Side by Side

I agree, Chris. I shot on a Navy skeet team in Connecticut in the very early '60's. My gun? An Ithaca Model 37 Featherlight in 12 Gauge.Then, I barely used a shotgun for eight years until I got to Montana in 1968. The upland birds of all varieties were so thick that year that I finally had Blair's Iron Works in Havre make a custom grill for my Charger RT from expanded steel sheet. Every time I drove to town, pheasants, sharptails, Prairie chickens, and huns would fly in front of my car and break the plastic grill. After my replacement was installed, a pheasant could easily bounce 50 yards without leaving a scratch.
Anyway, I saw A Stranger in Town with Terrence Hill and decided a short barreled double was the ticket. Mysteriously, Bing and Bob's Sporting Goods had an old on in the back room. A Stevens 225 12 gauge double from the turn of the century that had been traded in by an old geezer who had been a Wells Fargo stagecoach guard who worked in the transport of gold from the mine at Zortman up to the rail depot at Havre. It had double triggers, mule ear hammers, and the barrels had been reduced to 19 inches. The well-worn stock had been varnished with something thick, and I loved it. It was just the medicine for Huns. They take off at your feet and fly just above the grass for about 50 yards before landing again. My Modified choke Ithaca tore them up, but the cylinder barrels on the double were just right. I still have it. Fits right under the trench coat.
My wife, whom I met in Montana, had a Stevens 311 double 12. Mostly for deterrence since she never shot it. 
Later, she bought me the 412E Valmet cased set of doubles when I got my CLU degree. It has double over/unders if 12/12. 223/12, and 30-06/3-06. Its impressive, but I really prefer the side by sides with double triggers.  
I have had several Browning O/U's, and Antonio Zoli and a few others, but they just don't inspire the passion like a nice SxS. For one thing, O/U's are heavy. The sweetest one I never owned was a friends Felix Sarasqueta 12 Ga. SxS. It was light as a feather and swung like a ballerina. The guy broke the stock, and sold it before I found out. My stockmaker buddy could have made a new one for it...after I bought the pieces, of course.

Controlled Round Feed?

You betcha, Red Ryder. Controls whoever you want.

I do enjoy the attributes of the SxS...
Carrying is simple, just break open the action and sling it over the shoulder.
Balance is generally better than with any other type.
Long barrels don't make the gun feel too long and cumbersome, as happens with big pumps and autos.
I do also get annoyed with the shortcomings...
Barrels tend to be choked permanently. If the manner of choke works with your shooting style, you're in bizness, but if not, there is no simple solution.
You have 2 quick shots, but only 2. If you wound on the second shot, you are going to take quite a bit of time for follow up.
Well used SxS guns can be quite different than they appear... chambered for odd things like the 12g. 2.5", 14g., or whatever. I was a distant part of a bit of flurry re; old scatterguns. Seems a couple of enterprising gunsmiths were recutting 2.5" chambers to 2.75". Some folks got all in a huff about this, because they probably rightly figured the 2.75" ran at higher pressure. However, the matter finally died when it became clear that some shotgunners were stuffing in 2.75" shells into their old 2.5" chambers-seems some gunmakers were somewhat generous with their chamber dimensions, and it seems the guns that were gonna come apart all ready did. I guess the moral of the story is, you pays your money, and you takes your chances.
With lead shot on the way out, what will happen to all those grand old scatterguns?

Mak, you are basing some of your points of dislike for doubles on some not quite correct information. Most modern SXS shotguns are usually available with screw in choke tubes and the ones that aren't are the lower priced models from some of the import companies that some of our US companies are marketing as entry level SXS's. Lengthening the chamber on older guns  that are of such quality as to warrant it is a relatively easy procedure any "Competent" gunsmith can do and the tools are available from several companies like Brownells. There are also several companies that do shotgun work like this and can even fit new barrels for older, expensive shotguns that warrant the added expense. Older doubles with fixed chokes can also be threaded for tubes if the barrels are of sufficient size to allow threading. Lead shot may well be on the way out in the future but we are already seeing companies producing alternatives like Bismuth to allow older shotguns to still function like lead shot loads. Two shots are all that is usually needed with a shotgun unless you are shooting driven birds and need two guns like the gentry of England. When hunting partridge or quail I seldom had a chance to shoot more than two, but I may be slow. Sometimes having more than two shots available makes the gunner overly reckless with the first two shots thinking the reserves will save the day. Shotgunners are usually not "spray and pray" gunners. Duck hunters might be the exception because the flights can be fast and furious at times but a lot of duck chasers have downed birds aplenty with a double, Nash Buckingham anyone? (http://gardenandgun.com/article/legend-bo-whoop). Chris S

I thought I was the only one in the world who actually read Garden & Gun. It's really cool to know somebody else who even knows it exists.
Briley does a fantastic job of any sort of shotgun work you can imagine. As you say, they can rechoke some barrels or add removeable chokes to others. My Zoli was converted to removable chokes by them with no change in appearance. In addition, after reading some more about chokes and watching some instructional videos about sporting clays, I think most people could get along just fine with only modified chokes. On remembering my days with the Navy skeet team, I did quite well with mo Ithaca 37 with modified choke. It's a matter of getting on target instead of farting around and a bit of physics. In fact, my experiences in Montana hunting with others was that the most frustrating thing was waiting for guys who farted around when a bird went up rather than getting in position without delay.
MAK sounds like he favors a Mossberg 500 tactical shotgun with a 10 shot tube. I have always thought that two birds at a time was plenty. Pheasants go up singly, and sharptails and prairie chickens go up two at a time if you walk up slowly. You don't need an AK style shotgun for that.
Oh, and I just saw that you have read Nash Buckingham. He did most of his shooting within 50 miles of where I am exiled. If you haven't read De Shootinest Gentleman, try to find it. The story about the Master Coon will bust your gut.

