doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OLD TIME SHOOTING STYLE

Various recent posts have commented on the large amount of drop at the heel observed on many of the American shotguns and questioned how the old guys could shoot them. Revdocdrew posted some photos a while back of men shooting guns with a lot of drop. I was going through some of my Ithaca shooters photo file and found these pics. again illustrating how the old guys did it. One is holding a double, the other a single barrel trap. These were posed for publicity photos but this is how they mounted and shot. Thought some here might be interested.

I shoot with my head up shrugging my shoulder to bring the gun in line rather than dropping my head to the stock. I find I am much more consistent in my mount now than when I would drop my head to the stock. It works for me and is great due to I can use the old stock configurations.

A picture really is worth a thousand words.

Walt's photos aptly demonstrate, in fact they can be considered proof positive, that the old stock configurations were to accomodate the hats.

Lou

Trapshooter's "Joe Morgan" elbow pump during the mount produces same result as shrug. I don't think the brim on that Elliot Ness lid projects as far as does a long-billed baseball cap nor does it appear to flop down Fedora-style. Still think it's stiff necks sticking thru those celluloid collars that produced low stocks. Don't know what to do with PA rifles which are cracked down to a faretheewell? Need to find lots of pix of shooters with collarless shirts; take a look at their head attitude. Anybody have a database of drop dimensions on trapguns? How about those pumpguns? Somebody mentioned oldtime champ shooting Win M97. How were those stocked? Those Black Diamonds stocked higher than a plainjane field gun?

jack

The Ithaca M-37Ts were 'modern' trap dimensions but they didn't appear on the scene until 1937. The photos posted above were from the early to mid 1920s.

The problem with about any pic before 1910 or so is that almost all were studio pics and posed, like this about 1897 of Rolla Heikes with his L.C. Smith



Charles Grimm with his Smith



1897 "Tournament" grade from Sporting Life June 26 1909
http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/SportingLife/1909/VOL_53_NO_16/SL5316032.pdf

After Fred Gilbert, “The Wizard of Spirit Lake” came out of Iowa and won the first Du Pont World's Pigeon Championship in Baltimore in 1895, he was traveling for Lefever and shooting one of the company’s doubles. Lefever started receiving orders for trap and pigeon guns with "Fred Gilbert Specifications": drop at comb of 1 3/8 inches; at the heel, 2 inches; length from trigger to heel, 14 1/4 inches; trigger to toe 14 1/2 inches; and trigger to center of butt 14 inches; with a full pistol grip and 30-inch full choke barrels.

Ithaca shooters in 1928 "crawling the stock"

Mr. Heikes is in a pre-mounted position. That gun's not even into his shoulder pocket.

c. 1910 'live action' shot

The guy in the second spot looks pretty normal and modern to me!