Shotguns

But, I love it. We are kind of making this a place where we can talk about any kind of gun. Most of us seem to have a number of different kinds of guns, and we seem to all have feelings for quality and/or nostalgia. So, I am happy to be among friends.
I have to say, though, that one of the most revered shotguns in my remuda is an old Hercules single shot, break action .410. It was my father's, and it has finally come into its own in the Mississippi swamplands. My grandson and I found out a few years ago that it will make a big armadillo bounce pretty high out to almost 50 yards with #6 shot. That is pretty much its niche. 
Another is a pristine Ithaca Model 37 Featherweight 12 ga. with a modified choke. I shot a lot of skeet with it on a Navy skeet team in New London, CT. Of course, my eyes and reflexes were good enough to make up for the choke in those days. In Montana, I used it on pheasants and various grouse as well as Huns. It is so fast to the shoulder and such a natural pointer that I had to let a lot of pheasants go so that my hunting partners wouldn't gripe. 
After my dad got into sporting clays, he bought a bunch of Brownings, but my favorite of all the sporting clays guns is an Emilio Rizzini with interchangeable chokes. I use that at an annual invitational match in Tupelo every year and it helps me hold my own.
Probably, the most often fired shotshells are out of my 45 Colt Beretta Stampede. It goes with me all over the ranch from March to mid-October. Fishing from the flatboat in a pond or walking the logging trails, there are mocassins and rattlers all over the place just waiting to get a taste of my leg. I use #7 1/2 shot over 7 gr. Unique. I have found the larger shot has a lot more poop that the #9 the 'experts' recommend, and it doesn't seem to spread as fast.
My wife's shotgun is locally famous. When she was in high school, she looked out the kitchen window one day to see 50 or 60 of the locals planning to flush doves from her fathers bean field. She fetched up her Stevens 311 12 ga., ran out to the field and invited them to see if they could run faster than her Federals. People still talk about it. I call it the 1965 Beanfield Massacre.

Mike
 
 

This should be a place where all can share because enjoying firearms and shooting and hunting in the outdoors is where it's at and I think most of us "Gun Nut" would agree. Love your taste in shotguns, one of my most used is a Savage/Stevens (M94 I think) single 20 with some 410 inserts. Gets lots of squirrels and an occasional varmint. Used a 311 as a kid and miss it now as it was a great double. Chris S

I do love fine guns of all types, as Mike has said above.
However, when it comes to shotguns, I'm ever so humble. My first real intro to scatterguns was an aged side by side, manufacturer unknown, chambered for the largely forgotten 16 gauge. From here, my experience spread to a hammerless side by side Savage in the common 20 gauge, and today to still only one side by side, a Russian gun marketed by EAA in 12 2 3/4.
The Russian gun is hammerless, with a prominent safety. Despite the big pill, it really doesn't intrude upon the actual shooting. The 28" barrels are well regulated for any loads I have shot, and like any good S x S, this one swings quite well.
I really dislike pump action guns for most uses, besides personal defense. I don't like their balance, or the fact that they handle like a 2 x 4 with a block nailed into a most inconvenient place, but then, I've never had an opportunity with the great Winchester model 12, maybe I'd change my mind.

I have been looking at the Winchester 59 Featherweight. Its the one with the fiberglass and steel sleeved barrel, 12 2 3/4. Most people I've talked to seem to think the fiberglass and sleeve was, to put it politely, a really stupid idea. Frankly, I don't know. It is quirky, and interesting to one who notices novelty. Any comments regarding such?

When Winchester introduced the 59 it was a radically new idea with no real support. Today we have carbon fiber barrel wraps on rifles and everyone loves the idea because it saves weight. Winchester was just a little too early to cash in. I shot a friend's 59 one weekend on a pheasant hunt and it was lively but a tad bruising compared to a good heavy pump or semi-auto. I think it would be a hell of a quail and woodcock gun in 20 or 28 gauge. Chris S

Yep, I'd assume the featherweights would wind up providing a heavier recoil payload, and a sharper one as well. I doubt I'll actually take the plunge, since I'm looking at a series of other expense, but I am interested.
The 20 makes sense to me, for those situations requiring less power, but the 28 is really a small bore, and isn't it easily challenged by less than perfect shots, and tougher game?
I ask this because I've never used one, but I am interested in learning more.

