Reading all the posts lately there seems to be a minuscule number of SxS fans. I switcheds years ago from the o/u to the sxs. Reason is that I shoot it a lot better. My scores at skeet and life birds went way up, meaning it fits me better and allows me to shoot with my head up, and just some slight face pressure on tthe comb. Also I like the understated elegance of a nicely made SxS. There is just something about a nice SxS with a brace of upland birds. Guess I am a romantic at heart. See attachement. Ladst couple years in Canada were good years to find nice used ones with fixed chokes, because many got rid of them because they do not take to steel loads. I can not afford the more pricey british makes, but will pick up nice German, Italian or Spanish ones. Use them for upland mainly. Yes, I do use also an auto loader, my mud gun for ducks and geese.
Yeah, Shrike, I shoot sXs. Grew up on them and never did shift my likeings. Do have a couple of pumps for places and things that I don't want to put my good guns in. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I shoot a nice Spanish 20 ga. English style boxlock. It weighs about 5.5 pounds, and is an effortless carry. I shoot it reasonably well (you always wish you could shoot better) and will never part with it. I guess I'm a romantic wingshooter, too. It's my GoTo gun for grouse.
Shooting a SxS is not the same as any other other gun, and requires a different technique for wingshooting. And I don't believe that a more beautifully designed gun exists than the side by side. And it's not that the double gun has snob appeal, it's just that it can offer more to be appreciated than a simple industrial pump gun.
Just kidding, sounds like a nice gun. Only a couple of things would improve it, make it a 12 and an over and under and you'd have something. One good thing about any double, we can only miss one bird twice in front of our friends or our dog. If I miss much, my lab takes up with another hunter. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I've got an Elcee I'd sell plenty reasonable, I think (been a while since I looked at it) that it has a chip out of the butt on the bottom of the stock, and I can't recall if it is 12 or 16. 12, I think. Field grade, better than average shape, with ejectors which makes it a little bit different. If anyone is interested, I'll drag it out of the pile and look at it more carefully.
I also have a nice 21 in 16, but it is fully engraved by Angelo Bee and is a bit more pricey. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />But it can be had.
The 21s in 16 are a nice gun, because they built them on the 20 frames and it made them a little more lively. Of course, it's still a damn side by side. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I was afraid you were going to pick up on that, so I can explain. I was being my usual diplomatic self but I really meant "you", since I NEVER miss twice in a row...... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Yeah, with those durn old threshing machines you can miss the same bird maybe five times hand running. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
I had a friend who hunted doves in Mexico one time with an extension tube on a Beretta (bad idea, makes it TOO muzzle heavy) and while I never saw him miss 8 times in a row, we were shooting when an afternoon thunderstorm blew up. Whitewings coming with a 60 mph tail wind. You had to shoot them when they were little dots, barely on the edge of being in range or you couldn't swing fast enough to catch them, I'm pretty sure he beat YOUR"old threshing machine" record of 5 misses hand running. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
PS up until I shot rock pigeons in South Africa last summer, that was the toughest one shooting "event" I'd ever seen. Although a downwind canvasback or redhead is pretty sporty too. But, the "rockies" beat it hands down. I think the birds are getting faster as I get older..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
IIFID, I'd blame the ammo, certainly wouldn't be my wingshooting ha..ha. I do like shooting pigeons..american rock doves..that is, especially comming out of silos.pak
'Often mistaken, never in doubt'
'Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge' Darwin
It is obvious that to save on costs, modern manufacturers load 3 or 4 shells in each box with no shot. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
"When we put [our enlisted men and women] in harm's way, it had better count for something. It can't be because some policy wonk back here has a brain fart of an idea of a strategy that isn't thought out." General Zinni on Iraq
CAT, back when there was a lot of row cropping and therefore lots of doves here I had a friend who would invariably shoot several scissor tails during the course of an afternoon. You know that a scissor tail coming head on will look like a cruising dove for a second or two, flight pattern about the same.
When I'd holler and ask him what the hell he was shooting the answer was always that he had some old shells left over from last year and was testing to see if they were still good. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
He'd also always get at least a couple of meadow larks and always called them Mexican quail. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
He was the living example of your handle. No yellow hammer or [bleep] poke was safe around him. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
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