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Joined: Jun 2007
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Originally Posted By: gjw
Hi all, just one of these cold winter day threads to ease the boredom. So...how and when did you evolve into a DG fan?

Mine started about 35 years ago, prior to that my dad bought me a 12ga Springfield 67 pumpgun. I shot it for a couple years then I got a 1100 auto that I used for all my hunting, but always had a sneeking desire for a double. I remember reading an article by Claire Reese about 20ga SxS's. That article got the ball rolling for me. I had a Remington 878 12ga that I sold so I could fund the purchase of a SxS, the guy I sold it to asked why I was selling. I told him that I wanted a SxS, he told me that I'd be back shooting an auto within a year. Never did happen. My first SxS was a Springfield 511 in 20ga (what a piece that one was!!), then I moved on to a 311 and a BS-E, all 20's. That in turn lead to better and more quality guns as the years passed until I'm at where I am now.

To be honest the learning curve was hard in the early days, no Internet, etc and few articles about SxS's in the Gun publications. After getting a PC I found this board and boy did the info flood in. I'm still learning a lot from his board and others. For that I thank each and everyone of you.

I've also been able to pass on my love of SxS's to my two sons and one of my daughters, I hope they will pass on the tourch to their kids someday.

It's been a fun road and I hope to continue on it for a few more years.

So...how about you?

Best!

Greg


My Dad, who was born in 1896, served with General Pershing and Captain Patton on the Mexican Border chasing Pancho Villa prior to WW1. In berween WW1 & 2 (he served in both) he sold Packard, Auburn, Cord & Duesenberg automobiles. n the 1920's there was the threat of a race riot in Columbia, SC. The owner of the dealership went down to the local sporting goods store and purchased a 12 gauge Fox Sterlingworth for home protection. After things cooled down his wife didn't want the gun in the house & so he gave it to my Dad who kept it the trunk of his car in an canvas breakdown case (his friends were constantly taking him hunting). The trunk must have leaked because the imprint of the canvas was etched into the barrels by the time I came along in 1939. Before he pased away in 1974 I had the Fox completely restored to "like new" & gave it back to him and he was almost in tears remembering hunts long past. I am sure that is how my affection for double guns came about.

Best Regards, George


To see my guns go to www.mylandco.com Select "SPORTING GUNS " My E-Mail palmettotreasure@aol.com
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I was a 6 year old service brat in 1962, on a SAC base in northeast Montana. My father bought one Stevens singleshot 22 for me and my older brother to share and took us rabbit hunting. In the bird season, me and my brother bird dogged for my father. He had a Remington recoil operated auto as best as I can recall. He'd send me and my brother in to thorn thickets to flush and retrieve roosters and grouse. I really hated upland bird hunting with a passion. My face would be scratched up and bleeding and my mother would chastise my dad for it.

Years later, my parents having settled in California, the land of my mother's dreams, I found myself wanting to hunt again and started with a nice A-5. By the time I was in my mid twenties I had bought my first side by side, a BSS 12 ga. I dont really recall why i wanted a sxs. But I immediately had the chokes openned by Purbaugh to skeet and shot thousands of rounds with it. That gun is still in my safe. I don't even recall what sxs was next...they're all a blur. I've had a Spanish sxs or two. But I've stuck mainly to American hammerless doubles.

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I started hunting quail and cottontails in Sonoma County California in 1949 (long before aromatherapy became the main industry there....) with a Winchester Model 37 .410 that I bought with the pay for picking 96 field lugs of prunes.

But "shotgun" and "double barrel" always seemed to go together in the books by Askins, Keith, and even Roy Chapman Andrews that I read, so when I was a couple of years older, I got a 30" barreled Stevens 5100 12 guage--from too little to too big, I guess.

A few years later in college, I got a good deal on a used Beretta "Silver Snipe" 20 O/U, and that REALLY sold me on doubles. But I never really resolved the O/U vs SXS dilemma. Unfortunately I still shoot O/Us slightly less badly than SxSs....

I've had many pumps, including some of the best, but somehow they just don't stick with me. Never owned a clank-clank.

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Some more thoughts to add to this thread. There’s something about entering the field with a double that puts me back to an earlier simpler happier time, even more so if that double is a percussion double. In addition, I’m certain that some of these guns are haunted. I’ve had a few where I could almost hear the ghosts of the guns previous owners cheer when I brought down a pheasant with the old gun.

Steve


Approach life like you do a yellow light - RUN IT! (Gail T.)
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I went duck hunting in about 1968 with my grandfather and he was using a old Stevens double and I thought it was really cool. Even though my dad used an A-5, he fed my interest by getting me a spanish 20 from Strebe's Gunworks in D.C. for my first gun. Growing up, I remember listening to men discussing shotguns and always mentioning Greener and Fox. I have lots of different guns but I seem to have concentrated on Greener and Fox. My sons first double was a Fox Sterlingworth and he is into vintage guns as much as I am.

