Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire SxS Shotgun Hunting

High comb for trap, no?

Back when sXs were the standard, most had straight stocks and splinter forends. A good sXs points.

Other than waterfowl, for which I use a modern, 3 1/2" gas-operated repeater for open water divers, the only shotgun I hunt with any more is my Merkel 1620, double triggers, straight grip, VZ and 1/2 choke. I also have a Fox Sterlingworth 16 gauge and had an Ithaca 16 gauge SXS that my brother liked so..... I could get it back but won't. Occasionally, I'll use my 12 gauge Ruger Red Label 12 bore, an early 80's gun that has proven to be bulletproof. I usually use the Ruger when I'm going with a group I've never hunted with before and don't want to look too high-falutin', but also don't want to miss anything.

For the life of me, I don't know why anyone with average means would want anything but a refined, 16 gauge SXS to hunt upland birds with. All this blather about chokes and shot sizes....a 16 gauge sxs choked ic and mod or mod and mod or mod and full with 1 1/8 ounces of 5 shot will do anything anyone wants it to do. Quail maybe? okay, 71/2's.

Go with minimum 28" barrels. The short-barrel shotgun nonsense has been exposed as such for decades. A shotgun is all about smooth, coordinated movement: not herky-jerkey throw the sucker up and let off a blast. Don't give me any bullschitt about "Oh, in the New England fugging jungles where I hunt...." No one has hunted grouse and woodcock in thicker schitt than I have. Those who think chopping a couple inches off the barrel of their shotgun (or rifle for that matter) gives them some great advantage would be better off losing 20 pounds and learning how to shoot.

Man, I'm starting to sound like a curmudgeon, aren't I. About fugging time, I've earned it.

I started using an AYA 20ga SXS double at 12, 61 years ago. I shoot a few autoloaders now, but I prefer at DT SXS in general. They have the fastest barrel selection and handle much faster than pumps and autos. Since drillings are essentially a SXS+, I lump them into SXS DT doubleguns.

This Kreighoff Trumpf Dural is light and feels like a find double. I shoot it a lot as an upland double.



This high grade Simson 16ga didn't point well for me, but the new owner says it is radar guided for him.



My favorite is the 12ga SXS half of my two barrel cape gun/SXS set.

I have collected dbbs for 40 years,also International trap O/U.The ou's shoot better but always load a Sxs


when hunting.dale06 has a galazan 20bore in the classified section fancy wood with good stock dems,I think he close on a fair price.The gun is cased in as new condition.JMHO pipeliner

I'd like to find an Ithaca SKB 20G quail special, IM/IM, 25" barrels, a buddy had one one and It's a nice shooting light SXS.

They are all I own, 12's, 16's and 20's.

I like the wide area of the side, by side. My father taught me to point a shotgun, not aim. Up, and lead, shoot. Birds get far away fast.

Well, in West Texas you will lose 20-40% of blue quail you down with 71/2 because by the time you get to where the broke wing birds fell they will be 75 yards away uphill or in desert sand you cant run in or 2-3 feet down a badger hole or burrowing owl hole or under several hundred pounds of pack rat nests 2 feet high and 6 ft across built up through 12 branches of a spreading mesquite.

With low base 20 ga 6's i will beat any gunner with a 12 and high brass 71/2's re birds in the bag at days end.
Wish I had learned to shoot with a sxs.

I have always preferred to go up in shot size, eschewing "pattern density" (a concept important only to gunwriters) for broken bones and penetration through to vitals from behind.

I shoot a lot of different SXS's but I love Philadelphia Foxes in 16 & 20 gauge the most. They shoot where I point or I send them down the road.

What is this??!!! A thread on hunting???
Not politics?

This slender and well-used 16ga Robust No. 4 French double looks like everything killed with it was clubbed to death by it. Ms. Scarlet wasn't too proud to be seen with it. The little SXS is a fast handling and pointing quail and grouse getter.




This slim 16ga Simson is a work in progress for me. I shoot it OK...just OK, though. I'm going to have the right barrel opened from what's now IM to IC.

it's the one on top:

Truth. Thats the difference in shooting them and getting them. 2 7.5s in a big quail going away is an iffy deal. 2 6s in a big quail going away and the odds are in your favor for getting dinner.

Dayom i wish you could buy cheap low brass 5's. They would also be great for squirrels at 35 yards with an IM choke.

A good friend is one of the empty out the auto at every bird, the bird's in the next county by shot three!

I only have a couple but my Ithaca/SKB 200 is my go to. I also like my SKB 385. They both fit and point great!

Beautiful, Ed.

Every 25" SKB I've ever seen is choked Skt/Skt. I'd be curious to see the demarkations denoting IM?

SKB/Ithaca 100/200/280 are affordable choices as is the Charles Daly 500.

For a bit more coin if you can find one the newer late 90's SKB 385/485's are very good quality, have screw-in chokes, and usually had gorgeous wood.

Browning BSS, Beretta 625/626's if you can find them are also good choices that'll have a lot less drop than the guns from say before the 1960's or so.

The SKB 280E quail special is IM/IM, they only made them for a couple of years and didn't make very many of them.

https://www.gunsamerica.com/906203274/280E-Ithaca-SKB-Quail-Special-20-Gauge-In-Box.htm

Those Ithaca SKBs were real sleepers back in the day. They are finely made guns and point nice. I sold a few to knowledgeable customers in the late 1970s. They all came back to thank me. The 280 was about as Classic as they come.