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Posted By: Adam Stinson Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 03:54 PM
Just curious how many of yall target shoot with your SXS. I know some guys that use O/Us for clays and SXSs for birds.

I am plenty much split and use both guns on both clays and birds. But I am slightly biased to my SXSs. Everybody at the skeet club knows me as "the guy that shoots the 'ole SXSs".

So, do you have a dedicated O/U for clays or do you just use your hunting guns?

Speaking of which, today's high will be pushing 80, so I am staying out of the snake woods... I mean quail woods. Time to hit the skeet field.

Adam
Posted By: ChiefShotguns Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 04:05 PM
I have several O/U guns, I guess one of them is a purpose built dedicated clays gun, but I still enjoy shooting the old pre war German S x S guns that I have. I even shoot occasionally with black powder.
Posted By: Franchi Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 04:14 PM
Hello Adam:

I tried to shoot Skeet with a SxS awhile ago and I was having a difficult time hitting the clays. About half way through the round, a couple of "experts" approached me and informed me that one can not shoot Skeet with a SxS. They explained to me that one of the barrels always blocks your view of the bird. ????????????
I have no idea as to if this is true or not but what do I know? Lol

Stay well,

Franchi
Posted By: Colonial Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 04:48 PM
I use a Spanish 20 bor.er..ga boxlock sxs regularly. Best I have done is 25, tho not always.
Alas, if only it were a hammer gun.....

Concentration and fit is more important in my opinion, whether my sxs or my o/u or my auto.
Posted By: LGF Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 05:10 PM
I nearly always use a SxS for skeet, but am embarrassed to admit that I sometimes do better with an autoloader.
Posted By: skeettx Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 05:48 PM
Horse hockey on not shooting skeet with a SXS.

No problem, no sweat, a properly fitted gun is the
issue in question.

I regularly shoot skeet with many SXS and have no
issues.

Mike

p.s. maybe you can only shoot skeet with a side by side
in Texas and England?? smile
Posted By: jerry66stl Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 07:19 PM
I shoot about 5k of shells each year at Skeet and Sporting Clays. That is more "wear" than I choose to add to my vintage SxS's, most of which are 50 to 100 years old.

So I shoot clay birds with a Citori or Beretta A-400 until fall of each year. Then I switch to the SxS's for hunting season. I will shoot a few "practice rounds" oc clays with the SxS's in September, just to prepare for bird season.

About 10 years ago, I decided to hunt birds ONLY with SxS's.

JERRY
Posted By: DrBob Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 07:31 PM
I shoot more trap than skeet, but do shoot both with a SxS, different guns of course due to chokes. I do as well with both (not that great) as I do with my O/U Baretta 686. I prefer to practice with the SxS guns because thats what I use for birds and my brain doesn't like to switch between single and double triggers.
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 07:48 PM
Low gun. 2 high only at 1 & 2. Two doubles 3, 4, & 5. 2 low only 6 & 7. Backwards (looking at the other house to take the target over the shoulder. Haven't been hit in the back of the head yet) station 8. And shoot twice at the misses smile



Posted By: skeettx Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 08:03 PM
Skeet guns??




Mike
Posted By: Toby Barclay Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 08:37 PM
I shoot EVERYTHING with a S/S, almost without exception a J Blanch & Son of one type or another. I try not to change guns mid season or at least stay with the same barrel length and general feel.
Come February, I change over to a another one on my babies so I am well practised at reasons for missing by the time the game season starts in September!
When I used to coach a lot, I was often asked what I shot with. When I replied a S/S and the interested party asked why, I simply said 'I like to miss in style'. Corny I know but true enough!
Posted By: Hammergun Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 09:30 PM
I always shoot skeet and sporting clays with a sxs. And I'm competative with most of the o/u guys with specialty guns. The reaction of most folks is amazement that a sxs can actually be used effectively!

A couple of years ago I took a new to me Husqvarna sxs choked full/x-tra full to a big public range outside of D.C. I just wanted to give it a quick try since I had not shot the gun. I got squadded with a pair of dedicated skeet guys who explained to me the poor choice I had made in guns. I proceeded to shoot low gun (except for station 8) with my 7 1/2 shot sporting loads and beat them pretty bad in two rounds. Boy, did that feel good.
Posted By: old colonel Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 09:48 PM
I shoot everything, field, sorting clays, and skeet.

I no longer shot an O/U or auto at all.
Posted By: Kutter Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 09:49 PM
About 45 to 50 weeks out if the year I shoot at least a couple rounds of skeet, sometimes more w/a SxS of some kind.
The bbls block the view of the target??
...There are a lot of experts out and about.
Mine are all older guns choked full or mod. Just let 'em get out there a ways.

