Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Shotguns?

I run 870’s. Had a Benelli M1 Super90 for a bit, but have been running an 870 since I was 7 years old, so dumped the Benelli.

Now, when I was a kid, we cut wood off this old boy’s place, and he had a consecutively numbered pair of 20ga. Winchester Model 21’s in a velvet-lined case. I didn’t just break the tenth commandment, I shattered that rule and stomped on the pieces. I would have sold my soul to have those guns...

Just sat here remembering when I was a kid, and hunting doves with my uncle, using his 311 20ga. SxS. Loved that gun. And there was the afternoon my aunt sent me out to her barn with her Browning Light 20 and a couple boxes of shells to thin out the barn cats. Seems the barn cats had had litters too often, there were feral cats and kittens everywhere in that hayloft. Spent the afternoon at a chore that would have gotten me and her both locked up nowadays. And I enjoyed it. Kids are vicious predators...

I will never, ever sell my Auto-5.

Retro hunt
1976 vintage 870 Wingmaster, my first real shotgun

Nostalgia hunt
A5 sweet 16, don't see the problem with 16's, ammo all over the place

Adverse conditions hunt
870 express, AK-47 of shotguns..This one has been completely submerged at least 3 times. Pour the water out, make sure there is no obstruction and run it

When you just gotta have some meat hunt
BPS 10 with 3 1/2's, a killing machine that is so heavy it almost requires wheels

Modern waterfowl hunt
Maxus Wicked Wing

Sunday go to meeting hunt
Browning Citori

Side note; Nothing smells better than just fired paper hulls. When I was a young man, everyone in our crew ran pump guns. We were always suspicious of city slickers with automatics. Shot a clays course 3 weeks ago and had a Blaser shooting guy tell me it's been a while since he had seen anyone shoot a Browning on a sporting clays course. My response was that we never have seen a Blaser over decoys in Saginaw bay. 4th of July and New Years eve were always a hoot when I was a little boy and dad would make noise with his Lefever Nitro Special.

A long time ago we used to go hunting with a pocket full of shotgun shells and a hand me down vest and knife. Low brass was common place and high brass express and baby magnums were pure gold. We had never seen the 3" magnums but knew they were made somewhere when we looked at the Remington catalog in 5th grade. Back then you had to change the barrel to change chokes. Funny how now I run through 3" magnums during waterfowl season like skeet loads and my game bag ain't getting any heavier.

Dad's Springfield 16 S×S was first shotgun I hunted with. Lil brother rusted the thing bad.

FIrst shotgun I bought was during high school was an 870 12 ga. one of the new 3 inch maggies. Got imp cyl barrel for slugs and put a Hastings barrel on it when steel shot required. Don't know how many thousand rounds I put through the thing but I still use it when weather is bad or mud expected.

Lost a few others in canoing accidents over the years.

Nothing does smell better than fired paper hulls!

I'll take BBQ'd chicken for my #1 with Hoppe's #9 in second place.

I'm strictly an upland bird hunter and this one is my favorite.

Charlie's old junker....

16 gauge Isidoro Rizzini(F.A.I.R.).


I do a lot of walking and a little shooting so it works well. My shoulder wouldn't want it any lighter!

(last Sunday)

The 1st week of squirrel and dove is always trying the 1st week of September in Kentucky. Hot, sweaty and skeeters out the wazoo. I would always try to put some distance between me and my brother who was with Pop while in the woods. They just made too much noise! Remember fanning out and trying to push rabbits in November with both. 1st shotgun was a .410 single shot and then in 1976 found a long package wrapped under the Christmas tree. 870 Wingmaster IC with a vent rib. Remember both well because they are still in my rack. Young men can't afford much in the way of shotgun shells so a Lee loader was one of the 1st things on the agenda. Used to piss mom off by hammering out reloads on the kitchen table after dinner. Nothing will put the fear of God into you more than spilling a bag of #8 shot on a green shag carpet floor on a Saturday morning at 600 am while waiting for everyone to get up so you could start pounding out shotgun shells. Saturdays were a special day, Up to watch Kentucky Farm report and then Kentucky Afield, after that grabbed the gun and off we would go. Pop worked 3rd shift and would be home at about 7:30. Usually he would stop by a German bakery and pick up Kuka on the way home. After romping around looking for something to shoot I would make my way home and eat with Pop and my brother and watch Bugs Bunny cartoons. Wish both were still here and times were as simple as back then. Thanks for listening.

