doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - What guns will you be shooting into your dotage?

Presuming a number of items here, but barring any major political or financial (or personal) crises... have you planned for an end game here? That last shotgun (or rifle, or handgun) that you'll hunt with to the end? I have a pretty good idea what I'll be using when my number's up, but what makes the best sense in that arena? A commonly available gauge or something you'll have to load for. I'm suspecting a sub-gauge gun for many of us here (20 or 28), but pehaps I've overlooked something?

As for dotage I am already in mine a lot would say, Over the years I have been shooting unknowingly in a way I have made my choices of the death do us part guns, Some of the reasons are practical and others sentimental.

This gun is the sentimental gun I made more practical it belonged to a shooting buddy who is no longer with me, leaving the very best of memories and the very best of English hummer Derek Bates known to many as Blaster bates making the finest Pub evenings ever after a days shooting, so I do hope he agrees with my modifications.

A very early Baikal under/over twin trigger non ejector.



My next choice is a gun for nearly all occasions Webley & Scott 700.

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This is an other Webley & Scott 700 this being a very early straight hand stock extremely light with not so common with 2 1/2 " chambers, I can just carry this gun all day in the field.

[url=https://imgur.com/HV78o1F]

One of my last two guns I consider my self to be extremely lucky to own though I do know I am only its keeper until the next lucky person comes along when I have slipped of this mortal coil. The one advantage in owning this gun is back in the Club house or the start of a shoot. It brings to an end those loud spoken cost of my gun XXXX and what a fabulous XXXX maker it has to a very abrupt end, when you quietly slip it out of its gun slip.



Finally a gun that if I do meet up with some of my now passed on then young shooing friends after it is my turn leave this blue planet we may be able to have a couple of full moon nights of youthful poaching, good British Ale with a few lines of "The Lincolnshire Poacher" with these words ringing in my ears from many days past "O h it's my delight on a shining night in the season of the year" at a pub with a hot wood fire in an ingle nook fire place.



I do hope you find this an interesting mix from my dotage.

Kinda’ depends how far you make it, doesn’t it?

I used to see an old guy on sunny weekdays, in Pine County, MN. He was in his 90s. He walked a logging road, actually a segment of the Munger trail. He might have made it a mile in and back. He used a .410 single shot to pot Grouse. Told me he hadn’t shot a Grouse on the wing in a long, long time. He was good with that. He had owned many different guns.They were all gone. He outlived every family member he ever had. To say he loved petting my dog was an understatement. I let him handle my Remington model 17 once, it was a bit much for him.
I was good with him ground swatting them, too. It was a day brightener to run into him.The old guy fought like hell to keep his pickup and his .410 at the old people’s warehouse he lived in. He didn’t seem to need assistance, maybe they called him in the morning, but, he told me he just fried the Grouse breasts and legs, and got dinner and lunch out of one. If he was cooking them, I figured he didn’t need much help.

I’ve got 20 and 28 gauge V19s at the moment, both less than 6lbs. That is the lightest version of a Darne, in very general terms. Tough witches to shoot well in the best of times, and my eye injury has insured these are not my best times.

There are times I want to be that old guy in the woods with his last gun that he can manage. But, I’m guessing his life was lonely and hard toward the end. Every person I ever knew who lived that long (I’m between any friends in their 90s at the moment) was having a struggle, often a difficult, daily struggle.

I haven’t seen him in a long time. Doubt I will.

Best,
Ted

Like many here, I have a few to choose from... but for the sake of tradition, my last hunt, coming up sooner than I'd like, will be with a London 'best,' a Charles Lancaster 12-bore central-fire breech-loader from 1864.

Goes against something within me to start thinking that way, Lloyd. Certainly not a put down on anyone who chooses to, just not me ....... at least not for awhile. If I start thinking that way I'm afraid it will affect my "drive". I push myself in that regard. I'll be seventy-one in October. Twenty-nine to go to reach my target of taking a limit of doves on Oct. 13, 2051.

