doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gun Configuration Preferences

grouse woods are difficult enough walking through, so a straight grip is easy and I prefer dbl triggers. A Prince of Wales is nice for a clays gun and while I have some single triggers, I still prefer dbl triggers. My gunsmith would say dbl triggers and extractors present fewer problems.

Generally speaking:

Ambivalent on ejectors/extractors.

Same for triggers. I shoot both and can switch back and forth with no problems - I did so while shooting clays yesterday.

Straight grip for hunting, POW or full pistol grip for clays.

Buttplate: Whatever it takes to get the proper length. If possible, a checkered wood butt (engraved metal enhancement a bonus) at the right length, followed by a leather covered pad as my top two.

I have big hands (XXL glove size) so a bigger forend doesn't bother me. I find a nicely done wrap around forend on a SxS pleasing...but the ones that look like someone rounded off the corners of a 2 x 4...not so much.

Solid rib for hunting - I don't need one more place to clean misc. debris out of on a gun going into the field. Either is fine for clays...but not a fan of the more extreme raised ribs - they're an answer looking for a question, IMO.

I don't care about chokes - fixed or screw-in are both fine.

I'm a recreational skeet shooter who shoots skeet to justify buying S x S shotguns that I would otherwise have no use for.

I prefer a straight stock, 30" barrels, double triggers & extractors. However, I won't let my preferences prevent me from buying a S x S that I find interesting or advances my collection by adding something different such as a snap lever

My must haves are barrels no longer than 28", straight grip or possibly a demi grip if it is not very tight, splinter, and two triggers.

I prefer a sling on my guns. My Darne V19 and my VL&D Francotte do not and I miss this feature especially in the field.

Yeah, & that's the trouble w/ Ferlacher's from the British Period Post WWII where the Bloody British had influence till about 1953. You get the aforementioned, cov.eted straight-hand grip but no sling swivels. Too, I prefer a swamped rib & long LOP.

I will say I keep a short stacked gun in my travel battery like the Merkel ATM and although I haven't really pondered on it prior, I think I prefer shorter tubes on a stacked gun than a SxS?

Serbus,

Raimey
rse

Most of the Husqvarna double guns from the same era have a straight stock and sling swivels. Sometimes, they have ejectors, too.

I don’t seem to notice the difference in barrel length on an O/U as much as I do on a SXS. I never told anybody that, because it sounds nuts, but, I don’t shoot professionally and I don’t use an O/U very often when I do shoot.

Best,
Ted

I hunted Grouse, Woodcock and Quail for 40 years behind my beloved English Setters and my favorite gun for that purpose was a 20 gauge, straight stock, 28" barrels choked .007/.014, double triggers and weighing 5#14. Over the years I had 5 that roughly fit those specs, the first a Thomas Newton, second, which I still have a Purdey, except that one has 26" bbls and weighs 5#7, third a Webley and Scott, which weighed 5#10, fourth a Louca/Watson, and fifth a Wm Ford damascus HG.

For the past 5 years I have had to confine my shooting to clay targets and been enjoying a journey into Sporting Clay shooting. Basically my shooting is confined to a 34" Perazzi SBT with screw chokes (Comp IV made in 1977) weighing 8#10, a 33" .024/.024 Perazzi HTS SL weighing 8"4, a 32" 28 gauge .020/.030 Krieghoff K20 weighing 7# and a 32" .020/.028 Perazzi DC12 weighing 8#10.

Horses for courses.

My 12ga hunting SxS's run from 25" to 29.5" , shorter barrels over dogs, longer in blinds, clays whatever trips my trigger that day. Double triggers, splinter forends, hard butt plates preferred and dislike the look of vent ribs on SxS's. Grips, again no preference, I do like the look of a straight grip but I don't shoot them any better or worse. I do like the steel butt plates on Husqvarna shotgun but they do make shortening the stock to fit me harder. I do like exposed hammers, just plain fun to shoot, and own way too many. Although I only load 1 oz and under I prefer 12ga, a couple 16s find there way into the field and I do have two 20s hiding in the safe.

I have four O/U's, one my old international trap gun with lots of fond memories, hard to sell it. The rest are have two triggers and solid ribs, two are combo guns with spare O/U barrels for when I go on predator hunting trips and run into birds, handy travel rigs. The last is a Simpson on a Merkel frame, I looked at Merkels and Simsons for a very long time and a couple years ago added one, more like buying a painting than a shooter but I did shorten the stock to fit me, someone had put a pad on it years ago so no harm done.

I grew up hunting in the Columbia Basin irrigated farmland so incidental to pheasants jump shooting those nice grain fed mallards, teal and gadwalls out of irrigation ditches was always part of the walk. Since 1966 my go to gun has been a 1914 vintage straight grip, double trigger A-Grade A.H. Fox with 28-inch barrels. It left North 18th street improved modified in both barrels but I had the gunsmiths at Warshal's Sporting Goods in Seattle open the right barrel to improved cylinder. With it I've shot everything from quail along the Mexican border in California to sharptails in Saskatchewan. Here with Sage Grouse near Craig, Colorado.



I also enjoy skeet shooting with a similar 28-inch barrel Fox-Sterlingworth Ejector Skeet & Upland Game Gun --

Thanks for all the replies.
I’ll state my preferences as well.
I like longer barrels for most uses. 31” for my upland guns, up to 33 for targets and pigeons. I shoot a 32” SXS at wood pigeons and doves.
Basically all my guns have straighten grips including both O/U & SXS. Field and competition guns. I prefer double triggers for competitive shooting but often use a single trigger as well. Never my first choice. Field guns are all DT. I do have one 28” 20 ga SXS and a pair of 28” 12 bore guns.
SXS guns are mostly a full bodied splinter forend but my 32” SXS 12 bore has two forends. Full splinter and beavertail and was shipped that way in 1929.
I prefer solid ribs some swamped, some raised.
Butt treatment ranges from H&T plates to leather covered pads depending on use.