I had something of a revelation occur today (the tequila therapy afterwards probably helped too), but I am so grateful that I finally got the chance to buy a good target gun to shoot sporting clays a year or so ago (& even a left-handed one that really & truly fits me), because if I hadn't, I wouldn't ever have gotten the chance to fully compare the two worlds. They are simply that different. Game guns are beyond wonderful; there's nothing like them for doing the job that they were designed to do, but....they simply suck as target guns. Strong language, I know, but they really do. If nothing else, guns were and are "tools" first and foremost, and you really should have the right "tool" for the job at hand. There are lots of guns out there that are very-good compromises, and they can serve well-enough in many arenas, (and some are even pretty great examples), but.... if you haven't had the chance to make that truly deep-comparison you'll never really know what you have been missing. You can be happy with said compromises, believe me (as I've owned several over the years) but you'll have deprived yourself of one of the great pleasures in this shooting life by not having the exact tool you really need for the job at hand.

Always a fan of more guns.

It really depends on what you are planning to do with it.
Many retirees at my club shoot decent volumes year round.
That destroys game guns. Especially old, game guns.

What were game guns designed to shoot? A thousand to two thousand rounds a year, maybe. A modest shooter can do that in a month or two. And then keep right on doing it. In two years he will have shot a decade worth of shells through a true game gun. Clay target guns can handle the high volume of shooting with little noticeable wear.

There is only one thing to do and that is have multiple game guns and rotate their use to even out their wear. Ten or twenty ought to do it. To reduce wear on my hammer guns I bought 8-10 to shoot. Small gauges about the same, and box locks as well. Don’t forget pump guns, I didn’t. I have a rack of semi autos as well but could not tell you the last year I shot more than one of them. But had I limited myself to just one gun of any type it would have gotten an excessive amount of wear and tear. I even have gotten into the habit of shooting them from top of the rack to the bottom of the rack so they all get used, cleaned and maintained regularly. Unless it is too frail to shoot safely, every gun I own gets shot. Perhaps only one or two hundred rounds a year but the all get to play. The high grades as well as the plain ones. I don’t discriminate based on looks, age or beauty.

When I became more interested in game guns (about 1990) I found it nearly impossible to continue shooting my target guns at Intl Skeet and SC while trying to master game guns. So I sold my target guns and hired a first class coach to learn to shoot the game guns. It took a couple years , as I had to 'unlearn' what worked for targets and learn something new. It was worth the effort.

Interesting to see you going in the other direction. Good luck!

Chuckerman: I'd like to think that with a little practice, you can adapt to either. As far as "mastery" goes, I'm not holding out much hope at this point, but... proficiency shouldn't be too-much to ask. Different horses for different courses!

Game guns? Target guns? I don't get it. What guns are you referring to? I can see not using a single barrel BT-99 to hunt birds with. But I would think nothing about using my Citori for skeet, clays or pheasant hunting. Same with my Model 21. Same with a Model 12, a Wingmaster or many other guns. Could you be a bit more specific? I'm lost. Thanks.

Jimmy: Completely understandable. Most shotguns made in this country (& the others) for the last 100 years or so were made to do a number of jobs well because many (if not most) of the people who bought and used them could only really justify owning one shotgun. A Model 12 Winchester, for example, could and can reasonably be used for waterfowl, upland game, and even for deer (with the proper ammunition). In the world I grew-up in (rural Pennsylvania in the 1960s) this was simply how most folks owned and used their shotguns.

In the more "fine" gun world, however, a gun will (in many cases) be hand-made to do a very specific task. "Game" guns are usually built specifically for upland game applications and can be described by saying that they are much-lighter than more-conventional shotguns and are designed to be "carried alot and shot fairly infrequently". Target guns are (conversely) usually much heavier than "normal" and are designed to be carried over smaller distances and shot with much more frequency. Both work very well for their specifically intended use and both generally do not compromise well.

My 1905 W. Richards 16-gauge weighs 5lbs14 and shoots 2 1/2-inch English shells. It is a game gun, I don't use it for anything else.

My SKB sporting clays 12-gauge weighs over 9 lbs loaded. It has very long barrels and a highly-adjustable stock. It is a target gun, I don't take it hunting.

I shoot guns that vary from sub-5 lb. .410 doubles to a 9.4 lb. 12 ga. HE Fox, to my big, heavy MX8 P-gun. I can, with some adjustment to my shooting style, shoot them all acceptably. It is impossible for me to shoot the vastly differing weight and MOI guns with the same shooting style. My heavier guns take a more deliberate shooting style. The little featherweights require more of a snap-shooting style, where I begin to track a bird with the muzzles before ever mounting, and during the mount, and then when the butt seats in my shoulder pocket the trigger breaks immediately thereafter.

When I shot a lot of NSCA tournaments I enjoyed the sub-gauge events as well as the Main. But, since I shot them all pre-mounted I would shoot a few practice targets with each different gun prior to shooting for score. This allowed "muscle memory" to happen. If I didn't do that, the first couple stations would be disastrous.

The truism, "Beware the man with one gun." is 100% correct, but with practice, multiple guns can be shot very well, IMO.