Not everyone wants to reach that goal, and I'm not fooling myself. I know things can happen to cause that goal to be unattainable. But, it's my belief that if you work towards it you've got a better chance of attaining it than if you don't. There really is something powerful about positive thinking. However, I may be more susceptible to negative thinking than others. My buddies can swap choke tubes like Liz Taylor did husbands, but it introduces negative thoughts when I do so. It's like I'm admitting "I probably can't hit that bird with this tight a choke, so let's open up a bit". I'm referring to clay birds, now.

Interesting reading your, and other's, comments though. With my love of long barreled .410 doubles I suspect my final dove shoot will be with one.

At 50, I'm already sure this pretty lady will be my hunter colleage forever.

Stunningly beautiful gun, Mr Campero!

And I agree with Mr Newbern, hammer singles are truly special.

At 81 and in good health my 16 gauge ejector sterlingworth at 5 lbs 13 ounces with a second set of 20 gauge barrels would be hard to beat! Bobby

Not a Linebaugh, but I have a friend, a petite lady who lives in AK, that hunts bears with pistols. She has taken five, with perfect success. She will not shoot one at more than 20 yards. She graduated from a .44 Magnum to a .454 Casull, and now uses a .500 S & W. She is an amazing lady.

Little Fox Sterlingworth 20 gauge ejector, upgraded to an AE made to fit me with custom wood. Choked .004 and .014. 5 lb 13 oz. Might have it laid beside me in the box along with a bunch of dog ashes. Maybe a fired shell or two.

I guess I need to tell the Boss I need to buy a dotage gun.

Ted, I was going to say the same thing but felt a little callous about it. Gil is right on here. If I'm eighty-five and out pounding the trail (on any form of self-powered transport) than I'll feel darn fortunate. Going out doing what you love, surrounded by friends, and in summer up there even....

That sure beats a lot of the alternatives.

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.

I can understand that Ted, and we may not be alone. This lady has never married, guides hunters for moose and bear, and spends over a week in the bush alone when she hunts for herself.

Married or not, she's one amazing lady, this Brenda Crim.

http://www.akmissions.com/brenda-crim.html

Gutsy, dude. I wouldn’t try that. Might just be my experience, but, “Right Woman” is a moving target.

I digress.

Best,
Ted

I DID say “right” woman. Hahaha. They are hard to come by and worth treasuring when you find one. I’m not holding my breath.

Mr. Campero, that single-shot is a beauty. I have an Army& Navy British 20ga single with the hammer, but mine has a top lever. I can't hit very well with it, but I enjoy carrying it. I've always felt the old hammer singles were the coolest shotguns around...Geo

A double Hammergun with either an Austrian or German heritage,, probably in 24 bore??? But I cannot rule out a French one(tip of the hat to Argo44).

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

The rifles are easy. My dad’s M71 .348 and his Remington 41 Targetmaster. They hold his history, our history, followed by my own. The shotguns have come and went, but a 5 3/4 lb. 16 gauge W&S 400 screw grip that seems to be the magic wand might be it.

Ted, sorry to hear of the loss of your family's friend. He couldn't have planned a better death. Gil

eeb,
Outstanding suggestion regarding the "need" to buy a dotage gun! I'll fly it by the "tower" to see if it works. Great idea ebb!
Karl

Lloyd,
I hear you, and completely understand. As I begin to age out at 75, light weight, good handling and open chokes work for me. My 12 ga. 2 1/2 chambered Churchill with .003 /.11 chokes is probably the last one standing for me.
But, here's hoping I'm wrong!
Karl