Mike

Well, Chris, seems you are pretty warmed up for this one!
What I should have said is that I LIKE some things about SxS guns, and DISLIKE other things. I don't really find myself in love with scatterguns, as a general rule.  More than the chamber thing is the issue that most American shells are made today to power autoloaders of various types. For SxS guns, the extra snap is unnecessary, and may even lead to pressure spikes.

Yeah, you can substitute some things for lead, but it doesn't have the same properties, or act the same. Anyhow, enjoy your shotgunning passion.

.....Mak is finally taking a more gentler and pleasing tone. Hat off to Mak. Chris S

Doubles do it!

Mike

I did get to thinking about this entire scattergun thing. Isn't it odd that scatterguns go from the most expensive, rich man's accoutrement, to the most basic and primitive tool. Shotguns are a serious passion among some. My late friend must have had upwards of thirty shotguns in his battery, from Beretta autoloaders to lowly bolt action barn guns.
I admit to admiring the lines, grace, and workmanship in fine English doubles. I think back to the Winchester 21, that this gun was the flagship of the Winchester line for decades. Then I think back to the forgotten town of Congress, AZ, where brake open single shots of questionable virtue blasted away at rattlers and tin cans. The one and only time any gun ever spun me around was a 12g. break open single shot that no longer had a butt plate on its rough hardwood stock.  
So, maybe it was these formative experiences, rather than those of an acquaintance, who learned about shotguns among well heeled competitors at the skeet pitch, that have left me with less than a mighty glow for the world of the shotgun. You just can't escape your past.

Mike, so true and great pic by the way, but it looks like Mak has bolted from the barn and went back down that negative trail and don't like them scatterguns. Now I have to try to do this intervention all over again to get him back in the fold! Chris S

I'm traveling on a tight schedule this week, so I will have to take time to think over this denouement over a couple fingers of Famous Grouse this evening.
So you soon.

Mike 

Doubles
I suppose my love of side by side double shotguns started when I was a kid in the “Fifties” watching all the western shows on TV. I always loved the firearms they used and whenever somebody meant business they reached for a good old double to settle the score. John Wayne loved those Greeners with the short barrels!  You can imagine my excitement when my Dad brought home a couple of old guns (a double barrel 12 and a lever action 30-30) for my older brother to use. I was too young to shoot them but my brother generously decided I could be in charge of cleaning them after he used them. I accepted because it meant I could hold them and lavish all my attention on them. We were probably naïve back then because the old double most likely had Damascus barrels and the action was not real snug when it locked up but it had rabbit eared hammers and a splinter forearm and I thought it was just fine. My older brother shot it quite a bit while rabbit and grouse hunting and if I remember correctly he shot a deer with too one season. The old double was finally traded in on a Savage/Stevens 311 12 gauge that my brother bought. So if I love side by side double shotguns you now know why. Chris S

Chris,
Those old shows were more than entertainment, they were the American myth brought into everyone's living room. Today, there are those who misuse the word myth, suggesting that it means a lie, but what myth really means is a collection of stories, ideas, and beliefs that help define a particular people.
I don't know if anyone who made those shows really knew what they were doing, but they influenced every kid who had a TV set in their home. It wouldn't surprise me a bit, if one reason there still are SxS guns, was because of the Western on TV phenomenon.

However, I can't really say that a SxS is better than an O/U when it comes to two barrels on a receiver. The SxS is definitely the one with the longest history, and the best pedigree, but when it comes to downing the target, I'm really not sure that one is any better than the other. One thing is for sure though, the O/U will forever have a rather unsubtle, blocky profile. No matter how nimble the gun might be, it'll still look like a 2x4 with lipstick, and besides, John Wayne never carried one.

It's pretty darned hard to make a light O/U. They are very clubby compared to a nice SXS. The trap weenies like O/U's because they think the sighting plane is narrower than a SxS. However, a well made SxS will be much nicer to carry in the field. Compared to a Browning Superposed, a nice Felix Sarasqueta feels like a feather. Also, we don't usually shoot a hundred rounds or more in bird shooting, so recoil is not the problem that it is in trap, skeet, or sporting clays. Every year, I shoot in a sporting clays invitational in Tupelo. It's 126 shots, not counting practice shots. That's why I take the Antonio Zoli O/U instead of a nice Spanish double. So, it depends on your game, not any superiority of one action over the other,
Mike