16ga.com ~ View topic - What kind of guns do you spend your hard earned money on.

Joined: 27 Jan 2016 Posts: 490 Location: Oswego, Kansas

I started out shooting trap with my Dad at about 11yo with his Rem 870 trap gun and hunted quail around our farm with rem 1100 12ga.
Got my first 16ga from my grandfather when he gave me his old Stevens 94 and have owned a few 16's since then and now prefer my LC Smith guns tp them all.
I mostly shoot my own reloads but will be shooting RST shells at the Southern Side by Side in April.
I am in the 51-75 age group and getting in to more bird hunting after being away from it for several years because of work and lifestyle changes and want to enjoy more of the days like when i was chasing pheasants and quail with a brittany and enjoying the excitement of a flush and the dog retrieving birds.

Joined: 12 Mar 2012 Posts: 684 Location: Ontario

Let’s see.....I shoot vintage SxS almost exclusively. I like Foxes and Remington’s so I have an appreciation for classic American guns. But my real interest lies with the Continental makers from France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Bohemia. In the current market they can represent incredible value. I am typically buying guns made between 1890 and 1930. But not exclusively.

As I have been acquiring guns, I have tried to imagine all the different hunting situations I might be in and what would be the ideal gun for that circumstance. And so have a checklist of different styles of guns....lightweight, heavy, long barreled, short barreled, various choke selections, etc. And I’m trying to fill all the spots. I know..just an excuse to buy more guns. Lol

I also spend my hard earned money on repair and restoration of every gun I buy. I know not all agree with this but where most of my guns are from, the makers expected regular care would be given after each season. And where I buy them, it’s likely regular care has not been applied. And most guns I buy are 90 to 130 years old. So the dents get removed and the barrels get reblued. The action gets torn down and anything that needs care gets it. The stock gets 100 years of oil removed and a fresh finish, along with glass bedding so it will last another 90-100 years. The purchase price is just the start. Because I know I’m doing this I am often looking for gems that have bad finishes. Passed over and discounted by other buyers who miss the good bones the gun may have.

Once they have been rehab’d, and in near perfect condition, they get hunted and shot. I don’t baby them and if they get the finish marred, oh well. That’s hunting. I do it because I want them to have their best chance to survive to be used by my great grandchildren....or to someone’s great grandchildren. Lol.

Don’t own any semis and only one O/U.

Generally I buy RST or Gamebore.

I’m 60 and my dad taught me to handle a gun and shoot starting when I was about 8. I had two older brothers close to my age and we lived in the country along a river but close to Winnipeg. We spent our summers fishing in the river, shooting squirrels etc and the highlight of the fall would be going on some hunting trips with my father.

I’m 58. I grew up harassing sparrows and blackbirds with a Daisy and moved up to a Sheridan .177 and added squirrels to the fair-game side of the ledger, as long as my grandmother didn’t see me or discover a pellet hole in her bird feeder, went to deer camp and to Stuttgart with my dad for opening weekend for a year or two before I discovered a Stevens single shot 20 gauge under the Christmas tree, hunted flooded timber and quail with it for a couple of years before I bought my first 870 20 gauge LW with grass cutting money, then quickly moved to 12’s until roughly 15 years ago when I picked up an old Belgian 16 sxs and was hooked on 16’s, and SxS’s. Since then I’ve had mostly old SxS from Winchester,Merkel, Fox, and a few from Italy, in 16,20, and a couple of 28’s and 410’s, and a few newer CSMC RBL’s that are pretty nice, too.
I mostly hunt, with dogs, and only shoot clays in the backyard warming up before dove season, although my shooting would stand more practice, for sure

Being an admitted contrarian and a surrealist artist with a taste for one of a kind guns, I like obscure 14ga hammer guns that I can't find ammo for and have to return for refunds. Cool

Neat picture !!
Lion of Judah ?

Mike

*Last edited by UncleDanFan on Fri Mar 22, 2019 6:49 am; edited 1 time in total*

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Best $185 I've ever spent. It's a 1933 Remington Model 11 built back when makers cared enough to make guns fit human hands. I bought it from a friend in Maine who found it languishing on a rack in an old hardware store. Odd how things work out. I've spent a good chunk of my life chasing the ideal double, but in the end this honest and unpretentious old Remington 16 gauge has treated me the best. Just ask the dogs.

