doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Recommendation for Argentine autoloader...

Daryl, Truth is, I shot a Cosmi 20 ga. in Argentina! I wasn't with the fellow shooting it the first day, but we all shot together the second day and in the morning the gun wouldn't function at all. One of the fellows, writer Nick Sisley, mopped three paper napkins of gun oil out of the action (having been "cleaned" by the bird boys the night before).
After that, six of us took turns shooting the Cosmi all day without a hicup, balk or failure to function. Simply a marvel, the gun must have had a 1000 rounds through it that day, some shot it very well. It seemed like farm machinery to me, the mechanical cycling of the action with each round fired sounded like a baler making small squares.
But as for autoloaders, the Cosmi is a masterpiece... and soooo beautiful, too!

Yes, Steve, the Cosmi is sort of one of a kind--------maybe like an expensive Italian suit that I'm sure you have a closet full of. When I was a kid, we had a corn sheller that sounded like a Cosmi, but that is not the issue. I know anyone would look sooooo good holding one and being comforted that it actually could perform like guns costing a fraction of the price. Oh, yes, there is the Cosmi "look", and I will have to think on that. Oh well, I have GWP dogs, so how could I judge? Yes, Masterpiece for sure.

Daryl

I have to tell the story on a friend who took his "new" used Cosmi out chukar hunting. He wanted all those shots because often, after working so hard to get up to the wild birds, a double is simply not enough. Well....long story short, it jammed on the first covey and he was reduced to a very expensive single shot for the rest of the trip.

My 2 cents; take a double down south. They swing well and go bang when the trigger is pulled (and you look so darn good doing it, nes pas, Daryl?)


C.

Please forgive the dumb question, as I have zero experience shooting in Argentina, nor am I ever likely to have any (if it has feathers and my dogs don’t point it, I can’t be bothered to shoot it). Nonetheless, the question of the ultimate high endurance gun is interesting.

Why wouldn’t a 12 gauge target O/U stocked to fit with 20 or 28 gauge bbls be the ideal Argentine gun? For example, a full-framed K-80 with 28 gauge bbls (not tubes – those would seem a bit clumsy) is utterly reliable and one could shoot such a gun all day long without discomfort from recoil. There is no lack of old K-80 four bbl sets to build into an Argentine gun. Of course, a Perazzi or similar gun would serve the same purpose. Is the problem managing a 9 pound gun for 1,000 rounds in a day?

Greg, This response is a little off topic however if you like to hunt birds that dogs point and it is evident you do then Argentina may be the place for you. The perdiz hunting there is something to behold. Your dogs may never get off point. I know a guy who is married to a Chilean Lady ( as am I ) who took a month, rented a car and he and his wife traveled through central Argentina hunting with his two pointers that he took there. He had the time of his life. The ranchers were enthralled by his dogs pointing the birds and because of his pretty wife's discussions with the land owners and his dogs he got to hunt every day for a month. On top of all this perdiz are delicious, the country side beautiful, the people gracious and the food to die for. On top of all this because he went solo his hunt cost less than a week of pheasant hunting in South Dakota. Your idea of the quality OU and barrel mates makes sense but a 9 lb gun may be a little much for 1000 shots per day on doves. Still you are not the only one with the idea. My ideal gun for doves would be a 32" 28 gauge P gun custom built to my fit.

Then there is the matter of the extra cost of 28 ga ammo! The 12 ga 390/1's are the low cost work horses of volume shooting. We're back to the starting point of this post. david

How wonderful a 28 gauge Crown Grade Smith with vent rib would have been for this purpose.