Years ago while still happily married to her I bought my EX a 20ga Ithaca Ultra-Featherweight English. It was her favorite grouse gun. Kind of wish I would have liberated it when I left .
I had a 16 gauge Ultra that came out of King Ferry. Spectacular wood, screw chokes, the pewter feather grip cap.
But, it wasn’t that much lighter than the mid 1950s garden variety 16 gauge that I already owned. The wood, pretty as it was, was heavier than the pallet grade stuff the old gun used. The barrel was a gas pipe compared to the 1950s fixed choke version, on account of it having screw chokes. Not long into ownership, I figured out I was indifferent to which gun I used, and when the world figured out they couldn’t get one, new, guys at my club started to notice the gun when it tagged along with me. A guy offered me $800 for the Ultra, and down the road it went. I sold the 50s version later, I wasn’t crazy about the un checkered stock, which, made it slick when it was wet or cold. Yea, I could have had it checkered, but, the model 17 was sitting right there next to it, all ready to go.
Somewhere between the “party all night “ and “you are really going to need to get another bird dog” phases of my life, the ability to run a pump gun, efficiently, diminished. I had friends that noted, when I was younger, that I could get a second round off faster with my pump than they could with their gas automatics. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
Still, I keep and use the 17 a few times a year. The dog doesn’t care which gun I bring.
Best,
Ted
