doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com "Soul" in a scattergun

Can an 1100 or an 870 have "soul" like even a cheap doublegun or single might? Is having such a thing attributed to action style or dates of manufacture --- or the gun's individual history. I doubt that a bolt action Mossberg 185K might have it but that was one of my first shotguns and I spent many hours afield with it and killed much game with the first shot. I see these at gun shows and a lump rises in my throat. What d'ya think about this, guys? Chopperlump

In a word, "Yes."

You have answered your own question in posing it.

The 870 is the soul of American hunting.

Nice to own things that put a "lump in your throat."

I'd see a dOcter.

Technically speaking, guns of course do not have "Soul". It's the owner's attachment to them. There is thus no resaon that an 870 couldn't have soul to one man, the same as say a Purdey could to another. I only ever owned one 870 & it put a bad spot in "My" heart for any & all pump guns, but to each his own. My fondest recollection of an early gun was an old J Stevens dbl, which I foolishly traded off, but made me a confirmed SxS man.

I have two 870s with soul. My 1959 Sunlight 20 gauge Skeet shot the last 100 straight shot at a Maryland State Skeet Shoot with a pump gun. It could happen again some day, but I doubt it. Our state shoots are pretty competitive. My hand painted Express was owned by The Lovely Linda's late husband, a great guy and a good friend. It was his duck gun and it is all I will shoot at waterfowl unless I am using a ten or eight. It is camoflaged with painted and stencilled doves in flight and shorebird decoys. Murphy

About 10 years ago my wife's late uncle gave our oldest boy (who was 6 at the time) a 1100 20 gauge he owned for a number of years. Turner took little interest in the gun, but this weekend I got it out and let our 9-year old, who is very interested, shoot skeet with it. He busted 10 straight with it right off the bat. I told my wife that I'm sure Uncle Sidney was smiling down on us watching his gun do it's thing in the hands of a very happy small boy.

No, the inanimate has no soul. In the blind this morning, I was looking at my friend's Stevens 311 and my Sterlingworth. They were only wood and steel of similar colour, line and form. Except for the SW's better bluing, case and benchmark wood, there wasn't much difference. We rattle our tongues a lot about provenance, comparisons, experiences. What we're talking about here is affection and "soul" as our own subjection. "Soul" is in the eyes of the beholder.

When I look at my yellow maple stocked 20 gauge 870, I "behold" soul. Yes, it is in the eyes of the "beholder".