doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com O/U versus SxS

For me it is because, with the barrel on each side of the rib, it changes the way the actual lead looks. Even though I'm not looking at those barrels the gap, the forward allowance, looks different to me with a S x S.

I have also had many serious competittors tell me that the lead looks different to them when they go from a 32" barrel to, say, a 26". It is hard to quantify, but if it changes the perception of what that leads looks like, it is real.

SRH

'Bout time for Wonko to drop in and tell me how stupid that is.

Actually, Stan, I was marveling at the clarity of your thots!

I certainly can't speak of performance at the higher/highest/whatever levels but I know for me the barrel arrangement is not a factor in my performance. A properly fitted gun with a properly attended to trigger (single of course) poses no handicap to me at my meager level of ability. The dominance of the O/U in competition came I think as a consequence of the form not being dictated by tradition and the development alongside of the quality single trigger - clearly a competitive advantage. From that point the fad thing prolly kicked in and the SxS passed away aided in that course by meatheads like flourish here demanding/worshiping outmoded configurations and effectively killing the SxS as a true competition gun.

Personally, there was a Majestik Grade Fabbri SxS pigeon gun I once saw that I would have killed for and prolly been able to live with as my sole gun.

have another day
Dr.WtS

Thanks, Wonk.

Actually, I need to restate what I said in my previous post. S x S barrel configuration does not change the way lead looks for me. It just makes it harder for me to be precise about what allowance I put on the bird. Concerning this "precision", I have been amazed for years, for example, at how easy it is to miss a straightaway bird. Let's say, for instance , that all this particular bird needs is for you to put the bead up his butt and pull the trigger. If I perceive that I am off by mere inches, that bird can escape clean. We're shooting patterns here, not a bullet! How a miss on a straightaway can happen when you only remember the bead/muzzle being off by three or four inches, and you've got a 16" pattern out there, amazes me.

Often my shooting buddies will ask me as I step out of the box "What did you see?". I must replay that lead image in my mind to answer them. With my MX8 that image is normally crystal clear in my mind ..... with my S x S guns it is not as clear. Therefore, I believe that I am not seeing that gap, that distance between the bead and the bird, as clearly with a S x S. Straightaways ... doesn't matter. Dropping incomers ...... doesn't matter. Springing teal shot "under power" ..... doesn't matter. Horizontal leads ....... it matters.

I hope no one else is affected by this, but there is no doubt in my mind that I am.

SRH

OU's have the same basic single sight picture as the semi auto and pump, so if you've got history with repeaters that what you learned does transfer better to the OU than the SxS. It's more precise and measurable when your beyond instinct range. All that said I do cherish my SxS's!

I remember reading that O/U's were invented and produced prior to SxS's.
Do any of you historians know?

I just think my SxS and my dog look better together in the field:)

Very tricky to make an over/under muzzleloader and few gunmakers produced them. The side by side layout lends itself readily accepting the twin locks.

I can find no patent for an over/under or a swivel breech that predates even a Manton side by side flintlock.

I shoot higher scores with my O/U than I do with my SxS guns, However they are quite different guns in every way.

I suspect, can't prove, two nearly identical Perazzi's one O/U other SxS stocked the same, choked the same, trigger configuration same, scores would be identical. Might say the single sighting plane is better for one kind of shot but the wider flatter plane may well be better for others who knows ? I don't know what the front of my barrels look like so can't say.

Boats

I shoot a sxs better against the backdrop of foliage, ground level such as at rabbits. I know I can reload a sxs faster due to the angle of opening required for the o/u...could it be that many quail shots use the sxs because, as Stan said, rising birds are a game of elevation? Steve