doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Sub 6 pounds shotguns, what are advantages?

The best gun is one that has yet to be invented - but I am the first one to think of it. Make note. It would be a very light gun - maybe 2.01 lbs. This would make it very easy to carry in the field and easy to shoulder and fast to swing. It would be a boon for small, crippled women under 5'1" who don't have a lot of muscle tone, and for most other sportsmen.

But wait - here's where it gets clever. The gun would have a magentic forend and receiver. The hunter would carry in his free hand a 20 lbs. block of iron. Most any type of magnetic metal would work, but I am sure there would soon be a market for base model chunks of pig iron and also very fancy blocks of the finest German steel engraved with dogs by artisans. Just before firing the gun, the shooter would simply affix the chunk of dead weight to the underside of the gun, thereby increasing the weight to over , well 22 lbs., making even the most ferocious Magnum loads seems like child's play.

This gun would placate the recoil whiners and the weight whiners alike. Think of it as a female Republican Barack Obama.

To be sure I am opinionated and I dont like light barrel shottguns. In main beacuse they swing too easily and owner blows past the bird, then tries to compensate by poke-hope shooting. Answer me this, which takes more energy, man who is 20 pounds overweight carrying 6 pound shotgun, or same man losing 10 pounds and carryin 7 1-2 pounds hsotgun? It is simple pysical science. People who question status quo and accepted notions give appearance fo being an ass. It's all relative. Mr. Greener is good reading but his premise is hardly a law of science. Signing off now, reads like mostly light gun enthisaists here today. Thanks for listening. CB

Cherry Bombed, the problem how I see it is that most S x S enthusiasts simply don't want heavy guns. Other than the trap and duck hunting bunch when do you ever hear someone say let me see that nice heavy S x S over there in the rack? You don't. People want to do more hunting with less gun and have for the last 100 years. Obviously you prefer a little more weight and I'm sure that they are more that feel the same as you do but I feel that the majority (looking at how the English guns have evolved) like to do more with less.

Well CB, you're insistence that NO ONE can shoot a light gun well is so flawed as to barely deserve a response. Obviously you and those you are around aren't very good shots.

Timothy-

The issue that I see with the cb character is his language.

In his last note to this thread assumes
-a sub 6# gun will be off-balance, light in the barrels
-those who choose to run sub 6# guns can't control their swing
-that DGS is overpopulated with such men
-that 10# on the ass = 1-1/2# in the hands
...and I'll leave the rest of that last note alone.

Sub six pound guns don't need to be poorly balanced.
I doubt anyone noting the attributes of such light guns in this thread wishes to have or to use poorly balanced guns.

This could be seen somehow as support to some facet of CB's position - that I really don't think that there are many guys who actually do want a sub six pound field gun. Such guns aren't that common, and the well balanced ones of decent quality aren't cheap. The decent and better quality, properly balanced sub six pound field guns are really, really wonderful to handle.
And of course they take special handling skills.


Really, back to the criticism CB is seeing in this thread, I'm seeing, and delivering, criticism to his character.

Either he's very bright, and is purposefully choosing his language with pugnacious intent -- and for this he should be scorned...

Or he's simple and just doesn't get it, that grown men of good character and solid education, experienced shooters and hunters, guys who know their way around the sport and lifestyle can actually, in a qualified and acceptable fashion, appreciate, handle, and successfully hunt with sub six pound guns.
If this is the case, we should pity him.

One way or the other -- or any way at all, I think the few sub six pound guns I own and shoot are really freakin cool, and that they have a place in this world -- in my hands or my vault!
I also like my ten plus pound guns, and the ones in between.
I can't wait until I get my 8bore SxS project under way and finally shoot it. I'll get an even bigger kick out of hunting with it (it'll be a rifle...) although it's not likely that I'll hunt with it much, as most of the guns and rifles that I use most of the time are of medium weight and configuration.


It's ok to like the light guns
It's ok to not like the guns
Some folks can handle them, some can't
I take issue over the generalizations and snippy attitude.
It's not flattering.



--Tinker

Generally speaking, a light gun is the better gun for me. In the blind with heavier loads late-season or geese it's the heavier 12 but 80 per cent it's the light 20 for me. I'm more of a point and pull than tracking guy. The heavier gun provides no advantage.

What dogon said and I usually haul a sub 6 pound gun while I am walking behind my Brittanys. However towards the end of last season I acquired a 7lb-4oz Lefever sixteen with 30" barrels and carried it the last few hunts and enjoyed it immensely. I have a 4 pound singleshot hammergun in sixteen that I like to carry while chasing the Bobs also.

My current sporting clays gun weighs 8lbs-14oz.

My opinion is that I like em all.

Mike

I am one of those old guys, more physically reduced that I like, that would be carrying a sub 6lb hammer double except that my favorate 16s way a bit over 6,0 lbs. Thanks to their long (30-32 inch) barrels they swing nicely and I get trap scores as nice as with 8+lb O/Us. On long days afoot after desert quail, I wish those guns weighed only 5,0 lbs, or 4,0 lbs, or I had a combo gunbearer-birddog-retriver-game bearer.

Barrel-light, poor handling shotguns are not what I take hunting on foot, no matter what they weigh.

Niklas

Anyone who thinks light guns are BS has been hunting too close to his car.

I like carrying the light guns and tried a 28 ga the first part of last season. I did not hit with it near as well as my 7 lb 12 gauge. I guess I am one of those guys without the skill to hunt with a light weight gun. I especially need the extra wieght when I am really winded.