I started out with a BLNE 16ga german guild gun, when I left home I was not given the gun so I brought a Fox Sterlingworth 16ga at my first duty station. I played with O/U Browning 20's and 16's, but never stopped using the Side by Sides.
As I got more money I began to buy one of every type of 16 ga SxS I could find. A Bar Action hammergun, a back action hammergun, a BLNE, a BLE, a facile princep BLE, a sideplated BLE, a drilling, and a SLE, etc. One day I woke up and looked around my gun safe and all the extra gun cases and figured out 95% of my shooting was done with two guns. So gradually I have paired down from a high of 36 plus long guns to 9 shotguns of which four to five will probably go away in the next couple of years.
I find I mostly shoot the same two guns and rarely shoot, much less touch the others. I spend more time with some of the Ephemera (misc shotgun stuff) to include odd 16ga reloading equipment, gun case items, and books (mostly quail and shotgun related) than I do acquiring any new guns.
