doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Skeet Shooting with your SXS?

I don't shoot skeet often, but when I shoot registered sporting clay competition I use a Perazzi MX-8. When I'm just shooting for fun I often use one of my 32" Foxes. When I get the chance, I enjoy competing with my S x Ss in S x S events.

I may shoot two or three rounds of skeet a year. I just don't enjoy it like sporting clays. Only shot two rounds of trap in my life. First one was with a Fox S x S. Then the guys wanted to bet, so I got my Perazzi and ran it, 25 x 25. They shot my hat to pieces, and I haven't done that anymore either.

SRH

One must also remember the advantage of the sxs in target games. There is much less wind resistance with the properly oriented barrels on crossing targets!All depends if you shoot to have fun or do anything for the highest score. I shoot all stations low gun. Mark II

The one shotgun game that may actually have a slight advantage for S x Ss is live pigeons. One of the all time greats, Billy Perdue, firmly believed so, and proved it for many years. He believed that pigeon shooting is a game of elevation, and that it is much easier to be precise, with that, using a S x S.

Who am I to argue with as great a shot as he was?

SRH

i shoot my 12 lc speciality grade on skeet n 5 stand imp mod n mod.not exactly skeet chokes but it works!
just went pheasant preserve today went 6/6 on birds,buddy told me he could get his safty off fast enough with his pump gun!

I've shot many hundreds of rounds of NSSA style skeet with my 12-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Ejector Skeet & Upland Game Gun, mostly using my 7/8 ounce 1200 fps reloads. I've run a couple of 75 straights with it but have never been able to get that fourth round. Back about 1987, I shot the only 100 straight I've ever shot with a 28-gauge using my Winchester Model 23 Classic!?! Gave me a brainstorm to try it in registered competition and I fell on my face!! I shoot some pretty good skeet scores with old square-back Remington "The Sportsman" autoloaders, and Model 31 pumps but I probably do my most consistant work with Browning Superposed New Model Skeet Guns in 20- and 28-gauge.

The only round of skeet I have ever "run" was with a 1905 vintage model 1897 Winchester I used for cowboy action. I told the somewhat surprised regulars that skeet was all about having state of the art equipment.

I can't hit skeet shooting gun up, except maybe at 8.

CHAZ

I shoot winter skeet league with a squad that's all sxs, except one guy. Actually, I cheated last time and use a vintage OU (Browning Superposed 20) in the small bore event.

I'm a skeet historian, so I could bore you with anecdotes. However, I will give you only two. Dick Shaughnessy won the All-Bore National Championship with a 16 gauge Model 21, years after state of the art automatics and pumps, as well as over unders had dominated the game. The first 100 straight in small bore NSSA registered skeet was shot by K.C. Miller with a side by side. This was also years after the Model 42 Winchester was recognized as the gun to shoot to win.

If you are shooting Skeet for fun you can shoot what ever you like. If you are trying to become an All-American you will use a O/U with tubes. And yes there are a very few people who could shoot a zip gun and break birds. I am not one of them much to my regret. So I grab what ever gun screams the loudest in the gun room and take the correct shells for her. It is a date not a marriage so it is not cheating on the others.

About SxS guns blocking the view, I'll vote "yes." I shoot trap doubles with both SxS and O/U guns and at rising birds you can't be as quick with the SxS. On some stations (e.g. 2 and 4) you just have to let the bird appear over the top of the barrels before going to target.

That said, there were a lot of good shooters back when, like Phil Miller, Ned Lilley, and John Sternberger, to name a few, who thought doubles worked just fine.