doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Parker reproduction steel shot

Well, I've hunted in duck blinds in several states with guys using doubles. Nearly all of those blinds required standing to fire. Before sitting back down, and while the gun is pointed forward, the gun is broken and reloaded, barrels outside the blind. The barrels do not have to be pointed down to reload a double ..... they just can't be pointed upwards. They can certainly be level. Once loaded, and the safety is back on, the gun is placed in a muzzle up position, pointing toward the sky, same as any other long gun.

I was in Mike Boyd's blind one day at Tunica, MS, with Mike and his son, and four other hunters that I had never hunted with. All were using doubles (five of them HE Foxes). Every one, to a man, handled their guns properly. In fact, Mike caters to S X S enthusiasts who like to hunt where Nash Buckingham hunted, with the same type guns.

Most of my duck hunting is standing in flooded timber, and somehow I have never stuck my muzzles underwater or in the mud. Actually the only place I do not use a double on ducks is jump shooting them out of my kayak. It is akin to shooting out of a layout blind. Very hard to load a double in that position.

I can say unhesitatingly that I have seen far and away more unsafe gun handlers using jammamatics than any other type shotgun. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to why.

SRH

I have been shooting hevi shot and bismuth. I'm just not comfortable shoot a heavier load through the Spanish game guns - they are just not designed for it unless I can find a pigeon gun.

No problems with my O/U and SxS in a blind at all. I have a Benelli SBE II which is a great duck gun but it's just a plasticky clacky thing with no character. It's for sale and like new cause I always shot something else. I did have a RBL 12 ga, 30 barrels that I sold. Just didn't feel the magic.

I understand that sentiment completely. I just love to hunt ducks so much that, when it gets down in the 'teens here for two or three nights in a row, and all the ducks are on the moving water where there's no ice, I will swallow my pride and load up my old 390 in my kayak and surprise 'em. The numbers of ducks can be just incredible under those conditions.

Good hunting, Wiredducker

SRH

True. Although keeping barrels either up or down, depending on the type of gun involved, make it less likely they'll be pointed at someone.

It is also my belief that the only place to use a double duck hunting is in conditions where the shooters stand upright. To me this is a rather boring way to be restricted while hunting ducks.

This is a double gun blog who's hobby is shooting double guns. Nothing wrong with that. I too like doubles. But I don't hunt ducks with them. Take a nice double with floating firing pins. Crud gets into the pin hole and the pin stays protruded upon closure. The gun will fire when it is re closed. The guns we love deserve better then to be subjected to the crud of a duck hunt.

Besides I doubt I'll ever duck hunt again. I'm too old, too beat up and to crippled. The fact that I won't duck hunt with someone who brings along a double really doesn't matter.

Nothing wrong with you holding those beliefs, pooch. And I sincerely hope your physical condition gradually improves until you are fully able to hunt and shoot as much as you'd like.

All my best, SRH

This is smart because blinds should be set up according to the needs of a shooter. I like the Browning BPS because it ejects downward and is easy to protect its action from collecting dirt or water. It is easy to load when you are wearing gloves. They can stick BPS user anywhere. I like the old A-5 also because of the autoload feature I can slip in a steel 7 on a wounded swimmer in the water because you need a shot to bounce him on the head to stop him. Every thing else vital is below the water line and a 7 will put more shot in the air.

And I'm getting too deaf. One of the enjoyable moments in duck hunting is hearing their wings overhead just before light, and the geese, they sound like something coming from Mars.

Yeah, dove little, use little load. Clay targets close and easy to break, use light load. Ducks and geese big, shoot big load, shoot less. Or, buy more guns.

I owned one of the SSS Parker Repo's for a while. Fortunately, I purchased it at a discount since one of the previous owners had cut off the skeleton butt plate and added enough pad to fit me well. It was a straight grip double trigger gun. Killed a few doves with it but never took it to the duck blind. Was not a perfect fit for me so I let John Allen sell it on consignment and bought a 410 LC Smith with some of the proceeds. Having just spent the last three days in a metal duck pit in Arkansas, they are not a place for a Parker.