doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com New (to me) double gun

I don't have a image service but there's nothing to show that can't be described.

Every now and then I do something that defies rational explanation. It is what it is.

Perusing the auction sites the other day I see "Eagle Arms, Zabala Bros SXS 10 ga..... 20" barrels, excellent bores...

I said to myself, "Self, I want that!"

So, now I have it. I shot it today with some BBB steel shot....

It is unruly to say the least. Four rounds and I'd had all I wanted for one afternoon. I have the same shotgun with 32" barrels and evidently the weight of that extra 2' of tube tames the beast quite a bit.

I'll try some slugs and buckshot when I set up some proper targets.

Anyway, that's one less niche to fill in the collection....


Alan

Well done! I just did something similar.

Bought a gun last week. Delivered yesterday. Determined there were enough faults that it's going back. Found a better gun today (in person) and bought it.

The keeper is a Sauer & Sohn 12 ga sidelock with 30" Damascus barrels dating to 1895. 6 pounds 5.5 oz. Not perfect but good bones and so it will be perfect when I'm done with it.

Your niches have niches, but, I doubt you are alone in that.

Congrats on a new gun. Measure the pitch. If it is greater than 2�, adjusting it might tame the recoil.

I had a few out at 4�, and even a 20 gauge pump was positively brutal. I like it about 1 1/2� or so, but, everyone is different.

Good luck.

Best,
Ted

I'll try to measure the pitch tomorrow, but off hand I would say that it is probably pretty close to what it should be for me. I was not getting anything on my cheek or face and for all intents and purposes it was recoiling straight back. I'm pretty sure my right shoulder was absorbing every once of recoil the gun had to offer. It's the sort of thing a guy could develop a fairly significant flinch over, ... possibly even a twitch...

In addition to a can of whupass on every shot it is extremely loud. The neighbors probably thought I had some kind of explosives.

Years ago when I had all three boys and a bunch of nephews hunting, one of their favorite activities was to shoot a hog right at dusk. I would go looking for it alone since it was easier to fight wild hogs than to have to go home and tell my wife or sisters that I had fed one of their children to wild hogs....

At first I used a 1911 45ACP. It worked well until one night it didn't work so well. Then I went to the sxs. A full sized 12 ga sxs on your hands and knees in a hog tunnel is nearly worse than nothing at all.

I found a Springfield 511 that had seen better times and cut the barrels to 19" and the stock a hair as well. All legal of course. It worked remarkably well on hogs at 10 yards and was easier to handle.

But, it was a bugger bear to hold onto once the shooting started, and once the shooting started, anything downrange was either dead, dying or deaf.

It has limited uses. This 10 ga has even greater limitations. But, I can certainly understand how and why some of the old time elephant hunters were confident about whailing away at pachyderms with a 10 bore and round ball. It is a powerful gun.

Alan

A howitzer /ˈhaʊ.ɪtsər/ is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and ... Most other armies in the world reserve the word "howitzer" for guns with barrel lengths 15 to 25 times their caliber, with longer-barreled guns ..

Bore size of a 10 gauge is .775. Divide barrel length by bore = 25.8064516129.
By definition that thing is .8064516129 off being a Howitzer.
Maybe it needs wheels.

O.M

Yeah. Those Spanish 10's need some weight to make them tolerable. And long barrels will do that. First time I hunted turkeys, I borrowed a long-nosed Spanish 10ga, weight in excess of 9 pounds. Not too bad. If you're looking for something short-nosed, like for home defense, find yourself an inexpensive Spanish 20ga and saw off the barrels. For that purpose, you're talking really close range, and it's not like you need a very heavy shot charge to do the job.

Alan, I can identify with the hog work you spoke of. That form of excitement comes for me usually in an irrigated cornfield, where visibility is easier measured in feet than yards. Short is good there, and I assume the tunnel you mentioned might be the pathway the hogs push through briar patches and such, which forces you to your knees. If it's briars like we have here, they are about as bad on you as a mad hog.

Anyway, the recoil is inconsequential in a situation like that. I have a close friend who worked part time for years as a cameraman for a hunting television show. He was once in Alaska, filming along the salmon streams. An old resident guy he met asked him where was his gun. Tripp replied he didn't have one with him. The mans said "Son, this is bear country". Tripp replied that he would be careful. Old guy pulled out his alloy framed, lightweight .44 magnum and handed it to Tripp. Tripp hefted it and said "I'll bet this thing kicks like crazy". Old man replied, without a smile, "you won't even notice it when your hand is in a grizzly's mouth".

You won't either, Alan.

SRH

Great story, Stan. My former USMC buddy who guides in AK carries a Rem 870 12 gauge- 20" riot gun, stoked to the gills with OO buckshot. Like most guns used in Alaska's harsh weather, it shows a lot of blueing and stock finish wear- The muzzle is scraped a bit, and once, a first-time "In Country" client asked him about that.. "Oh that,"-- he replied-- "That's from a bear's teeth, when I shoved the muzzle into his open mouth and pulled the trigger!"" Talk about your CQC moment.

I can only imagine how a wounded Boar would be in O-Dark thirty in a cornfield or swamp. Not exactly a pleasant experience. If my MI farmland hog hunt develops, I plan to hunt in daylight hours and from an elevated stand- and not alone. All the videos I have been viewing during or long Winter up here, have been driven hunts in Romanian forests, dogs and beaters and sufficient large caliber rifles-- one hunter mentioned that a shot up in front of the shoulder area was the best "kill zone" for running hawgs.

If I had to do a, to mention a Bob Seger favorite song: "Night Moves" at my age, I'd take my old A-5 12 gauge with the 24" cylinder bore slug barrel, and OO buck shot loads. Of course, should I win the Powerball jackpot, I could visit your friend Steve Barnett and buy that 8 bore Parker DH-- and hire a gun bearer to lug it for me-- Doubt if I'd saw off the barrels though! Good luck with the hawgs in your area-- RWTF

There are maybe 1/100 hogs that are actually trying to get you. The other 99 just want to get away, and if you happen to be in Their way the results are nearly the same. What we have is not exactly briars, the thorns are a lot bigger, but it's hands and knees stuff. I don't do that stuff any more. Someone younger can do it. Once all those boys got old enough to where I wasn't responsible for them any more they got to chase their own wounded hogs and deer into thick brush bottoms. Actually that alone cut out a lot of those snap shots at dusk.

My #1 son hunts hogs with dogs. Sticks them with a knife and in those situations a gun is a liability. It is amazing the lead a hog can soak up and still go, as opposed to one stick of a long knife behind the elbow. It is almost immediate. One second there is all this demonic screaming and dog barking/growling fight and the next, .... silence. But, then off they go again. That is truly a young man's game. All of them, dogs and humans, run the entire time.

This new shotgun (like most of the others) will likely get a few more rounds through it, cleaned and back in a safe. They'll pull it out when I'm gone and wonder why the Hell he got this thing. The answer will still be "Because I wanted it!"

Alan

This shotgun might work very well on bears, IF it was one of the only things you were going to carry with you on your outing. Even with a foot lopped off of it it is still pretty heavy.

Wheels might be a good option RWTF.

Alan