...sometimes a single barrel Baikal held with tape will do:



JC

Amen. It's not the arrow, it's the Indian.

SRH

I am jealous! This picture has me gearing up for hunting season. You are right too, we have been hunting with single shot shotguns and rifles long before the side by side.

I've got one similar to that. But its been cut down for sitting in a 4-wheeler gun rack and shooting snakes.

What kinds of birds are those in the picture?

Adam

There-in lies a brutal truth. Best is as best does. Seen more than one individual with a best who showed a performance that was anything but.
Not willing, just yet, to say I don't like pretty guns though.

Best,
Ted

You can also live on a diet of cheap sausage and gruel but would you want to?

I'll bet he didn't have that gun professionally fitted.

I like cheap sausage.

Bet you wont after you see it being made.

Sometimes I make it myself.

Adam, they are 4 doves, 7 California quail (introduced locally and very abundant) and
three local partridge/perdiz (two naked and one dressed).



JC

P.S.:Replacement, the owner was definitely not fitted for his gun. As a matter
of fact, whichever guns he goes out with he usually gets back with such a bag,
(and I suppose he could pass for a dakota). Here he is posing proudly with his
shooting iron (very apt name because it is hardly more than that):
Patricio "Pato" Ulloa

Pleeease.....don't let my wife see this

JC, I shot one of those gigantic rabbits once. Someone flushed a perdiz on a dove shoot in Argentina and it flew into a small patch of brush and grass behind me. I walked in to flush the perdiz and the biggest rabbit I ever saw bounced out of the brush, so I shot on impulse. Bird boys were thrilled!

They're not native to SA are they?....Geo

Looks like a European Hare, they are larger than Snowshoe (Varing) Hare. Believe there are some states that have populations of these.

Hello Geo,

The large furry one is actually a hare (Lepus capensis) and the other a rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus),
both also introduced and considered serious pests.

JC

Good eating under that fur,mam,I love Rabbit (& Hare) Pie
Franc

From Russia with Dove.

I've always believed that a Stevens 311 will do just about anything a Purdery SLE will do. We don't buy high end doubles because we need them because they do something lower end guns in general won't do. We buy then because we want them for the artistry and beauty in their construction.
As an aside The "Star" of this thread is as "adjustable" as any gun I've seen. Just add or subtract tape to get the "fit" you need.

Jim

Jim, I totally agree. One doesn't need a Roll Royce and could well do with a Lada.

JC

Gotta agree with ol Ted Schefelbein this time! Electrical tape an' beechwood stocks sure do knock 'em dead!
Why spend yer money on some over-rated import? In fact, why even have two barrel? One seems to duz it!

Y'all just drop those subscriptions to DGJ an buy Swamp People guns!

I had a friend back in my teems that had the most "automatic" of these single shots I've ever seen. Every time he's pull the trigger the gun would then pop open and eject the spent shell. If he wasn't holding on or the tape had worn that held the forearm on it would them fall off as well. I used to give him quite a bit of "distance" when we were hunting.
Jim

I once saw an LC Smith in West Virginia that looked a lot worse than that. Held together with wire and tape then camo painted. A guy's dedicated hog/waterfowl/deer/upland game gun.

The most beautiful LC Smith I have ever seen.

Bet that Elsie hadn't shot loose, tho! They mostly don't.

Smashed and crushed and ripped and worn, torn up, splintered but regardless of the condition of the rest of the shotgun, when that massive rib extension closes into the action nothing but the sound similar to a bank vault closing is heard.

The beauty of an LC Smith!!!

They even do a silenced 'Stealth' model in black finish. Obtainable in .410, 20 bore and 12 bore for the real gun purists among you. Lagopus..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D476CTTaBc4

You, Sir- have the co-ordinates 100% right-- I have a "using" 12- a OO made in 1911- 28" Armor steel, DT, Ext--good stock dims-- it ain't a Monogram, but it shoots, locks up like a Nun's purse, fits me like a Armani suit fits Tony Soprano--Smiths are indeed, the finest sidelock double ever made in America.

I just started a summertime turkey gun project . I wanted lightweight and single shot in 20 gauge. The platform was going to be either a Savage 220A or a Baikal MP18 which is the gun that started this thread. I couldn't bring myself to cut-up and modify the old Savage as it is in pretty good shape for an old girl. I didn't suffer Vandal's remorse regarding the Baikal as I've installed a threaded turkey choke on the MP18 and have begun rattle-can painting a camo finish on the Russian. These hammerless single shots are relatively well made. They can be had for $91 at Cheaper than dirt NIB and delivered to an FFL for $11. Look at the difference in the steel at muzzle end of the Savage vs. the MP18 which is the thicker. It's not just difference in choke. The OD of the Baikal larger. There's only 5 oz. difference in weight with the Baikal heavier at 5 lbs., 5 oz.

That's a pretty nice 220, Gil. I think you made the right choice...Geo

I have read and re-read this thread, but then I look at some of the fine shotguns Gerry A. offers and I have to admit to being a weak materialistic capitalist.

Gil,

You gonna be able to live with the trigger pull on the Baikal?

SRH

Stan, my barrel man, William Lambert of SumToy Custom chokes in Glennville has the trigger light and crisp. Out of the box, 7.5 lbs. with creep. It's about 4 lbs., no creep. Gil

GLS, Pato would die for an MP18!

BTW the OD on his barrel is just like the MP18's. It looks like an old lead water pipe.

JC

Gil,

Four pounds will work fine. My little Yildiz Elegante 4 had about 8 lb. triggers, but I worked them down myself to about 3 1/2-4 lbs.