Member Joined: 16 Dec 2007 Posts: 592 Location: Minnesota

Joined: 22 Jan 2015 Posts: 345

I’m old enough to be curious if I can remember everything the OP asked, without going back to look...heck with it, here’s what stuck.
1. After my first experience buying an old Fox 12ga Sterlingworth, and got burned from my ignorance, haven’t found a 16ga classic American made double yet that interests me enough to buy it, was affordable, or not beat to heck. I have come across some very good European examples which made it home with me. Exposed to old guns from the time I was a baby, my father collected them just to look at, but never a hunter himself, after rigid safety training from him, I started hunting as a boy with a daisy bb gun, harassing sparrows, until pop brought home a $5 Stevens single shot 22 rifle and handed it to me when I was about 12 years old. At that point, my real luv affair with firearms and hunting took off. Squirrels were my first teachers. A couple years later I got my first shotgun for Christmas. A Remy 1100, 12ga. After a few seasons with it, I returned to the 22 for use on squirrels, but the 1100 was used in the dove fields. I moved to deer by age 16, using one of pop’s old British Enfield 303’s. Moved on to lighter flatter shooting rifles from there, but never did much with shotguns until after I retired from the USN. Turkeys had returned to my home turf by then, and I found that the old Stevens 12 ga pump was good medicine for them. But I still couldn’t hit a dove with it or my old 1100 with less than a box of shells. About 10 years ago, a colleague got me excited about bird hunting, and my chapter in life began in which I decided to learn how to wing shoot, and to scratch an itch I had for trying out the O/U platform, and do it all right. I found an old 12ga Superposed in great condition, took it with me half way across the country to PA where I was tri-gun fitted and the gun was cut and bent to my measurements. While there waiting on the gun work, I took my first lessons on shooting clays. After that trip, my dove to shell ratio went from 1 bird per box to about 1 per 2 shots. Still working on that. Before long, afterwards, I aquirred my first 16ga. A sxs sidelock, which is a marvel. Learned more and more about the guns and the guage, and am at the point that I’m ready to travel to find better upland hunting opertunities to continue experiencing all I can in the sport. I shoot low gun SC and skeet occasionally for fun and practice. I shoot a variety of shells according to conditions, but so far only rst brand in my 2 1/2” chambers. Hope to add shotshells to my reloading bench within the next few years. Forgive me for rambling.

due to some abnormalities of late , I'm hesitant about anything new . Would like Nick to latch onto a 16 Fox , but , the only thing I'll play with is the Davis .I basically need a high rib trap set up . Mikey C came up with the novel idea of using body filler to make a cheek comb , and what I'm gonna do is use body filler to make a 3/4 high short rib . Already have a cheek pad , and I just wouldn't be able to do this sorta thing to a GOOD gun . It's a little weird changing how to shoot a new way - the add-a-rib types are really nice , but I just can't justify the 220 bucks for a 14'' long rib .

Joined: 26 Apr 2016 Posts: 369 Location: Vermont

These stories had me looking through old photos today. Found this one I was probably 24 at the time. That's the Sweet 16 was probably shooting Federal 1 oz loads then, found a bunch cleaning out my mothers house.

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Joined: 21 Sep 2013 Posts: 136 Location: Fort Worth, TX

Well at 70 I have been shooting an 870 since the age of 14. When I dove hunt it will be a vintage pump gun most likely an 870 or model 37. For skeet or sporting clays a Beretta SP and for Sandhill Cranes a Beretta 391. Don't know what happened. up until a few years I only had 3 shotguns. then they started breeding in the safe. The 16s are particularly bad about reproducing.

PIOBill,

Bitten by the 16 gauge bug, it happens to all bird hunters sooner or later. In my case it happened when I was about 13 years old on Christmas morning. My Father gave me one of my Grandfathers 16 gauge L.C. Smith double guns, I caught the disease that Christmas morning, and have never been able to live without a good 16 gauge double gun.

The gun safe seems to have numerous 16 gauge double guns, purchased some of my own and inherited others. Seems I can not own enough 16 gauge double guns, just purchased another 16 gauge Antique Hammer Gun this last month. It's a life long disease, just learn to enjoy it. I have enjoyed it fully.

Soggy Socks,

Great picture by the way!

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

The latest addition to the 16 gauge disease.

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Joined: 09 Sep 2006 Posts: 863 Location: NoDak

Hi all, here's my Info

Where do your interests fall when picking shotguns to hunt with?

SxS's Only. 12ga and 16ga

Is your interest in Classic American & Euro Double Guns for bird hunting?

Vintage British, Modern and Vintage European. No American Classics

Is your interest in O/U & Semi-Auto modern guns for Line Shooting and some hunting?

No

If you purchase shells do you have certain shells you like best?

I Reload, but do use RST on Occasion

What age group do you fall in? 25-35, 36-50, 51-75, 76-85

61

How old were you when you learned to use a shotgun

10

Fun post! Thanks for thinking of it!

Best,

Greg