I see your point. Gotcha!!

very interesting and timely question for me. I had been switching through a few different game guns and somehow got sloppy with my gun mount and started getting recoil averse. I am a sxs guy, so I bought a big heavy gun to help absorb recoil. I shoot it at one of my local clubs and suck, badly. I play around with the pitch and try it at a different course and I am in the high 80 low 90 %. Back to the original course, still mediocre. What is the difference? Well the original course is set up with the majority of shots quick small window shots. The second course has more variety but also more targets are longer, can be seen for a time before shot. So I had been thinking a sporting course can actually be game gun friendly.

some dual purpose guns?

browning superposed

win model 12

ithaca 37

rem 870

rem 1100

and of course the browning bss

I have all of these except for the 1100 and the BSS. And I keep eyeballing the BSSs. The Model 12 in a 16 gauge. Ithaca- solid rib 20 gauge . 870- 20 gauge Wingmaster and 34" trap -12 gauge. My Citori with screw in chokes is a sweet all around gun. Skeet, Sporting Clays and hunting. AND it has a nice leather pad that I installed. But I still see the point. Plus it gives you good reason to buy more guns, right? That's why I asked about the Beretta on another thread. I also pheasant hunt with a 12 gauge Model 21. That's my baby.

There is also something to the over/under versus side by side thing going on here as well. I shoot this target gun differently somehow, perhaps more deliberately? It's not "aiming" per se, as you would a rifle, but more-so than with my sxs guns. It clearly works better for me on targets (especially the long ones) than my game guns do. Now, part of that is choking, but there seems to be something else going on too. I tend to shoot my sxs guns more quickly, more "instinctively" perhaps, and with far-less deliberation. The mount is clearly different as well (straight hand versus the pistol grip). There is more control of the gun with a pistol grip, with much-more deliberate placement of the hands. That really helps me with recoil, and along with the increased weight of the target gun, I barely notice 100 rounds of 12-gauge. With my Arrieta 557 (at 6 3/4 lbs), 100 12-gauge rounds leaves me feeling like I was just in a fistfight.

I suppose my next move will be to acquire a "heavy" side by side (with a pistol grip and long, heavy, and tightly choked tubes) that fits me well-enough to compare to my SKB? Darn it....yet another gun!

KY Jon has the right idea. Have several dozen guns of each type in different gauges and barrel lengths to minimize the damage you may do with excessive use of each gun. Several dozen of each type is only the minimum, not the upper limit.

The Preacher has an even larger collection of gun pictures. And you cannot damage a picture by shooting it too much. Nor do you have to clean it or worry about what hinge pin grease to use. You don't need a big heavy safe to store them, and there is no need to insure them againt theft. You don't even have to worry about anti-gun Democrats banning or confiscating them... yet. But you can post those photos here all the time and pretend to be an internet gun expert. Talk about a win-win situation.

I use to shoot registered skeet YEARS ago with a Win 101 in 20 and a Rem 3200. Shot those better than any SXS I've owned. Now, it's not about the competition, but more about the nostalgia of a SXS and tuning up for the season. So, I have a Uggie 28ga Bill Hanus bird gun that mimics my WC Scott for the skeet range. I'm shooting 3-4rd's a week and don't figure I'll wear her out, and it keeps the pressure off of the Scott.

I get it thought, if I were a dedicated target shooter I'd have another 3200 or something similar.
YMMv

That's the thing for me having a gun that does both. I see the point of having a gun for each agenda, but I need practice with my hunting gun to be good enough to hunt with it. I wouldn't want to just pull a gun out of the safe that I only put one or two rounds through at a bird every year. I'd be worried sick if I took a gun out to hunt with that I knew I couldn't hit a target with. I can do pretty well with a 20 gauge Remington Wingmaster at skeet and it is still adequate to take pheasant with. Or my little 16 gauge Model 12. I'd want to be confident that I could hit something with a gun out in the field when I was hunting. I can just change the chokes and I'm good to go. Then again, I'm not going to take my Ljutic out to hunt with either. So, I get your point there, guys.

I own both SxS and O/U guns from 12b to 20b. No 'tiny' guns. But my Harkom 16b weighs 5/8, Lindner Daly 20b about 5/5, my Fox 16 weighs 5/15, and my Henry Atkin SLE 12b weighs 6/1. For bird hunting my SxS guns are better... lighter to carry, they move better, they have double triggers and, IMO, they get on an unexpected flushing bird faster. They also are much easier/faster to load than other types of guns.

My O/U guns (Browning Supers in 12b and 20b and a Perazzi MX20 20b with fixed chokes) perform well on clays and incoming high birds like typical doves. They are heavier than my SxS guns, of course, but once moving they develop momentum, which helps to smooth out the swing. But they are tiring to carry, slow to reload, and some people don't shoot them well because the off eye picks up the side of the barrels, which is detrimental to good target acquisition.

Horses for courses.

Jimmy: Before bird season starts, all my bird gun(s) go to the range to help refresh some muscle-memory. Close-in and fast moving targets are a great refresher so that when the times comes, I remember why I love them afield. Skeet is great for this as well.

The comparison that started this post...



These guns couldn't be more different.

Right!! I understand completely. I don't own any older SXSs like that anymore. The oldest I have is a 1942 Model 12 or a Model 21. Or newer. So, if I grab any gun of mine to go bird hunting with or target shooting, I'll feel confident I can hit something with it. Because I use all of them periodically. But, I understand your thoughts, completely. I just don't have the guns the rest of you guys have. Thanks for sharing and good luck.