Parabola the stock on the Baikal is the original a very poor piece of Manchurian Walnut. The gun it's self was at the back of my gun cabinet for many years until freight took a hand in things this being Arthritis in my right shoulder so at the time I required a heavier gun for trap shooting, so out it came for a full face lift. Now I did post a how it was done over a couple of weeks under the heading of "A heavier gun required" but that posting has been allowed to slip into the past with my other how to do it postings I do not understand Dave Webber he would not recognise a jewel if it was handed to him in a silk lined box, so why the hell did he start DIY gunsmithing page if it was not going to turn into some sort of reference for folks.
I must say here that I worked as a ghost worker in the local trade specialising in all sorts of stock work case restoration and replacement case turnscrews amongst other things that all had high viewing numbers each in the thousands. So luckily for you one has been kept in the FAQ section under "Damascuses Traditional oil stock finish" It shows the same Baikal stock you see in this post being re finished. Today this post has 83,407 hits to date that being good spreading information, the down side the people who did the conversion to another host only had one form of punctuation a question mark though Webber's and the rest of the offerings are all perfectly punctuated. Is it Me? well may be but one thing I will say is that I would not pay them in washers! Rant over!!!!
Memories of those cheap Russian cartridges and another maker called Sellier & bellot where another eastern block maker we purchased if funds where low in the 60's and 70,s, they earned the name in our group as "Shit sticks" because it left the bores looking like a coal mine and took ages to get the rubbish out of the barrels even after just a couple of shots, though looking back now it is a memory with a smile.

I'll go with 3 firearms, all passed down to me by my late Father, he was born in 1914 and passed away in 1986. A Model 12 field grade 20, made n 1931-28" mod solid rib. He gave me that shotgun on my 14th Birthday, and as Hemingway said about his M12 in "True In First Light"--well, you can read that section at your leisure- but it sure describes that fast handling and reliable under all conditions that the M12 was legendary for. I have 7 Model 12's, all built prior to 1950- but this one is "special". A Model 70 SuperGrade in 30-o6 made in 1939- tons of venison fell to that old sweetheart-all with Rem 180 grain Core-Lokt ammo. Wears a Leupold Vari-x now, also is deadly on coyotes, and wild pigs- and a Model 63 Deluxe Grade that Dad bought from Aubrey Brennan in 1956- made in 1948, one of Aubrey's personal guns--I can't begin to count the number of squirrels, rats, woodchucks- OK, one more, Dads Colt Match Target Woodsman, 1939- the early series with the elephant ear style grips- RWTF== addedum: As this is a double gun based forum, I should pick one of the 6 side-by-side ejector guns in my safe- easy choice- the 12 gauge M21 Dad left me in 1981- made in 1940- field grade 28" IC & Mod- ej and sst- fits me like an Armani suit on a Goombah-- back when we had pheasants in MI- this double was my "game bag filler-upper" for many seasons. Not a Churchill or even a graded Parker, just as solid reliable shotgun for hunting-wait- I just also described a Model 12 didn't I.. RWTF

Well, you know what assumptions will get you.

Not sure I like the premise mainly because only one gun is beyond me. I will make an odd stab anyway.

I don’t count inherited family guns.

I could only imagine (not likely to happen) cutting down my collection to four guns. A 12ga Boss SLE, 16ga Purdey SLE, 16ga Christophe SLE, 24ga French BLNE.

Lastly, I don’t see cutting down anytime soon, other than to finance other options. I like all the guns I have, or I would not have them.

I've heard it said that "God does not subtract the time from a man's life spent bird hunting". That said, I plan on being out there every fall season that I can stand upright!
Karl

OMG I like single shots. That's a beaut!

My Tolley isn't a hammer gun but it's still pretty damn fine.

All my Model 12's, except my 28 gauge- shells are too expensive, and in MI we can't hunt dove and quail- and those midget game birds are just right for a midget gauge gun. Grandson Jordan (senior in HS-Honor Student- has been shooting my 20 gauge M12- 28" mod. solid rib field gun--and is a good and very safe shot with it, as well as the Winchester .22's and the Colt Woodsman, and after going out with these past 2 Sats. for ducks and geese (succesfully) is getting his Fed. duck stamp and will join me next Sat-- He'll use my field M12 12 gauge 28" full mfg. 1921--I am proud of him. RWTF

I guess I'm already in my dotage at 83 and some health problems, I can't walk far enough to hunt grouse anymore.
I can't walk good enough to shoot sporting clays, but I do shoot skeet ( not very well).
Although I have a lot of guns it seems I mostly shoot a 20 gauge Parker Trojan and a Remington 20 gauge model 31.
Pete

Wonderful gun! I do love those singles.