Also use out of date pumpguns which I've been told are not usable for skeet.
Favorite of the moment is a Marlin 43Trap.
Choke is your friend!
Making a new firing pin for the old gal now. After 90 yrs or so they seem to need some adjusting.
It's held up better than the Meriden pump.
A Win 97 steps in to take up the position in the mean time.
Posted By: Bob Cash Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 10:27 PM
1938 "Custom Built By Winchester" Flatside, 12 Gauge, 26" WS1/WS2
Posted By: Drew Hause Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 10:38 PM
I couldn't find the date, but Hal Hare won an International Skeet competition (I believe with a 99) using a M21
http://www.ohioskeet.org/site/Blog.html
Posted By: Wild Skies Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/12/13 10:51 PM
I went pure about three of decades ago using nothing but S x S game guns ever since. Carried a 23.5 average using a Parker Repro SCC and 7/8 oz. loads in our past summer skeet league.
Posted By: Buzz Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 12:01 AM
Adam, I play at the skeet range with S xS's and enjoy doing so. However, all of them are game guns and therefore, light. Easy to stop swing with Such a light gun. If I want to shoot a 100 straight, I use a 9 lb O/U.
Posted By: Geo. Newbern Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 12:16 AM
Saying that sxs barrels obscure the target makes about as much sense as saying that normal people's eyes are aligned side by side so over/under barrels don't line up with normal people's eyes...Geo
Posted By: Mike Bonner Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 01:13 AM
I think I have heard more disinformation (BS) on the skeet field than from experts than in a gunstore by the fellow behind the counter.
Latest one was that a 28 ga does not have enough shot to hit sporting targets well, turns out I blew the doors of the two experts quite handily and heard no more.
Posted By: Stanton Hillis Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 02:05 AM
I don't shoot skeet often, but when I shoot registered sporting clay competition I use a Perazzi MX-8. When I'm just shooting for fun I often use one of my 32" Foxes. When I get the chance, I enjoy competing with my S x Ss in S x S events.

I may shoot two or three rounds of skeet a year. I just don't enjoy it like sporting clays. Only shot two rounds of trap in my life. First one was with a Fox S x S. Then the guys wanted to bet, so I got my Perazzi and ran it, 25 x 25. They shot my hat to pieces, and I haven't done that anymore either.

SRH
Posted By: Mark II Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 02:07 AM
One must also remember the advantage of the sxs in target games. There is much less wind resistance with the properly oriented barrels on crossing targets!All depends if you shoot to have fun or do anything for the highest score. I shoot all stations low gun. Mark II
Posted By: Stanton Hillis Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 02:20 AM
The one shotgun game that may actually have a slight advantage for S x Ss is live pigeons. One of the all time greats, Billy Perdue, firmly believed so, and proved it for many years. He believed that pigeon shooting is a game of elevation, and that it is much easier to be precise, with that, using a S x S.

Who am I to argue with as great a shot as he was?

SRH
Posted By: thomas carrier Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 02:28 AM
i shoot my 12 lc speciality grade on skeet n 5 stand imp mod n mod.not exactly skeet chokes but it works!
just went pheasant preserve today went 6/6 on birds,buddy told me he could get his safty off fast enough with his pump gun!
Posted By: Researcher Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 05:08 AM
I've shot many hundreds of rounds of NSSA style skeet with my 12-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Ejector Skeet & Upland Game Gun, mostly using my 7/8 ounce 1200 fps reloads. I've run a couple of 75 straights with it but have never been able to get that fourth round. Back about 1987, I shot the only 100 straight I've ever shot with a 28-gauge using my Winchester Model 23 Classic!?! Gave me a brainstorm to try it in registered competition and I fell on my face!! I shoot some pretty good skeet scores with old square-back Remington "The Sportsman" autoloaders, and Model 31 pumps but I probably do my most consistant work with Browning Superposed New Model Skeet Guns in 20- and 28-gauge.
Posted By: Hoof Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 05:41 AM
The only round of skeet I have ever "run" was with a 1905 vintage model 1897 Winchester I used for cowboy action. I told the somewhat surprised regulars that skeet was all about having state of the art equipment.

I can't hit skeet shooting gun up, except maybe at 8.