I haven't used a shotgun in years pheasant and grouse are not around like they used to be.
If I had to choose one it would be my dad's 12ga JC Higgins model 20 with the full power pak choke.
It looks like crap but it's a great shooter.

Special Field with the safety reversed because I am a lefty.
Nothng wrong with a Mossberg 500 for hunting either.
I also like a BRowning BPS.
I like the ease of having an open bolt a pump has.

1. Waterfowl, turkey and predators - 12 gauge Mossberg 500

2. Upland birds - 20 gauge Browning BPS

I'm partial to a Browning gold I bought about 20 years ago. I can't miss with it.

Certain guns fit

I have several classic shotguns but my most used are as follows:


For coyotes and home defense I have a 21" Benelli M2 12ga with a Nordic Components +3 tube extension and a Nordic barrel clamp w/light rail. For waterfowl, I use the same gun but swap out the short barrel for a 26" and put a plug in it.

For dove hunting, I really like my 24" Benelli Ultra light 20ga. For bunny's in front of beagles my favorite is another Benelli Ultra Light, a 26" 28ga. I wish the 20ga Ultra had the 26" barrel and the 28ga had the 24" but I deal with it ..

My absolute favorite and the one I shoot better than any shotgun I've ever known is my 26" 12 ga FABARMS L4S Grey Hunter. It fits me so incredibly well, it almost shoots itself....

For turkeys I customized a Stevens 555 20ga with 24" barrels, had it cerekoted graphite black, added sling swivels and a sling, installed some Williams fiber optic sights. The top barrel has a SumToy "40 yard" ( ) extended choke that shoots an incredibly tight pattern with a super hot core using 3" 1 1/2 oz Federal TSS #9's.

The bottom barrel has a custom "20 yard" extended Sumtoy that shoots a real nice, even 16" pattern at 25yds with just about any high brass 2 3/4" game load. Close birds get the bottom barrel and shy birds get the top.....

X-VERMINATOR

I can feel the nostalgia in some of these stories even when it isn't mentioned.

Few guns IMO stir more memories than a good ol' shotgun.

Not the fanciest, but it works.
Pawnshop aquired .
Mechanically GTG, metal finish 85- 90%
Stock was hurting.
Refinished it.
Limbsaver pad
Black maxx/ carlson ported .705
Truglu fiber optic bead.
Polished out to 2000 grit the badly marred jeweling on the bolt.
Did some creative recontouring, cutting away, and rounding over of the groovy 60,s angles on the wood.

1969 winchester 1400 mkII
Run about 550 600 rds thru it so far
No hiccups.
Actually pretty fast firing when ya wanna dump rounds quick.
Keep it clean.
Im gonna run a .715/ modified black maxx in it next year for dove.

I learned to shoot trap with a Remington 1100, and I still have it.

My favorite upland gun is an M1 Super 90, an older HK model, with a 24” barrel. I killed a lot of pheasants with that gun, back when.

Nowadays, I don’t shoot much shotgun, and when I do it’s at clays. I have a Remington 3200 and a Super-X Model 1, and I’m pretty fond of both.

I also have a .410 Snake Charmer that sees some use, in the summer, for dispatching halibut.

The last I bought with the notion of hunting grouse in Ontario is a Cooey single shot 20 gauge.

Those are about the same thing as an older Winchester 37.

Wouldn't mind having one myself.

I just looked it up Barry, it's a model 84.