doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Fox SxS Returns

I grew up in the farm country of SW PA. People I new didn't hunt grouse. It was rabbits, pheasant, turkey, and deer. The most common shotguns were Ithaca 37s, and Winchester M12s (with polychokes). I can't remember ever seeing a side by side or over and under. This was from the mid 60s to the mid 80s.
terc

Agree with you there, Stan. Post-WWII years--well, let me push that into the early to mid-50's, when I started paying attention to guns other than the .410 singles my dad and older brother had--were a pretty bleak period for doubles of any kind. The Browning Superposed was likely the most common, and you didn't really see all that many of them on a pheasant hunt in Iowa. Just too darned expensive. I got my first double--Savage 420 OU, made for only a few years right before WWII--in about 1962, and it was something of an oddity among my hunting buddies, as well as the older generation. It wasn't until we started getting OU's from Japan, courtesy of Winchester and Ithaca and Browning (plus Beretta), that they achieved some popularity. Then the Japanese-made side by sides caused a minor resurgence. And then the late Mr. McIntosh started telling us about how good those old American classic sxs were--most of which had been gathering dust in gun shops for a long time because hardly anyone wanted them. And that lit at least a small fire.

But pumps and autos were far ahead of doubles (either horizontal or vertical) for a pretty long time, whether you were a bird hunter or a target shooter.

Growing up in the 50's and 60's in my end of GA, the dove shoots were crowded with Browning A-5s and Remington model 11s. I shot pumpguns until my 40's, but always loved the sxs guns. My 1st was a Fox model B. It was a 12ga with vent rib and absolutely no balance. It almost turned me off on sxs guns until I traded into a 20ga Elsie...Geo

Back in the 50s,60s and up to mid 70s Georgia had lots of birds and hunters and I was the only one that shot doubles in Greene County.I did see one out of town hunter with a Winchester 20 ga 101. Bobby

Growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the 50's and 60's upland hunting was done almost exclusively with A5's, 37's and a few Model 12's. Most with Cutts or poly chokes attached to them. Boys were regulated to .410 or those hideous bolt action shotguns. My father gave me a 28 ga. Model 12 but none of my other friends had such a nice gun. Duck and goose hunting you would still see a few doubles, mostly Smith's and Parker's or those same A5's, 37's and Model 12's. And men shot the 12 except for a few who shot a 10 in the marsh. We had a few odd souls who shot the 16 but no more than a few.

I am sure there were other doubles owned but not used. But doubles were just out of fashion just as small bores were not in much use. Those men even hunted quail with 12's not the small bores we romantically think the did. And those Cutts caused many a dog to go deaf by age five.

Another thing I remember is that ammo was not hard to find. The Western Auto Store, Sears, Montgomery Wards, the local hardware store, the Southern States supply store and several country stores all stocked and sold ammo. The rural stores would sell shotgun shell by the part of a box. As A kid I could walk the roads picking up soda bottles to get spare change. Then I could go to the store and buy .22LR for less than .50 a box. A boy could make a box of .22 bullets last a long time. Heck back then they would sell them to a boy. Those days are gone. Another thing was that 28 ga. shells were not twice as expensive as 12's. You could order a case of them and they cost maybe two or three dollars more a case. Times have changed.

My first shotgun was a J C Higgins .410 S x S with the prettiest figured Tenite stock and forend you evah laid eyes on. I killed many a squirrel, rabbit, dove and quail with that thing before I turned 12. That's when the 20 ga. Rem. 11 came my way ........... and life really began on the dove fields.

Good memories.

I wish Savage well, trying to market this "new" gun. I just do not think it will fly at the price they want for it. But, I could be wrong. I was, once.

SRH