I started hunting quail and cottontails in Sonoma County California in 1949 (long before aromatherapy became the main industry there....) with a Winchester Model 37 .410 that I bought with the pay for picking 96 field lugs of prunes.
But "shotgun" and "double barrel" always seemed to go together in the books by Askins, Keith, and even Roy Chapman Andrews that I read, so when I was a couple of years older, I got a 30" barreled Stevens 5100 12 guage--from too little to too big, I guess.
A few years later in college, I got a good deal on a used Beretta "Silver Snipe" 20 O/U, and that REALLY sold me on doubles. But I never really resolved the O/U vs SXS dilemma. Unfortunately I still shoot O/Us slightly less badly than SxSs....
I've had many pumps, including some of the best, but somehow they just don't stick with me. Never owned a clank-clank.