CHAZ
Posted By: L. Brown Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 01:03 PM
I shoot winter skeet league with a squad that's all sxs, except one guy. Actually, I cheated last time and use a vintage OU (Browning Superposed 20) in the small bore event.
Posted By: eightbore Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 03:45 PM
I'm a skeet historian, so I could bore you with anecdotes. However, I will give you only two. Dick Shaughnessy won the All-Bore National Championship with a 16 gauge Model 21, years after state of the art automatics and pumps, as well as over unders had dominated the game. The first 100 straight in small bore NSSA registered skeet was shot by K.C. Miller with a side by side. This was also years after the Model 42 Winchester was recognized as the gun to shoot to win.
Posted By: KY Jon Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 05:07 PM
If you are shooting Skeet for fun you can shoot what ever you like. If you are trying to become an All-American you will use a O/U with tubes. And yes there are a very few people who could shoot a zip gun and break birds. I am not one of them much to my regret. So I grab what ever gun screams the loudest in the gun room and take the correct shells for her. It is a date not a marriage so it is not cheating on the others.
Posted By: Ithaca5E Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 05:25 PM
About SxS guns blocking the view, I'll vote "yes." I shoot trap doubles with both SxS and O/U guns and at rising birds you can't be as quick with the SxS. On some stations (e.g. 2 and 4) you just have to let the bird appear over the top of the barrels before going to target.

That said, there were a lot of good shooters back when, like Phil Miller, Ned Lilley, and John Sternberger, to name a few, who thought doubles worked just fine.
Posted By: DoubleTake Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 05:43 PM
I've always regarded a SxS's best suit as a short to medium range shotgun. Skeet is the perfect clay game for SxS's.

I like SxS's, but I'm not barrelblind about them.
Posted By: Researcher Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 10:46 PM
Short range!?! What about Nash Buckingham and his great Super-Fox BoWhoop or Elmer Keith and George W. Busby with their NID Ithaca Magnum-Tens?
Posted By: Wild Skies Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/13/13 10:59 PM
Originally Posted By: Dave Erickson


I like SxS's, but I'm not barrelblind about them.

That's because you were dropped as a baby. Hadn't you been dropped it'd be nuthin' but S x S's. wink
Posted By: GSPWillie Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/14/13 02:38 PM
I shot skeet last Sat. with my Lefever 12ga EE 30 ic/m. First round 24 second 23. I had not shot that Lefever in a couple of years. Fifteen years ago as practice for a SD pheasant hunting trip I shot a 25/25/24 in 3 rounds with a Lefever 16ga G ic/im and have never run another 25 straight since. I have a SKB O/U skeet gun that I can't seem to get past 23 or 24 with. Go figure!
Fritz
Posted By: Grouse Guy Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/14/13 03:28 PM
I shoot 20-30 rounds of skeet a year, and never use anything but SXS double trigger guns. The only handicap I find is some are choked M/F. I load spreaders for these occasions and it helps (though seldom getting me to a perfect 25!).
Posted By: Paul Harm Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/14/13 06:08 PM
SxS's are all I've ever shot. Skeet, trap, 5-stand, SC's - it doesn't matter. There are a number of us at my club that shoot just SxS's. Does it block a bird - no. And yes your eyes are horizontal so a SxS is all you should shoot.
Posted By: Pre-13 LC Coll Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/14/13 06:10 PM
Adam,

I normally shoot 8-10 rounds of skeet per week. To prevent beating the tar out of my LC Smiths, I bought a Rizinni O/U clays gun. I still take my SxS's out to the club and shoot skeet with one them about once a month. I haven't noticed any change in scores when I switch between the two. My personal favorite skeet SxS is a 1907 Pigeon Grade Smith. I have two sets of barrels for it. One set is Damascus, 28" and choked cylinder and Improved cylinder. I've heard everything from the "barrels block the birds" to "Damascus will blow apart". Funny thing is neither of that has ever happened. When I miss a bird, I could clearly see it. Jus didn't hit it.
Posted By: L. Brown Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/14/13 10:06 PM
Interesting comments about not stressing vintage guns by shooting them a lot. However, if one has something vintage but slightly newer--say, an American classic or British game gun from between the wars--does anyone think it any more likely that such a gun would be any more likely to break down than a pre-war Browning Superposed? Why or why not?
Posted By: ohiosam Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/14/13 10:12 PM
I can regularly score in the low 20's in skeet with my VERY light 20 gauge BLNE Jeffery. Shot an 85 with it in sporting clays on Saturday. All low gun. Might not win any tournaments but I have fun.
Posted By: Pre-13 LC Coll Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/14/13 11:25 PM
L. Brown,

One reason I choose not to run a flat of shells through my Smiths each week is due to ammo costs. I can buy the cheap Federal Top Gun loads for $5.18 a box versus $9-$10 per box for RST's.
Posted By: Buzz Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/14/13 11:42 PM
Those Federal top guns are just fine in a Browning Super and even boomers like Remington Express are no problem. I see very little reason to shoot low pressure loads in a Super. They are built tough and are excellent and fine guns IMHO.
Posted By: jerry66stl Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/15/13 02:08 AM
The reason I don't put 5,000 skeet rounds through my vintage SxS's each summer is "WEAR." The locking mechanism will probably loosen, or a small trigger part/sear will be slightly diminished, a spring may break, etc. Its much easier to find a repair part for a Citori than it is for an older Lefever or Ansley Fox.

