Methinks Joe Woods nailed it, though I've had many a day that turned rainy enjoying a good doublegun shooting dove &/or ducks [when lead was still legal] under gentlemanly circumstances, meaning only that aside from the gun getting wet, it suffered not the least & shooting conditions offered minimal exposure for anything aside from that happening. Go afield in the muck & mud in rough weather slogging about &/or in boats loaded w/dogs and decoys and old cast iron weights and all the other 'stuff' and honestly it would be a near miracle not to put a ding or dent in something & that 'something' might well be the gun you are taking, cased or not, so 'rainy day' guns make perfect sense to me for that reason alone.
Same may be said about hunting chukar in the high country; it is not usually wet, but it is arduous hunting and I've seen several stocks broken from falls and bbls. dented against rocks. Its not something you would wish on an expensive or high condition gun.
FWIW, I've never considered it good form nor intelligent to hold barbed wire down w/anything aside from a foot;-) And on a lot of places here, one may retreive a bird from another's property [cross a fence line] w/permission, but etiquette and the sheriff will call it trespass & hunting if you take the gun across w/you, just about all of the time.
I doubt any here would intentionally abuse their guns, be they beaters or high condition. I have known and hunted w/exceptions in the past & have always done my best afterwards to exclude them from my future, if for no other reason than there were generally other issues present as well. Setting an unloaded gun down in a pick up bed is not abuse, but if its a high condition one and a dog jumps on it or someone's kid steps on it, it gets scratched just the same.
Last edited by tw; 10/06/12 12:13 AM. Reason: spel'n
