doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com How did you get into SxS's...

NO kidding!

Alan

I get the weekly emails from Purdey. One of these days I'm going to need some of that stuff. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm going to need it.

But, If a fellow was going to have just one shotgun, and shotgun hunting/shooting was going to be his only hobby.... a Purdey just might be a bargain. I have an 8'X40' storage container full of stuff I'll likely not get much use out of any more.

Alan

My father got me hooked on side bys. He a German 16 gauge made by August Schuller. He used it for trap, skeet, and dove and quail hunting. He didn't miss that often. The dang thing balanced beautifully. I had my eye on the Zephyr Woodlander, that was imported by SToeger's, and then a French 16 gauge that was imported by Ye Olde Hunter. Ended up buying a Browning Superposed Great gun, but it was big. I had two side bys after it. His 16 and a Bernardelli 20 gauge Series Uberto I. They seemed as if they were an extension of my arm. I don't see that with an over and under. I know trap shooters shoot over and unders. I am buying a Model 21 trap gun. I know I will be looked upon as a weirdo, but I just like side bys.

i saw a trim little SXS hopkins and allen 20 ga hammer gun at a flea market one saturday when i was a teen [ ~ 1967 ] ....loved the look and balance....didnt want to spend what little money i had....few years later, was left a stevens hammerless SXS by a 90 + y.o.friend [ who had no heirs ] who told me it had taken � 2 bears, 18 deer, and countless ducks, geese, other birds, rabbits etc � that really got me started -shot more ducks, geese, pheasant, grouse with it ....now i have parker�s, foxes, lefevers, ithaca 4 E , LC Smith�s, winchester 21�s ,baker, spanish, italian, and german guns, francotte, and drilling�s etc and.... oh yes, a few years back found an identical hopkins and allen 20 ga hammer gun... have shot grouse, chukar, and ptarmigan with it.... stepson took his first bird ever with it.... yes... i am hooked i guess : )

Shot pumps and autos as a teenager but really lusted for a Browning Midas grade superposed as shown in the color glossy catalogs of the mid 60's. Never could afford one. Then the Winchester 101's came out in the mid 70's and I bought a 12 and 20 through the base exchange overseas. Didnt shoot them well, and went back to an 1100 until I picked up a Winchester Model 23 in 1985. 12 ga, 28 in bbls and it settled into my shoulder and cheek like it was born there. I bought it on the spot for $900 with case, and never looked back. I hunted everything with it from quail to geese and shot it better than anything else I had. I sold it after I bought my first Parker, a 16 ga GHE in 1995, and got hooked on vintage doubles. Nothing seems to sit as well as a side by side. All other guns seem to me top heavy in comparison. My son shoots my Parker 16's and I think he is hooked also.

Went to Alaska gun collector's show in Anchorage in the early 80's where I discovered I could afford a couple pre-1900 SxS's. I then got a subscription to "Shotgun News" where you could find most anything that shoots! A paragraph description and telephone number and asking price (no photos). Really good traders. I bought and traded and had a blast untill business/kids/life caused a many year break!
I'm back now!

Glad you're back...I shot vintage too because that's all I could afford.

Truth is I'd rather had a new one.

I began hunting squirrels with a single shot 22 while in high school but wanted a SXS. However, my dad bought me a new 12 gauge single shot Winchester M37 for Christmas so I hunted pheasants with that for the next few years. I still wanted a SXS and ended up trading a rifle I had for a single trigger 12 gauge LC Smith SXS. A beautiful gun to look at but a big mistake, it kept spontaneously discharging. I took it to a so called �gunsmith� and he charged me $75 to �repair� it. Life got in the way after that and I never did get a chance to use it and ended up selling it to a guy I worked with. Fortunately, I gave him a copy of the repair receipt. We went our separate ways until a few years later when we became reacquainted and he told me the story of how the gun, while lying in his lap in a duck blind, had spontaneously fired both barrels with the recoil flinging it into the adjoining swamp. Only because he had the repair receipt and knew that I�d not used the gun since I�d had it repaired saved me from trouble. My next SXS was a 16 gauge Stevens 5100, in terrible cosmetic shape that I purchased for $35. Before I worked it over I took it to the trap range to try out. I was teamed with two other shooters both with beautiful O/U�s. They both looked at me and my SXS with complete disdain. I was embarrassed and mentioned that I hadn�t fired a shotgun in 15 years. They then looked as if someone in their midst (me) had stepped in dog crap. I went on to shoot a respectable 21 while they shot a 7 and an 8. The next round I shot a 22 and they still shot in single digits. I turned around after my last shot and they�d both disappeared! Unfortunately, I sold that old Stevens and it wasn�t until a lifetime friend called in 1998 and asked me to go pheasant hunting with him in SD (using a borrowed shotgun) that I again became hooked on pheasant hunting. In about 2001 purchased a 12 gauge Parker VH. It�s been 18 years now, I sold the Parker years ago and have run through about 20 SXS�s including hammer guns and the whole gauntlet of gauges from a 10 gauge to several .410s. For a while I had several �keepers� including a true 36 gauge percussion SXS, a well-worn British .410 hammer gun SXS, and a super lightweight French 16 gauge guild gun. In 2004 cancer reared its ugly head taking, in 2011, not only my wife/best friend of nearly 42 years but also nearly everything else I owned fighting it. The only SXS I was able to hang on to was my 16 gauge French guild gun. Today the only SXS�s I have are the 16 gauge French guild gun, a 12 gauge Pedersoli SXS ML, a 13 gauge Belgium SXS ML, and a nice svelte .410 SXS that I crafted from an incredibly ugly Brazilian made Rossi (my Sow�s ear project that I posted about back in 2012).

Steve

PS nice thread you started Joe. As you can see the 13 gauge ML I had that you were interested in is still for sale!

Steve I'm truly sorry to hear of your loss.

Thanks but no thanks on the muzzle loader I graduated muzzle loaders several years back.

Enjoyed your story, Steve. Are you still traveling about, or have you "grounded" someplace specific for now?

Best to you, SRH