doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What was your first sxs

The first SxS I ever shot was/is still a Fox A grade my great grandfather bought new in 1909. That gun won�t ever be sold.

First SxS I ever bought was a very nice high grade Pieper boxlock. My gunsmith offered it to me. Great deal and a great gun but it went down the road last year when I bought my Lindner.

A Remington 1900 12 gauge that was rode hard with the stock broken at the wrist, stapled and heavily wrapped with electrical tape. A fellow owed my dad some $$ for letting him graze some horses on our property. He wasn't able to pay the $25.00 or so agreed upon price, so he gave my dad the 1900.

I shared a Winchester model 37 16 ga with my older brother at the time, so I gave my dad all sorts of reasons why he should give the 1900 to me. I think he initially had a fear the gun was unsafe, but we eventually shot some rounds through it and deemed it safe to shoot.

He did give it to me eventually and I used it for everything from ground squirrels to ducks. I shot my first wild pheasant with that gun. I built a new buttstock for it from an uninspired black walnut blank, replaced a few broken parts, rust blued the barrels and still use it occasionally for old times sake. I think I was about 1967-68 when he gave it to me.

I got my first SxS in 1968 when I was 20 years old. It was a well-used Meriden 12 gauge with auto ejectors. Meriden was a Sears house brand from the early 1900s.

I paid $35 for it and I hunted with it for about five years. I have nicer guns today, but I've kept it for sentimental reasons.

The first side-by-side I ever used was a J. Stevens Springfield 16 Gauge which belonged to my father. It was the only shotgun he ever owned. I still have it and shoot it occasionally. He started me with a Stevens 20 Gauge with the exposed hammer, a gun I wish I still had. My first side-by-side was a used Bernardelli Gamecock 20 Gauge with 25 inch barrels that my parents and now ex-wife bought me as a law school graduation present. They got it from Paul Jaeger�s shop in Jenkintown, PA. For a while it shoot skeet, hunted birds and rabbits, and got carried with slugs in deer season. Still have and use that one, too.

Parker DH with Acme replacement Bbls.

Like this one? A 12 gauge Falcon, also:






You got a ton for your money with those guns. 3" proof (however, at 6 lbs and small change it will be a cold day in hell before I cut a 3" round loose in this gun-my 3" 20 gauge weighs more) hidden third fastener, disc set strikers, and that nice, long, open pistol grip that is so easy to get used to, and bend over if you need to, like I did. I polished the gold off the triggers, and replaced the spiffy white line pad with an Old English looking thing.
Much better.
The chokes were stupid tight also, it is more like cyl and icyl, now.
All my shooting is rough shooting, sometimes in the company of unruly labs or shorthairs, the shorthair males all seem like they need to be retrained if you break for lunch. The labs are peeing machines. Crossing a unkept beaver dam seems to be an every other year experience, as does falling through ice.
The Uggy fits the bill in a lot of those places and with mentioned company. I actually have spare strikers and a few tools for this one, works as my traveler as well. I wouldn't be heartbroken if it was damaged or lost.
Not all my guns fit that bill.

No hurry to sell this one.


Best,
Ted

A Stevens Model 311 that my dad bought for me to go deer hunting with my Uncle and his kids in 1974. That thing must of weighed 15 pounds. I hated that thing while bird hunting. Half way through the day I normally had it unloaded and slung over my shoulder.

A friend's Chevy pick-up truck rolled over it and busted it up good. I was never so glad to see a shotgun get wasted. Took it to a gunsmith and he said he wouldn't work on it but he would buy it off of me for spare parts.

I bought a 16 gauge Nitro Special from a guy at a bar a few months later in around 84. Still have it.

1965 I bought this in a pawn shop in Stevens Point, WI, I think I paid $15. for it. I killed a lot of game with it. I knew nothing of Damascus and ran a bunch of JC Higgins 1 1/4oz 16ga rounds through it. It looks like it is a set of 16ga MZL barrels grafted to a 12ga frame. It still hangs in my BinL's living room with a bunch of other antiques I collected over the years.

[img:center]https://ibb.co/j4D7Qn[/img]

A Richland Arms, Zabala, 20, with 25� bbls., that my Grandad gave me for my 16th birthday. Weighs a whole 6 pounds!! Still have it, but it is a frequent loaner still. Although an �import� spanish gun, it had chopper lump barrels, very finely struck, disc set strikers and ejectors that send empties into the next zip code! This pic from a Chukar hunt a few years ago.

JABC in 1945. My Dad bought it for me when he came home from the war, paid $25. It was a svelte, reliable gun, handled almost as well as any I've owned.