doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Will a new generation discover SXSs?

All good points here but... I believe it all boils down to opportunity.

Very few folks (not just kids) are near to decent hunting grounds anymore and as the population density and the demographics of this country continues to change, that will become even harder to reverse.

The cities continue to grow and the rural areas seem to empty out. You' would think that would lead to better outcomes but... the politics and then the economics of it all do not seem to support that end.

Hunting is a cultural thing, not just a pastime, and it's values.and social constructs are not being passed on in volumes that are substantial enough to sustain it IMHO.

It will linger in some regions (and in some families) but the opportunity to walk afield with a fine gun will become more rare with each passing generation. The wealthy will be the last to do it.

A diminishment of the liberties we were all promised at our birth here but that we have failed to maintain for the last 30 years or so.

Mores the pity.

Stan, I agree with you, but holy smokes, how old are you ?

Dirty Harry

Most - if not all - of the schools around here have at least a trap team, many of them have 30+ kids on them.

Old enough to know better….Young enough to do it again.

Best,
Ted

Well, read my post closely and you should be able to get pretty close. Sixty years plus adolescent or early teenage years would be what? 74?

Probably not, it's going to remain a niche market that grows smaller & smaller every year

Without a doubt the British box locks are better guns compared the Stoegers out of Brazil or the various Turkish guns, but you don't see, at least here in CT, British box locks on the racks of the guns stores.

Who is going to introduce them to a SxS? It's great that high schools and universities have skeet & trap teams, but what guns are they using, almost certainly O/U or semi auto.

I shoot skeet and scap (wobble trap from the skeet stations) almost every Sunday and almost always with a British hammer gun or side lock for skeet. My friends think the guns are interesting and appreciate them, but they aren't going to spend the money for one and here are some of the reasons:

Cost of the gun, cost of ammo for the 2.5" shell, cost to repair when they break (not counting finding a qualified gunsmith to fix the gun that doesn't have a significant backlog) double triggers, lack of interchangeable chokes.

If you're young and a new shotgun user, why spend $1000+ for a used, perhaps tired looking British box lock when you can by a CZ for under $700 that comes in a hard plastic case and with 5 chokes?

I guess what I left unspoken earlier here is this: side by sides are primarily hunting tools and it then follows that... if nobody is hunting, they won't be properly appreciated, even if they are wonderfully hand-made and balanced works of art.

Even the recent lower cost of entry won't save them and for all the reasons mentioned here earlier (odd/scarce ammo, lack of talented repair/modification options, etc.).

If youre not swinging a good one on a bird, you'll never know what you're missing.