doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Adjusting Point of Impact for vintage guns

Sage advice from Don Amos AKA “Rocketman”
"Shoot what fits you, what you shoot well, and what you enjoy shooting. If you find a gun that fits all three of these…never, but never, sell it!"

And if none of the above applies, sell it and save yourself the frustration and money. Trying to make it right rarely works.
Or buy yourself a trap gun with adjustable everything and spend hours trying to make it 'just right' instead of shooting. Did that...and sold it with joy in my heart

I patterned the Greener single barrel trap gun and at about 15 yards the main charge of bird shot was 4"-5" was low at 4:30. If I'm visualizing it properly I would have to hold 4"-5" at 10:30, pretty much obscuring the bird.

Lacking a true LOP, DAC. DAH gauge, I used the method described on Midway by Larry Potterfield,so the below measurements should be within 1/16" There is no visible cast for either the Greener or the Mears

Greener:
w/o pad DAC 1 3/8”, DAH 2” LOP 13 7/8”; w/pad DAC 1/ 3/8” DAH 1 9/16” LOP 14

Mears Brothers:
LOP 14” DAC 7/8” DAH 1 9/16

Measurements of a gun that does fit me well:
LEOPOLD BIEDER OF VIENNA (FN 1930) STOCK: DAH: 2 5/16". DAC: 1 3/8" LOP 14 1/8"

How far can the average person go outside of their 'ideal fit' and still shot a gun reasonably well? A 1/8" inch or even a 1/4" inch

I think there are 2 problems to be discussed here. Whenever I've gotten a new shotgun, I have always started by shooting it off sandbags just like a rifle to see if POI matches up with POA. Most of the guns I've acquired in recent years were for turkey hunting, so it's essential for the gun to shoot straight. Most SxS shotguns are regulated for field loads, and they will not center the heavier turkey loads. A SxS is usually going to have L/R issues, while an O/U will often have Up/Down issues. The Dremel tool solution already mentioned can correct this, though I have just used a round file to center the pattern of several guns. It's much better to attempt this with a gun with removable chokes. You can always just replace the chokes if it doesn't work to suit you.

I have also found that some guns with just one barrel can have the Up/Down problems. I can live with a 60/40 pattern, but I had Benelli SBE that threw a 90/10 pattern with field loads, and I had to correct that. I think a shotgun oughta shoot true according to the front bead, and it is a flaw in the gun if it won't. A gun with one barrel that has L/R issues is seriously flawed, imo.

A gun that doesn't shoot straight is one problem; one that doesn't fit the shooter for wing shooting is a very different issue. I suspect that most of the advice you will get will be about this second problem. That one isn't a flaw in the gun; it just doesn't fit a particular shooter. Good luck with it, whichever problem it is.

As far as members of this board go, I fit the bottom-shelf category. I like old double guns and have made them fit with leather and Kydex riser for years. I had a Baker Black Beauty Special in 16-gauge that was choked full and fuller, and with a leather laced on pad I seldom missed a pheasant with it. To be honest, pheasant a somewhat rare around here. If you already have the gun, like it, and want to shoot it better, try a comb adjustment. If you can afford bespoke guns, get them, and avoid buying old guns with too much drop.

I recall reading somewhere about a gunsmith in New York State, it may have been one of Dan Lefever's sons, accepting a shotgun from a customer who complained of it shooting either too high or too low. As soon as the customer left his shop, he checked the gun, then removed the barrel and sharply smacked it across a pile of old telephone books to very slightly bend the barrel in the correct direction.

Easy money!

Yep.

I made the mistake of selling a gun I shot well once - a Thomas Wild hammer gun made in the 1930s, and set up as a live bird gun. I broke 30 clays in row on the old Yooper Shoot "pigeon ring" two years running (no, not all 30 ribbons fell in the ring) with it. I traded it in 2008 to Cabelas for an Arrieta that was pretty, but that i never shot well...and I've been looking for another for years.

The same gun turned up at an auction a few weeks ago...I thought it was a similar gun, but looking at photos of the one I'd owned, noticed it had the same serial number...

So I went after it hard and bought it back yesterday. This time, it'll get a proper pad (I shot it with a Galco slip on before) and a permanent spot in the safe.

That would be annoying.

That's a bunch of difference...

I don't think there is an "average person"; some people are adaptable, some aren't.

An instinctive shooter will be more effected by a gun that doesn't fit them than a more deliberate shooter who finds the right "sight picture" for a each gun. I'm the former, and a poorly fitting gun is useless to me.

Is the Greener GP one of the real Greener trap guns or is it a standard GP that you use for trap.?
What load are you using in it? .... ?fps and weight.
And have you had your shooting style with the gun checked by an instructor?