doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Sarasqueta Zephyr Honker

Ted. I agree with the "Golf course flavoring Goose meat- we get them same situation here in Mich. One way to tell the aprox age of the goose you just shot is to check the wing joint-akin to the elbow joint on a human. If it seems calcified and stiff, usually means that bird has flown a great anmount in its life cycle--usually an indicator of advanced years. RWTF

I shot a 3 1/2-inch 10 double for about a dozen years. Great long-range performance but...the recoil was substantial. I wore a guard on the middle finger of my trigger hand to protect it from the unarticulated front trigger.

I have an H&R original Model 1901 ten gauge, 3 1/2" chamber, probably rechambered by a dealer who had a bunch of them for sale in the sixties. I can't remember who the dealer was. He must have bought all of H &R's remaining stock from way back. My H&R seems to like to pop open by itself with 3 1/2" shells but the gun is in near mint condition except for the Jostam pad that I installed years ago. Another great long range dove gun with 2 ounces of #7 1/2 or #6.

Is a dove worth the investment of 2 ounces of shot? I never wanted a single dove that bad.

Although I have heard of guns that open at the shot, I’ve never owned one. Nor, would I.

Best,
Ted

Ted, I'm going to leave you with those comments and let Stan enjoy mine.

I have the double barrel version of the Zeffer. It weighs about 11lbs and recoil doesn't seem to be a problem with any load I've shot from it. I've killed some geese with the low pressure bismuth recipe that Sherman Bell recommended in one of his articles that I believe had 1 5/8 ozs. It has the original full chokes so no steel thru this one. I've also shot quite a few target loads that Ballistic Products has listed in their load of the week library that contained 1 1/4 ozs and 24 grs Red Dot as I recall. It crushes clays at all ranges and recoil is light! I love that gun but unfortunately it came my way to late in my life to have put it to best use. It was built in 1955, my birth year. A friend of mine gave me a 1955 Shooters Bible and it is advertised in there. If I'm not mistaken the Honker is also listed in there to. I can't check it because it is at my other home with the gun and reloading info. The quality of the gun is very good. I've seen them for sale on Gunbroker and it seems that they don't bring a price commensurate with the build quality.

I would like to buy a few, maybe even up to a box, of BOSS 3 1/2" Cu plated bismuth loads for pattern testing in this gun, if anyone has a few they'd sell. BOSS only sells their 10 ga. loads in bulk quantities of 100, and I'd be hesitant to buy that many until I patterned a few.

https://bossshotshells.com/products/10-ga-312-2116-3/5/

Happy Easter! SRH

Stan, pm me your address and I’ll send you some 10 ga Boss. I’ll have to check and see if I have any of the 3/5 duplex loads. I might. And I know I’ve got some Boss 10 ga #1s if that will work for your purposes.

The sixties retail price of the double ten Zephyr Thunderbird was $228.00. These two Sarasqueta guns are very good quality.

My son swears by the 3/5 12 3' shells. we shot a couple boxes of hand rolled 10 2's with old Bismuth shot I bought out of an estate and loaded up in Federal shells. Worked well on geese at reasonable range.