This past weekend my friends and I shot 5 Stand and Sporting Clays in Virginia near Mt.Airy,NC. My 16Ga SXS is at Briley's getting flush mounted thin wall tubes installed. I was intending to trade my 20/20-.270Win Heym drilling with 24" barrels and a weight of 7 1/2 lbs for another SXS. I decided to use this drilling one last time - the 2nd time I've even shot it.
Another point is that I'm 6'4" and wear a 52XL suit - yes, from all that is written about stubby guns and Churchill XXV barrel lengths, it shouldn't work and a bumblebee also cannot fly. The happy news is that the gun suprised both myself and friends the way it hit the targets with I.C. and mod chokes using standard 7/8oz No.8 loads.
I had recently added a 1" leather recoil pad to the pistol grip stock - the LOP became 15" and the gun now obviously fits me.
Frankly the gun handled great and I'm planning now on keeping it and using the gun occasionaly on clays. I tried the gun again this past Sunday at an other clubs 5 Stand - I got the same good performance - why fight it!
I think that I'm about to open a new chapter again re: the Churchill XXV theory. Possibly Robert Churchill did have a better idea for we older guys.
