Excellent thought, coosa. I think you re right about it being impossible to have a S x S that is perfectly regulated with all loads, especially turkey loads like you're using. They can be regulated for the majority of field loads, however.
I totally agree that regulation can't be determined by the price you pay for a gun. My little Yildiz Elegante 4's regulation is as perfect as anybody can ask for, with anything from 1/2 oz. to 11/16 oz. loads ............... and it was on sale NIB for $400 about five years ago.
I'd offer what I mentioned back in a previous post on this thread, that most of my vintage S x S guns have been nicely regulated, and I've never patterned a Fox that wasn't. Your issue is that you're probably trying to get them to regulate with very heavy turkey loads, and few, if any, are built to do that.
Thanks, SRH
Stan, I agree on all points and understand that my biggest problem on turkey loads is that I am trying to use the guns in a manner for which they were not designed. Most of the guns I've tried have been very cheap, but I am yet to find one that isn't decently regulated for field loads as far as right/left. I have a couple of guns that shoot low and that is a difficult problem to fix. But they both shoot everything low; it's not the too heavy load issue.
Even with the barrels chopped off to 24" and rethreaded for the Tru-choke system, my little Yildiz will center 1 oz loads. Obviously, that's what they made it to shoot.
If you are real perfectionist, you can spend some time testing your sxs with different loads and likely find a load that each barrel will center. I've found that with some of my 20 gauge guns the left barrel would center a 1 oz load and the right barrel would need a 7/8 oz load. But these differences were usually only an inch or two and not likely to be an issue for any sort of wing shooting. Being off center 8 to 10 inches at 40 yards was not unusual with my turkey loads, and that won't work.
I had some idea of what I was getting into when I decided I wanted a very light sxs turkey gun. Now I have a couple, but I would have to admit it's been much harder than I expected. I would guess that the L-R issue would not be so bad in something like a Winchester 21, but I haven't tested one so that's just a guess.
