Just as I can not pick out just one offspring to favor, I doubt I will just pick just one gun. On the short list will be my Winchester Pigeon grade model 42, my Christmas gift when I was 12, a Winchester Model 12, 28 ga. Skeet gun, for long range dove a Pape 20 bore hammer gun with 30" barrels I shoot really well and for duck and geese whatever 12 bore double, perhaps a Lang 3" 30" barrels, or G.E. Lewis 3" wild-fowling double. My real problem is I like to shoot too many vastly different things. If I was restricted to just dove, the 42 would get the nod, or a 42 as there are others sitting, waiting their turn. If it were just ducks any 12 bore double from about ten choices could be a easy choice. Too many choices, too many reasons.
The Winchester Model 12 , 28 gauge would be the last gun I sell. That gun has been a faithful friend, for hunting and shooting in general, for over fifty years. It has taken more dove, quail and ducks than any other gun I have owned. I'll never have another hundred duck season and that gun has given me multiple years. The 42's might equal the dove numbers, given another decade or two, but I learned how to shoot wild quail with that 28. Wild quail are for the most part, a thing of the past, such a sad thing. I no longer hunt quail on any of my farms. It just holds so many memories. My first true double on a quail covey flush, shooting next to my uncle, who took a pair with his Crescent .410 and watching Red the Setter bring back all four birds. He was not a great retriever but that time he was flawless. I could have shot a third bird but I was content, perhaps for the first time in my hunting life. No, the 28 is not for sale. I hope it gives one of my sons or grandsons as much joy as it did for me.
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