of my life. A small gift from a childhood spent in Appalachia I suppose.

It has served me well to this point and while I'm not yet ready to become a profligate, I am going to start living a little less cautiously.

My wife now likes big travel, I don't mind it but...I like autumnal forrests even better. We can do both (if time allows).

Carpe Diem!

That’s kind of the point Lloyd

Don’t wait, you don’t get the time back.

I’ve seen people get divorced over the purchase of fancy Shotguns.

A person has to be comfortable with the framework within which they live.

It overlays with the collector vs shooter mindset.
Broad differences there.

I believe it is:
Best to enjoy what you can while you can.

They end up in the closet soon enough.

Pushing 80 real close and troublesome hips, my days of long hikes for grouse and pheasants are pretty much a thing of the past. I still hit small patches of cover for quail and walk some fencelines for doves. Paddling the canoe or running the boat for ducks still works for me. I have all the sxs's and o/u for that fill my needs so shotgun purchases petered out a few years ago. It would take an incredible deal on something special that would fit what I do for me to even think about a purchase.

My main passion is coyote hunting and experimenting with rifles, scopes and cartridges. Even here I have enough rifles rifles that now I change barrels, stocks and scope to try new things.

The only thing that still eludes me is a small caliber drilling for close in coyote calling, my go-to now is a 16ga/16ga/6.5x58R. would love to find a 16/16/5.6x52R or 222 Rem. There out there but it would have to be a real deal.

Guns are still a big part of my life, hunting, experimenting, inventing new ways to do things with hunting gear and what i live for.

Most of the special guns are gone now. I spent several years actively seeking and buying the more rare American doubles. They were eventually turned into college tuitions, down payments for homes and other needy items for the kids and grandkids. Honestly, I don’t miss them much*.The heavy 10’s weren’t ever used much as were the stubby barreled small gauge guns. Garden variety rifles and handguns bought right provided a good avenue to finance more shotguns.
My collection now is just a hodge podge of stuff that probably wouldn’t thrill anyone. But what I have (except the big bore rifles) gets shot a lot. There’s still room to lower inventory.
Two or three SC tourneys and several rifle matches a month plus casual shooting keeps me busy reloading, casting, and happy.
I used to moan about the quick depletion of components until it sunk in that it’s just an indicator of how much shooting I do. Lots of friends in my age group are gone or unable to shoot anymore. No doubt I’m blessed!

*On second thought there was a F grade Model 11 and a 32” HE Fox that I wouldn’t mind making room in the safe again.😀

I got one for you.

Italian “Companion” folding 12 gauge 3” (!) shotgun. My dad made my mom drive all over town just before Christmas, 1973 looking for one with a vent rib. I shot it for a year or so, and then bought my dad’s deer hunting partners Remington model 17. A repeater is where it is at.

I never sold either of those, and, every few seasons, back when whatever dog I owned and I were younger, we’d get a good dump of snow before the season ended. I would grab the snowshoes, my pooch, a sandwich and a thermos of coffee, and go grouse hunting, on snowshoes. The 30” tube on the Companion made it a fair balance pole, and the notion of needing a second shot while on snowshoes is beyond optimistic-hell, you seldom need the first shot. It was great exercise, I don’t believe I ever took a shot, and had some spectacular flushes of grouse out of the snow, one from between the tips of my snowshoes.

Not sure I have the knees for that, at this point, but, if it happens again, I’ll try it again.

Best,
Ted

At 79 looking close to 80, I've come to realize that you can replace anything in your life.......except time! As CZ has said, "out there doing the best that I can".
Karl