doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Parker reproduction steel shot

I bought my SSS from a water fowler in Louisiana years back - actually my wife gave it to me as an anniversary present. I have never shot steel in it and do not intend to; bismuth is preferred. One nice thing about the slip on butt pads is that in cold weather when you are wearing heavy clothing, you can remove the pad and shoot the gun off the steel butt plate. Mine is IC/M and shoots a tight Modified that is deadly way out there. I don't need no stinkin' removable chokes.

I bought my SSS from a water fowler in Louisiana years back - actually my wife gave it to me as an anniversary present. I have never shot steel in it and do not intend to; bismuth is preferred. One nice thing about the slip on butt pads is that in cold weather when you are wearing heavy clothing, you can remove the pad and shoot the gun off the steel butt plate. Mine is IC/M and shoots a tight Modified that is deadly way out there. I don't need no stinkin' removable chokes.

I like that third shot when using steel on a tough target like ducks. According to "ammo sellers/experts" a steel 2 has the same energy as a lead 4. The energy of the individual pellet is not as important as the total energy we can put on target and it is significantly less with the fewer pellets on target of steel. This is why the ducks are often knocked out of the sky to only swim away. Thus the need of a third shot. Secondly duck hunting is really hard on guns, water, mud, blowing dust and all the crap that is needed for a duck or goose hunt can cause guns to get scratched and sometimes sunk. Me, I like an ugly pump for ducks, nice guns for upland shooting.

But it is for you to do what you want to do. You're not me.

I used my Nitro Special for water fowl hunting and it got pretty beat up. But a Nitro Special ain't no Parker and never will be.

I have a backup shot for crippled ducks ...... it is my other barrel. Nothing predicates that I must shoot twice, and then require a third shot for cripples. And, if I am fortunate enough to double on ducks and need a finishing shot, I can reload my ejector doubles plenty fast enough. I have never lost a duck, that I can recall, because I wasn't shooting an automatic or a pump. I will use an auto on rare occasions, but it's not because it affords me 3 shots. It's because I don't want my HE Fox, or my BSS to get submerged.

I can see where these folks who prefer extractor guns would take a bit longer to reload and finish off a cripple, but I'm not in that camp. Cold fingers and/or thick gloves do not go well with extractor guns, IMO.

As you said, pooch, in a manner of speaking, to each his own.

SRH

It is specialized gun of high quality made in very limited numbers. It is easily worth $4300.

Never lost a duck is quite an achievement, you must be a wonderful shot and an excellent picker of blind locations to accomplish such a feat. I've never, before, met anyone who does much duck hunting, who has never lost a duck.

Don't put words in my mouth, pooch. Read it again. I said I have never lost a duck, that I can recall, because I was not using a three-shot gun.

I have lost a few ducks, but they would not have been recovered by my having a three-shot gun. Most dived under immediately after hitting the water and grabbed something underwater. I could count them on on my fingers.

BTW, It was not my intention to disparage you, or your experience. I'm sorry if you took it that way. But, you really should read a little more carefully before responding with cynicism about my abilities, or lack of.

SRH

This may sound brutish and judgemental. But from experience I have found I don't like double guns in a duck blind. Particularly an O/U, it's too easy to stick the muzzle into the mud or water when the gun is opened to reload. Shots in duck hunting are often taken crouched, sitting, even lying down, in the water, in mud or in boats. The wind often changes at daylight making the angles bad and distances marginal. I've hunted with a Winchester 21, didn't like it and felt I was putting the other hunters at risk. It has been my experience that double gun shooters wave their gun around too much during loading and reloading for the crowded conditions and hectic action of most blinds. Because you never know where that muzzle is going to be pointed and have to watch both the double gun shooter and the ducks, which means I won't be able to pay much attention to the ducks I have come to the conclusion to not push my luck in what can be a already dangerous environment. I will not duck hunt with a guy that uses a double in a duck blind.

Interesting. I haven't done a lot of duck hunting, but I've done a fair amount of driven shooting--where you almost always have another "gun" to one side of you; usually both sides. Not to mention beaters often in sight and coming at you, and pickers-up behind you. You're pretty darned near surrounded! Yet the guns they don't allow are pumps and autos. One reason being that it's very easy to tell if a double is safe: When it's broken open. Much harder to tell on a pump or auto. And when the birds are coming hot and heavy, also easy to forget you have a loaded shell in the chamber.

The only advantage I can see to a pump or auto in a blind is that you can load them with the barrel pointing up, while you can only load a double with the barrel pointing down. So if you've only got one guy with a double and he's right handed, put him on the left end of the blind. His natural way of loading is with the gun pointed down and to his left. No one there. Much like the procedure my hunting partner of 40+ years and I have adopted--in addition to following all other safety precautions: I'm right handed; he's left handed. I always hunt to his left. That way our guns, in normal field carry position, are always pointed away from each other.