doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Where did we come from? Where are we now?

Zutz called the Super-Fox a "mill run waterfowling piece" and lost many Fox collectors!!

I'm so glad. Had he praised it they might have been higher than they are.

as to doublegun hunting books...three come to mind...

the upland shooting life, george bird evans...

a hunters road, jim fergus...

a rough shooting dog, charles fergus...

I came late to the game…..mid 2000s. I regret not having a chance to attend Flatwater.

My first exposure to a side by side shotgun was when I was in 8th grade. Would have been October 1949. School bus dropped me off at home and in a field behind the house were 2 guys hunting. They had dropped a pheasant but couldn't find it.

My dog Spot, an English Springer Spaniel mix, and I offered to help and soon found the bird. One of the guys carrying a side by side asked what I was doing Saturday. Wanna go hunting with us? I did but I didn't own a shotgun.

That man, Bill Brown, took Spot and me hunting several times. He hunted with a side by side shotgun that I thought was cool. I got my first double, a 12 gauge Ithaca Nitro Special for $20.00 2 years later and that started it.

One of my Fox's, an early A 12 gauge, I got in September 1968 and still have it. That will be 55 years next month.

A wonderful ride for sure.

I first purchased a SxS when I was 14, a 16 FW LC, which I still own, back in 1963 (a month the assignation of JFK). There was an old hardware store in town, now long gone, that sold, as many stores did back then, guns and ammo. I picked up a HnR SxS from the same store a few years later. The previous owner had traded it for an auto because it had Damascus barrels. Still have that as well. Both went into the closet, traveled with me as around the country as an adjunct teaching in various universities till the late ‘90s when I secured a tenured position. (Now retired.) Joined the LC collectors, picked up then a GH Parker, joined the Parker Collectors, the Vintagers, and began attending the various SxS events (and lured into English SLEs, Lancaster, Grants, HnH, Purdey). Great fun and continue to meet a great group of fellow SxS enthusiasts. I hope a younger generation will get the “bug” as we all have and continue this tradition, as we are not getting any younger.

A “wonderful ride” indeed.

Cheers to all.

As to books, there was a recent, but now waning series of books from Dallas, Greener and Richards. They were aimed at the choir, but still significant undertakings. Hopefully, there are future enthusiasts.

The Donald Dallas books are superb, I just picked up the volume of John Dickson. In the world of British single shots, it is hard to beat the Winfer series, though Kirkton's book are quite useful as well.

From a Red Rider to fine British guns. What a long strange trip it has been.

In the search for the origins I’d add three additional people. Cyril Adams, Geoffrey Boothroyd, and Brian Bilinski. Adams brought us a deep knowledge of design and construction, Boothroyd brought us history and explanation, and Bilinski helped change the nature of clay target shooting in the US.

I imported French shotguns and rifles for two decades, 1990s and 2000s. In my business records is a manilla folder for each gun, date ordered, date delivered, who ordered it, receiving FFL, etc. A truly sobering thing to me is how many of the guys who ordered a gun through me are no longer with us.

There are a few who are frail enough to have no need of a hunting implement.

If I had to guess, I’d say right around age 65 is when the majority of them quit buying licenses. My Dad bought licenses for years after he quit hunting, I don’t honestly know if it was high hopes, or, just the feeling he could help support hunting and fishing sports in Minnesota. Knowing Dad, it was likely a bit of both.

We were Loon Club members, when there was a Loon Club:




Wish he would have lived long enough to hunt with his grandson and daughter-in-law:



My former hunting, shooting and fishing buddies, to a one, have aged out. I’ve met a few new guys, but, they tend to be widely dispersed across the country, and a trip with them requires logistics beyond grabbing the dog and a gun and killing 4-6 hours in the woods.

The former guys don’t care about double guns. Most of them, never did.

Best,
Ted