doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Just one gun?

I would keeo my CSMC 12ga M-21! Can shoot/do anything with it.

If I could have just one gun, I'd go back to my Win M12 in 16 ga.

Handles and carries well for upland, takes ducks and geese with ease.

Though a good question, that proposition is both depressing to think about and impossible to answer. For instance, when I head to the skeet range and plan to shoot, maybe, 3 rounds, I invariably take a different gun for each round--and most often use them all. I could probably be a better shooter if I shot the same gun all the time but there is no point to it, for me. I enjoy restoring and working on the guns I pick up here and there as much as I do shooting them. But a great post, nonetheless. Gil

Gil: This wasn't meant to be depressing, I was just noodling-around the comparison of highly-specialized firearms (game guns, target guns, hammer guns, etc.) with the incredibly broad-spectrum of the more general-use stuff in the shower this morning. God knows... I'm grateful to have had the chance to try good examples of so many of them. I feel very fortunate in that regard. By all means, keep-on doing what you so clearly enjoy (I know I will).

James: I funded the lion's share of my more-specialized gun purchases here with the sale of most (but not all) of my eclectic assortment of classic old American pump guns. It was great fun to pursue them, acquire them, learn about them, clean them up and then shoot & hunt with them. They all had their charms (with some having a bit more than the others). The last one left in my gun cabinet is a beat-up old M12 in 16 and it's not going anywhere (there might be an older 870 around somewhere too).

One gun?
12 ga 870 Remington express with a rattle can paint job.

If you have to consolidate everything that can be done with a shotgun into one,
Then you have to consider paddling a boat, swinging like a baseball bat, prying a car door open, packing inside an 18” boot, ammunition availability, repairability, and spare parts. Alongside of being capable of killing every animal on the planet, except for some mega fauna.

None better than an 870.

My Winchester 1897 pump. Properly loaded and at the correct distances, it should be good for anything I'm liable to run into be it people, large & small animals or birds.

CZ: Which is exactly why I still have an 870...or two. I'm telling on myself a bit here, but last year while up in Minnesota (sadly, spent mainly hauling flood debris to the dump) I had my deceased father-in-law's hard-used 870 Express under the front seat of his old Ford truck. The very rural road to the dump from the camp goes through some rather nice cover and accordingly, I got to employ it several times on...how should I put this...some hopelessly unwary birds-of-the-year there. He always referred to them as "bonus birds" (& it was his gun & truck after all). Anyway, when in Rome...

I use mine anywhere there’s a risk of loss.
Saltwater, ice flows, lava flats, foreshore mud flats, abandoned buildings, wherever.
They pack well, they hold many cartridges, and they are simple.
This year it will be floating the Snake, and wallerin’ in the Columbia salt marshes.
Not against whackin’ a seal over the head with it.

If I am down to one, what it looks like isn’t going to matter anymore anyway.


Fwiw, I’ve heard that technique referred to as shooting them in the “pre-flight” condition.

What would I choose if I had to only have one room in my house? Would I choose the kitchen, where I have so much gastronomical delight? Or, would I choose the bedroom, where I have enjoyed blissful rest and other intimate delights? Or, would it be the bathroom, where I have had so much relief and enjoyed thousands of hot, soaking baths?

I have decided. I will not think on it any longer, for I have no reason to choose one over the other. I can have them all. I will not "torture" myself agonizing over such matters. 🤔😉

I'd probably go with my 12 gauge Citori, I could get by shooting trap with the full screw in chokes. Skeet and sporting clays with the I/C or CYL tubes. And it would be fine for hunting. The screw in chokes would help immensely to make it suitable..