doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com SxS Renaissance - Really?

We shoot on a weekly basis at a local public range in the NYC metro area. We are the only group of shooters that use SxSs. Most our age, boomers, are shooting O/Us and the younger are mostly if not all shooting some variant of black guns. When GZ and millennials see us with old Damascus hammer guns they ask, “these things still shoot, you can actually break clays, cool” and watch in amazement as we break doubles and rabbits. None have expressed an interest in acquiring one. But this is NY.

I see more evidence of a semi auto renaissance. Both old and young. Old for recoil, young for cost

Took 11 Boy Scouts shooting today. We shot over 1400 clays. The gun everyone wanted to shoot was my Levever followed by my 1148 and Ithaca 37. There were Benelli and Beretta options also. They restored what faith I have in our youth. And about half were really good.

My first new shotgun was an SKB model 150 12ga. That was back in 1971, purchased at a Navy Rod & Gun Club in Rota, Spain for $162. It was something of a coin toss between the sxs and a Winchester 101 20ga. But I'd discovered good bird hunting in Morocco, and was reading George Bird Evans and other classic writers, thanks to the Outdoor Life Book Club. Those military rod and gun clubs offered great prices on guns. They were also where I first shot clay targets. Trap first, then skeet. I narrowly escaped becoming an OU guy, having ordered one of the Beretta BL series guns, but it arrived with a cracked forend, and hunting season was rapidly approaching. SxS have dominated with me, mostly of the classic variety but with some others new, like the SKB 150. We were fortunate to have decent quality guns from Japan back then. Unfortunate that we're no longer receiving sxs from Japan. Solid quality, both BSS as well as SKB . . . not to mention the fancier Winchester 23 and the Parker Repros.

I shoot 5 stand almost every weekend at the local Isak Walton. I almost always shoot a 20 gauge Miroku made Charles Daly in 20 gauge. Out of the 20 or so regular shooters I am the only one shooting a sxs. Most shoot Browning or Beretta O/U. None can believe that I for the most part shoot scores on Par with them. Two or three have expressed a desire to try my gun, but balk when they see double triggers. I think if I had a Browning BSS they would all be asking to shoot it. There is a interest for sure.

For the uninitiated, what's old is new again.

Ive owned guns since i was a teenager in the 1970s. I didn't buy a double until I was in my mid 40s, in 2005. A Browning Citori. Bought my next gun later that year....a vintage SxS. I've bought about 35 vintage doubles since.

It was a number of factors that combined to touch things off but a few were.......

Where I lived and hunted in Manitoba, no one hunted with doubles......it was semis or pumps. I'd never seen a vintage SxS used in the field until I used one. OU were quite rare. The Canadian prairies were dominated by pumps, with semis rising in popularity.

Compared to my 20s and 30s I had lots of disposable income to throw at guns, if I felt like it. And for some reason, starting around 2005, I felt like it.

After 25 years of mostly waterfowl hunting with upland being an occasional diversion, I got a setter and changed my hunting focus to upland. Might have been influenced by Hunting with Hank as I was a recent llewellin owner when that show came out. The more i looked at upland hunting with a dog, the more hunting with a vintage SxS seemed to fit.

The blood lust diminished. After 25 years of being focused on "getting my limit" I started to enjoy other aspects of hunting. The place, the dog working, the other things you see afield. I was no longer looking to see how many things I could shoot......I was looking to see how perfectly enjoyable the shots I took were. Vintage SxS seemed to better fit that approach.

While I think Lloyd is correct in that other thread about the following generations not being as "into" the collectible things boomers love, I still think there will be many who like me, discover the joys and value of vintage SxS. As Brent is trying to demonstrate, sometimes, under the right influences...sometimes it just clicks.

Right now, I am torn between the types of 20 gauges I want this fall. I need a light weight 20 gauge for pheasant hunting, but I can't decide. Or find exactly what I want. My local gunshop has a new Browning CXS with 28" barrels. A new Citori lightweight- both around two grand. They have a Bobwhite intermediate 20 gauge with 26" barrels. And the big gun show I go to every other month keeps me looking for a BSS (I saw one at the beginning of the summer-like new, but I thought $3200 was a bit much at the time). I saw a beautiful little 20 gauge Superposed there a couple weeks ago and took the money to buy it, until I saw the V6 on the serial number. My heart sank. In a few weeks I'll be going right by a place that has a Model 21 two barrel set 20 gauge- but for around nine grand. Hmmmmm..... Then again, I could always pull a pump gun out of the safe and use one of them. Last weekend they had a like new Savage Fox 20 gauge at the gunshop. About $700.00. I really looked it over, but passed. Sometimes, I just don't have much of a choice around my area.

What’s the issue with a V6?
The consensus amongst those in the know is that there has never been a RKLT SaltWood Super.
Just sayin’.

I know that and I have read that over and over. But it still scares me. And no one else bought it in three months. It would just be my luck.......🙄