My opinion is that we act as custodians for these old SxS's and they will eventually pass on to new owners. I see no point in over-using a vintage gun while I am its temporary caretaker.

On the other hand, most hunting days afield involve only a half-dozen shots, so "wear" isnt a real issue.
Posted By: SamW Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/15/13 02:12 AM
This week end I will be shooting skeet with a Baker 16ga. and a M21 Tournament Skeet in 12ga. Am very much looking forward to it!
Posted By: Walter C. Snyder Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/15/13 02:36 AM
Here is my favorite skeet gun. If it wears out before me, (unlikely) I will have it rebuilt. Been shooting it for 30 years. A Grade 3E NID with grade 5 wood, 26 inch barrels. It has a set of 32 inch barrels but I have other trap guns. I have never felt a disadvantage using a SxS. Shoot low gun at all stations.
Posted By: Mark Larson Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/15/13 03:06 AM
I've been enjoying shooting my 1880's (+/-) "duality" hammer gun as my dedicated skeet gun for a few months now. 26" cyl/cyl damascus, and I average about 23 with it. It feels good to shoot decently with such an old functional work of art, and the comments I get are fun too. I generally shoot Rio subsonic skeet loads in it just to be kind to it.

Posted By: Pre-13 LC Coll Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/15/13 04:23 AM
Mark,

While I can't say I am a fan of painting the stocks, I will say that you do beautiful work. The detail in your work is amazing!

The gun in your post would have to be kept out of sight at our club though. We have over 60 junior members from the local High School Shotgun Team. They have kids on the team from 5th grade on up to 12th grade. I'd have to send you to the least field at the club where the kids don't shoot. I can just hear the comments from some of the team mothers.
Posted By: Humpty Dumpty Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/15/13 05:02 AM
I was talking to a competition trap shot once and he mentioned he was shooting Skeet the day before, because his coach thought it was going to cure one of his regular misses. I aksed him how well he did, and he said 20, 22. "Wait a moment", I said, "Are you telling me you did a 22 on Skeet with your 32" Full and Fuller Perazzi?" And he said "Yup, but I admit I was shooting high gun". - "Anyway", I said, "I thought it's impossible to hit anything at Skeet with a Full-choked barrel". "Let me tell you something" - he said - "If you can shoot, and the gun doesn't misfit you real bad, you can shoot 20-22 average with occasional 25 at any clay game with any gun, any choke, any load, any stock. It's getting a consistent 95+ that requires a dedicated gun"
Posted By: L. Brown Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/15/13 03:33 PM
Re "wear" on vintage guns . . . Many of the American classics were overbuilt to start with, American gunmakers recognizing that we tend to treat them as tools rather than objects of art--especially true of the field grades. As for vintage British guns, if they're ejectors of a decent grade, they may well have seen use in driven shooting. I've shot driven birds in Scotland the last two years, using an average of just under 250 shells/trip (3 driven days, 1 rough day)--which is likely more shells than most upland hunters will shoot at wild birds in a season or two. Loads appropriate to vintage guns, but at 1 or 1 1/16 oz, both heavier and higher velocity than what I shoot at targets (7/8 oz at skeet, mixture of 7/8 and 1 oz, sporting clasys).

It's obviously a personal choice, but I think we may worry too much about what we're doing to our older guns by using them for a fair amount of target shooting--especially if we're shooting low pressure, low velocity, light shot charge loads. On the other hand, if we're shooting WalMart Special loads--and in many vintage guns, we shouldn't be shooting any American factory stuff anyhow--then it's wise to use more modern guns.
Posted By: patrickwall Re: Skeet Shooting with your SXS? - 01/16/13 03:04 AM
Adam,

I shoot skeet with all types of guns. I have some nice Skeet O/Us (Winchester 101, SKB 600, and Nikko 812), but I greatly enjoy shooting with SxSs and well - many of those Japanese guns I've posted. Most recently, I got a Midlands SxS (English) that I really enjoy shooting. At our club a young son was beating his dad by shooting with a 410 lever action - LOVED it. So, I think what ever you like to shoot and hunt with and what works for you is good.
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