doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Husqvarna model 20B question

Finally got around to checking the weight and chokes on my "new" 16 ga. Model 20 made in 1932. It weighs 7.0 lb on my digital kitchen scale and both chokes measure .028" (Full).

I am surprised at how tight the lock up is, and I am also surprised that it has "modern" stock dimenions. The drop is very similar to my 16 ga. Utica-Fox Sterlingworth made in 1939 and my Marlin Model 90 O/U's made between 1937 and 1957.

While it is not as nice as rgh25's 12 ga. Model 20B, I think it is definitely worth what I paid for it. Can't wait to shoot it. http://www.simpsonltd.com/product_info.p...524d17b480f388d

Cloffe, hunters are a conservative lot, even when they are Socialists, as I assume a few are in Scandinavia. When I was a kid in the Western US in the 1950s, a 30" barreled 12 guage with a full choke was considered THE all around weapon--hunters would use it for everything, and the more powerful the ammo, the better.

It was only after we became a little more cosmopolitan and started reading hunting and gun magazines that the Eastern/British heresies of shooting game on the wing became popular in the West, and with it smaller bores, lighter loads, and more open chokes.

In places where ammo is expensive (or people are poor), wing shooting itself is also just not considered reasonable (You might MISS!). In the 1950s in Baja California del Norte, Mexico, the first time I waited for a covey of quail to flush before shooting, my Mexican companeros shouted in frustration. They assumed I suffered from some disease of the reflexes or vision. Later they just assumed I was just "otro gringo loco"....

BTW, I've heard the same explanation you give above for tight Scandinavian chokes given for tight German chokes, except that hares were the main target, not roe deer.

I tried hunting pheasants with a nice AyA sixteen double that had been imported to the US from Sweden after having originally being sold by a large retailer in Northern Sweden. I either missed them clean or blew them to bits....inedible bits. More open chokes (cylinder and modified) fixed the problem.

Mike, I'd probably be regarded as a socialist if I moved to the US, I believe most Swedes would... ;-)

Hunting in Sweden is something that all social classes have done for a long time. The Swedish farmer has always owned his own land and from the Viking age through to modern times he has been generally more free and had more rights than his counterparts in Europe. But he was poor, the last famine in Sweden was in the 1860-ies when the Bourgeoisie of Paris sent money to the poor suffering people of northern Sweden. (Over one million Swedes emigrated to the US during 1870-1820) So what you say about poor Mexicans and wing shooting also applied to Sweden. My late grandfather born in 1899 was notoriously cheap when it came to rifle ammo, only using the 6,5x55's he "borrowed" during his time in the army during World War 2. He also owned a Husqvarna 17 or 20, can't remember which, and a Swedish rolling block rifle in 12.7x44. His farm was situated just 10 miles from the Husqvarna factory.

In the southern parts of Sweden (Scania) an around the capital Stockholm there are many stately homes. There a more English or continental style of hunting with more wing shooting became fashionable among the landed gentry during the late 19th century. There are much more good quality vintage German guns, rifles and drillings in Sweden than British ones. The taste in guns was certainly more Germanic than Anglo-Saxon, and German guns were more choked than British ones. But wing shooting is and was a very marginal form of hunting in Sweden.

Another proof of shotguns treated as rifles are the many Aimpoints, Docters and Redrings sold to Swedish hunters to be used on thier shotguns today.

My grandparents immigrated to the US from Kalix Sweden and I still have relatives over there. Really finding this thread interesting - thanks guys

HuskyPaul, I did my military service near Kalix. It's cold but beautiful up there.

Very nice to have international members, isn't it? "Value added"!

It is your gun, but I would leave the chambers alone at 2 3/4". A 3 inch mag in that might damage the wood as someone else has said. I like it.

Should I decide to have the chokes opened up on my Husky does anyone know of a person that I might send it to. I would also need to talk to them and figure out the size that would work. Hunt here is mostly Quail and skeets altho I never found a way to cook them that tasted good.
I live in Arizona so it would be nice if there was someone close.

Google Michael Orlen who is in Amherst Mass. He has done good work for me, including opening up a Husky Model 20 in 16 ga. which is now rather deadly on ducks and upland birds.

Reminds me to send him the barrels of my Original Diana 16 which need a bit of opening up as well.

PS to this message:

Mike often does incredibly fast turn around, too...for me often in a week or less....