HI Mak: It's true that the 28 and the 410 are limited to small shot charges but once mastered they can be a delight to shoot. Many skeet matches include 28 and 410 sets to be shot as part of a match and there are some fine shots made with those small gauges. I routinely use a 410 insert in my 20 gauge to hunt squirrels and to bust a few clays in the yard. I miss a lot but the fun is in getting to shoot without bruising my shoulder with a heavy 12 or 20 gauge load. I used to hunt with a great old guy who had lost his left hand as a boy and he used a Remington 1100 in 28 gauge for partridge and could keep up with me and my double 12 all day. I am not suggesting you run out and get a 28 or 410 but if you happen to run across a good deal don't pass it up. Chris S

Thanks, Chris!
I'll be on the lookout for a good smallbore. I don't discount the shoulder saving virtues of the smaller bores. I've known for myself, for quite a while, that one does not need a .458 Win Mag for 99% of one's shooting needs.
Recoil is a funny thing. If you are fully prepared for it, it can be enjoyable, but if you are a little off kilter, then it is anything but enjoyable. People smarter than me have tried to equate recoil into a formula, although that formula is meaningless to anyone who has not experienced the kick of the various cartridges.
I readily admit to be a rifleman first and foremost. A good sixgun is in many ways the best of companions, as long as you decide to bring her along, that is. A rifle is your ticket to reaching out to distances normally unheard of, and with lethal capability, but a shotgun is indeed a most interesting critter. Shot is as old as firearms, and that alone says something. A shotgun is not a long range proposition, even in the larger bores, but it offers increased power to injure and perhaps even kill.
Its' no fun digging shot out of the carcass you are going to cook, and even less fun to take a bite full of shot in your cooked bird, but there is nothing better suited for putting them on the table than the shotgun.
Yesterday I tracked wild Turkey-no, its not Turkey season, and no, I wasn't hunting them to shoot one, just tracking for the sheer fun of it. They are wiley beyond account, and quite intelligent to boot! I love their elusive nature, and their tenacity. I've often thought about a Turkey gun, but honestly, I'm a stalker and a still hunter, not a bushwhacker. I went out and bought some 2 3/4" Turkey loads before the great fire, but never had much of a chance to use them, or even pattern them out of my SxS. Amazing that I was able save anything from that fiery Hell.

Anyhow, it seems to me that a small bore might be good to train younger shooters as well. I understand that our corporate zionist government doesn't want us to teach youngsters to shoot, and this is all the more reason to do so.

MAK;
You might revise your attitude toward pumps if you could use my Ithaca 37 Featherweight. I won it in 1961 during a Navy skeet team shoot in New London, CT. It's a 12 ga. Modified. I have used it for pheasant, sharptail, prairie chicken, and huns. It seems to leap to the shoulder on its own, and it's deadly. It was embarrassing to hunt pheasants with it if I wasn't alone. It was on the pheasant so fast, nobody got a shot until I started to sit it out.
I checked out a Model 59 Winchester in '62 and found it too light up front. Of course, now it's somewhat rare, so, if the price is right, I would grab one.
A .410 is my choice for armadillos. My dad's old Hercules (Monkey Wards) single barrel full choke makes them bounce pretty good out to 50 yds. A friend got a good deal on a Winchester double in .410 about ten years ago but wouldn't sell it to me. A dumb move because there is really no upland game here, Mostly ducks, geese, and turkeys that would all laugh as they gave him a proctoscope simulation with it.

Sorry, shot with a scoped 243 out of my shop window. The only plus is that the 243 is a very early M77 Ruger  S/N 3031.

I've had a few guys tell me about their Ithacas, mostly 37s, but I've never had the chance at one.
Most of my pump gun experience comes from the Mossberg line, and maybe a few lesser brands in between. I can't say the Mossberg pump is a bad gun, because its durable, reliable, and without a doubt has made its mark, but for me the balance and long forearm reach make for a slow gun. The comb on most Mossbergs is also too high for my taste, but again this is a personal thing.
I'd be willing to give the pump gun a try again, if I found one I really liked, and could afford.

Speaking of the .410 S x S, I think it would be great medicine for wood rats as well. These pesky varmints are forever contaminating my firewood with their noxious droppings, and dung filled nests. I wish I could send them to the nearest corporate executive, or politician as kindred spirits for them to enjoy.
Pretty good looking buck. Despite being a grouch, you actually look pretty happy there, Mike!