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I remember oten times, at my aunt and uncles house when I was probably 6-7 years old looking at various gun related magazines that my uncle had laying around on the coffee table. I was drawn to the doubles that were in the advertisements. I guess I thought they were cool looking compared to the pumps, autos and O/U's.

A few years later an employee of my dad's owed him some money, so paid him with a Rem 1900. I bugged my dad to give it to me and he finally relented. I was either 13-14 years old, and used the gun for all my bird hunting until the stock broke (didn't help running full strength loads through it).

I was a fanatical waterfowl hunter in my later teen years and just knew I would be more successful on geese if I had a 10 ga. I located a Spanish double and purchased it for goose hunting, but used the 2 7/8 shells on ducks as an early season warm up. It cost me $80.00 hard earned dollars from haying, lawn mowing and other odd jobs. I think I was 17 when I purchased it and it, along with the Rem 1900 sit in the safe, along with a bunch of others.

I'm actually in the process of refinishing the 10 ga, which includes the stock, a new pad and rust blue on the barrels.Which I'll do myself.


Cameron Hughes
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Steven 311 16-bore for the princely sum of $45.00. Friend of my Dad had the gun for sale this being in the early 60's. still have this gun and can't believe I carried all day for birds, rabbits and deer. A real beast to handle. The sickness has continued to this day with more to follow I would think. Had a 30 day rule with my former wife. New gun would be purchased and stored in the guestroom closet for 30 days plus or minus. When found she would ask "is this a new gun". No, its been there for a long time! Hope to never loose the want.
Dave

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The only gun I owned for many years was my dad's Savage 775A auto in 16ga. I rediscovered hunting about the same time I discovered Gene Hill, and the romance of a double gun just struck a chord. My first one was a Stevens 5100 (16ga of course); I still have it, and I sometimes think I shoot it better than any of the others. Now I own nine sxs's; fewer than some, but certainly way more than I need.

My hunting partners are my brothers-in-law and nephews, to a man 12ga autoloader shooters. I'll be the only one in the party toting a 16ga sxs, but they let me tag along anyway.


The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. - Albert Einstein
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When I was a small child in California, dove hunting was a serious business. There was some duck hunting also, but it was an even more serious business. My Grandfather had a 3,000 acre farm complete with a fancy duck club that had several hundred acres of flooded fields, blinds, decoys and a club house for the swells that came up from LA to hunt. The funny thing about this is that I never in my whole life got to hunt our own club because it was a money maker and all the blinds were reserved far in advance.

We hunted dove as a family with all the Uncles and Cousins. I didn't realize this until later, but a dove was never shot on our farm unless a blood relative pulled the trigger. I was only allowed to jump-shoot ducks off the tail ponds, but never anywhere near the duck lease.

My dad was a funny guy. At some point he purchased a Savage 311 20 gauge for my Mother, but started my Brother and I off on 28 gauges. I had what I think was an old 1100 that kicked like a mule. Eventually that was sold off for some generic 28 gauge pump which kicked slightly less. In-between guns I had to shoot my Mom's gun, (pretty humiliating at the time). I was on fire with that gun and could really dust the birds. I remember that when the shooting was really good, the gun would get so hot that it wouldn't shoot anymore until it cooled down. If my Grandmother drove me out to shoot, she limited my shells and I remember getting 8 dove with 12 shells when I was 12 and she was disappointed that I missed.

We lost the farm in 88 and Dad ended up in the Pen for some shady dealings. The family fell apart, but through it all I hung on to the old Savage. I even shot it a few times, but the magic was gone and I couldn't hit a thing with it. I finally traded it in for a BPS one year.

Years went by and the BPS served me well, when a close friend died. His Widow asked me over and told me he had something put aside for my Sons. She handed me two LC Smith 20 gauges, a 1907 Grade O and a 1909 2E. The 2E was broken in two at the wrist and through the help of Dennis Earl Smith I was in action.

That catalyst was my downfall. After I started learning about Smiths it was "Katie bar the door." I've been on a tear ever since. My own kids are indoctrinated to SxS with double triggers. I haven't looked back since. The kicker to this story and the last piece of the puzzle I haven't fitted is that my last name is Merkel. Through my entire life, my Father lusted after a fine Merkel shotgun, long before the wall came down. He has long passed, but I have yet to scratch the itch of putting a Merkel into the cabinet, I've never even held one. Someday that will have to remedied.

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My Grandfather’s Crescent shotgun purchased from a Sears catalog. His one and only gun and he used it to hunt everything with, small game, deer, upland game you name it he used that “old black thing hanging in the cellar” that my Grandmother always called it. smile

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