I hope to see you posing with a big gobbler next spring!

SRH

I like that his nickname is Duck.....


Destry

Hello Destry,

`A propos of Pato, you should have seen his face when he shot down a duck, it
fell into a branch of the Maipo river -fortunately with no current- and my teckel
Emma dove in and made a retrieve out to around 40 yards, with Daisy, a yellow
Labrador, looking from the shore. It is the time I have most missed not having a
camera!

JC

JayCee:
Is that in machine Pistol 18? I've got two 32 round snail drums for these. I've never has a chance to buy an MP 18 but I'd jump at the chance.
Jim

Jim, I was referring to a Baikal MP18 GLS mentioned in post #283394 above.

I don't think Pato would have much use for a machine pistol.

JC

Well JayCee you never know:
Keep in mind that they load shotshells for the Thompson SMG!!
I've always wondered how one of these would work on South American dove hunting!!
Jim

Turkey gun is done! Now if I can only be as successful a hunter as Pato...
Baikal MP18, 20 gauge.

My first shotgun was an old H&R single shot 12 gauge. I was ten as I recall. The recoil was so fierce, that when the gun recoiled the forearm would stay in my left hand as I toppled back. Each time I shot it I'd have to put it back together. Remember one time it happened and at the same time my right thumb accidentally pressed down on the opening button and I was left holding the forearm in my left hand. The buttstock/frame in my right hand, and the barrel was laying on the ground. Man I hated that gun. Don't ever make a kids first gun a single shot 12 gauge when he weighs about 80 pounds.

To many hunters a gun is nothing more than a tool. Thus the popularity of synthetic and camo stocks. Pato proves that you don't even need that though he seems to really like the camo duds.

GLS, great job!

Pato would really like something to go with his attire.

JC

Jim and Tut, great stories.

When I was in my teens and "shotgun-less" I used to borrow a single shot one that
I had to unscrew the barrel of to be able to "eject" the spent shell. It did not make
for quick follow-up shots!

JC

Love my IZ18 20 gauge. But I could not resist customising it with a made to fit figured stock (OK, I had the blank for years and it was too narrow for anything else).

Seriously, it is one of the most ergonomic actions around. When the knack is acquired it can be shot and reloaded fast.

SL, I am sure you would really love a Manufrance Idéal!

JC

P.S. That Baikal looks really nice. Congratulations! jc

JC,

You are a good shooter psychologist. I ADORE the Ideal. Any grade would do, but my favorite is the Robust Ideal with its self opening system.

Actually I am sort of weak for any true round action, a side pedal Dickson in 16 gauge would not be bad either.

But to retain some perspective, someone, could be on this board, said a good gun is the one that makes you smile when you pick it up and not cry when you drop it. The IZ18 in this respect just edges past the other two. A narrow thing mind you....

Good quote and nice wood on Olga. I like the action as well in addition to being able to choose extraction or ejection on my MP18. Gil

Care for a quiz?

The Izh 18 (Baikal MP 18, Rem spr 1xx) is a development of which American single shot action?

Humpty, it has been posted before, here and elsewhere, that the IZ18 is based on the Iver Johnson single. I had one of those, it is nothing like the IZ18. It had an ambidextrous opening lever and central hammer. Unless there is another I.Johnson type, then the IZ18 is not related.

There were also posts accusing the IZ18 of slam fires, ie firing when the gun is snapped close. Obviously those posting did not knnow of the IZ18 automatic hammer block.

But to go beyond the details. Consciously and deliberately hunting with a single can be liberating. The absolute focus on the one and only shot changes hunting for the better, in my opinion. Just look at Pato's expression in the pics. He knows!

Guess I'll have to write a separate post on that

I recall reading a Gun Digest article some years back where one of their regular writers, Ken Waters if memory serves me correct, was asked to obtain an example of all the then currently available single shots on the US market & to hunt with tham exclussively for a season & then write up a report. He did so & his conclusion was he was not about to give up his fancy doubles, BUT, in all honesty he had to admit that his overall bag for the season was not reduced, the singles had performed very well indeed.

Back in the '60s I hunted with the men down near Groton Plantation in the Savannah River swamp for deer, with dogs. There was one fella from S. Carolina, who was a member of the Red Bluff Club where we hunted, that used a single shot. I never looked at it closely, but now that I am older and know a little more about guns I am sure it had to have had an ejector. If I told you how fast he could cycle buckshot through that thing it would sound like a big lie. As a boy I commented on it, and the only explanation I got was that he held three shells between his fingers to reload faster. If sounded like a slow cycling pump gun. Still amazes me, after all these years.


SRH

2-piper

I think you are referring to an article by the then Gun Digest editor Ken Warner, title (if i recall) why not try a single.

He lamented the lack of a decent snap action single, still not available so many years later. The IZ18 comes close though.

Stan, if you practice with one or more shells in the left hand, and if the gun is an ejector, you can reload very fast. The process becomes automatic.

Shotgunlover;
I believe that is the article I was thinking of, sounds right anyway. Just got my Kens mixed up. Not sure if Ken Waters ever wrote for Gun Digest but he did a lot of writing for Handloader Magazine.

I agree, SL, but I just can't describe how fast this guy was. I have practiced it with a Ruger No. 1, .45-70, and use this practice on the dove field with my ejector guns (my gunbearer/loader struck out for greener pastures ), but could never get as proficient as he.

SRH

SL, I totally agree with you on the one barrel shotgun experience.
At least with my present day proficiency, my second shots trying to correct an
initial miss are completely non productive so I would do as well or maybe better
if I knew I did't have a quick follow up.

Next saturday I am going to experiment loading only one barrel .

JC