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sl93z
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 12:56 pm  Reply with quote
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Location: N. Idaho

Edit 13 Nov. Went back to the JOC and took some pics. For those of you in the Dallas area this gun will be on display in the Beretta booth at the Dallas Safari Club show in January 2015.

I first learned of Jack O'Connor when I subscribed to Outdoor Life one year after Jack died--I was 12 years old. I read his stories but could only imagine what it would be like to go on such adventures. Fast forward to present day; I teach at a small college in Lewiston, Idaho and Jack's house sits two blocks from my office.

Last night I attended a meeting at the Jack O'Connor Center and we were discussing Jack and shotguns. His favorite was a Beretta 450. Darrel, a retired VP at CCI/Speer and personal friend of Jacks, quietly walked away and came back with a case in his hands--it was Jack's Beretta.

I had the pleasure of taking it out of the case and assembling it. It fit great and I could see why he liked it so much. It is a two barrel set, both 28 inch, one MOD/FULL the other IC/MOD. Single trigger with prince of whales grip and though I didn't have the tools to measure its weight and dimension I can say it had about 3/8th inch cast off and 1/8 toe-out. Upon shouldering I was looking right down the middle of the barrels (now I want to go home and add more cast-off to all my guns).

As I sat there and admired this "regular Joe's" field gun--noticing the scars on the leather case, a couple small field dents in the stock and forearm, and a scratch or two on the barrels--I couldn't help but wonder of the tales it could tell of days afield in the same places I hunt now. I felt a certain reverence and awe, combined with a childlike giddiness, knowing that I was holding a piece of history that was personally owned and used by the dean of outdoor writers.

Now that I am posting this I am wondering why I didn't get a pic to share with my 16ga forum brothers.

Ken

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Last edited by sl93z on Thu Nov 13, 2014 6:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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fin2feather
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 1:54 pm  Reply with quote
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Neat story; thanks!

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barrelslime
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 2:23 pm  Reply with quote



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Location: Highland, IL

That is awsome

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Savage16
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:45 pm  Reply with quote
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You've just been blessed. Cool story!

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steve voss
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:25 pm  Reply with quote



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Ok, let's get things straight. It's "Prince of Wales," big fat ocean swimming whales need not apply. Second, Jack O'Connor was my favorite rifle writer, but he applied rifle dynamics to his shotguns. A proper field gun is an English style SxS with splinter forearm, straight grip and DTs, preferrably with hammers. Such as...


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XVIgauge
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:37 pm  Reply with quote
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steve voss wrote:
Ok, let's get things straight. It's "Prince of Wales," big fat ocean swimming whales need not apply. Second, Jack O'Connor was my favorite rifle writer, but he applied rifle dynamics to his shotguns. A proper field gun is an English style SxS with splinter forearm, straight grip and DTs, preferrably with hammers. Such as...




I am 63 and I have been reading Jack O'Conner's articles and books since I was ten years old. He may have applied some rifle dynamics to shotguns; i.e., beavertail forearm, pistol grip, single trigger, shorter barrels, but as far as SHOOTING shotguns, his style and advice was nothing like a rifle shooter. In fact, he stressed that a shotgunner should NOT sight down the shotgun barrels as rifle shooter might do. He was always very clear on that. I think Jack knew that American shooters would never adapt to the English style of straight grip, splinter forend, and double triggers due to their strong rifle indoctrination influenced by all of our wars.
xvigauge

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sneem
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:29 pm  Reply with quote



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I really started reading outdoor magazines when I was on a Boy Scout paper drive and someone gave us a stack of Outdoor Life magazines. Sitting in the truck, I grabbed a bunch and started looking through them. I was hooked. I read O'Connor avidly. The one shotgun I remember him mentioning most often was his AyA side by side. He really liked the gun. This was back in the '60's when SxS and even more so, Spanish guns were not highly regarded. He was, first and foremost a rifleman, but he gave great respect to his Spanish AyA.

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sl93z
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 10:13 pm  Reply with quote
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Oops! My bad on the Wales. Should never trust the spell checker. Shocked
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AmericanMeet
PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 11:23 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 26 Apr 2010
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I've met a few people that could be referred to as a Prince of Whales, but the term is out of place for a shotgun, except maybe a Mag-10. At the time of his death my favored shotgun was a Superposed 20 ga, but they were available over the counter in 1977, so the main thrust of most conversations involved older Winchester rifles. Back in the day I was a new guy to the O'Connor cliché: Dave Andrews, Doc Walter, Bill Steigers and others. At get togethers I'd just sit on the periphery and absorb like a sponge. I had graduated from college in March 77 and got hired by the State of Washington. The southeast corner of the state was my area, and the main road from Spokane to Clarkston involved going through Lewiston- so I arranged my stops accordingly. I was almost to where the gents could remember my name when Mr O'Connor and his wife went of the cruise and I never saw him again. I do recall that he favored the 16 ga above other gauges, particularly with two barrel sets for nearly all shotgun hunting. Even guys that disagreed with him regarding a proper cartridge for big game considered him the best writer ever when the topic was describing a hunt so that the reader was standing alongside him. In the nearly forty years since his passing I have yet to read an article that placed me alongside the author as well as he did.
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canvasback
PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 2:05 am  Reply with quote



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XVIgauge wrote:



I think Jack knew that American shooters would never adapt to the English style of straight grip, splinter forend, and double triggers due to their strong rifle indoctrination influenced by all of our wars.
xvigauge


Huh??

What? America is the only country involved in wars with rifles? I think Britain had something to do with at least a couple bigs ones, and a bunch of smaller ones. Give your head a shake.

Americans may not like straight grips on their shotguns but it has nothing to do with some unique rifle indoctrination from wartime experience.

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jschultz
PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 6:12 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 07 Apr 2007
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I'm an American and I still re-read Jack O'Conner. My favorite shotgun is a straight stocked, splinter gripped 16 GA #2 AyA. Embarassed
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T-Bone
PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 7:24 am  Reply with quote



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A must read is THE SHOTGUN BOOK. I own a copy and re-read it constantly. Anyone who thinks Jack O'Connor was merely a "rifle guy" hasn't read that book. I grew up reading his column in Outdoor Life and recall plenty of shotgun info.; including his advocacy of both the 16 Ga. and the 28 Ga. in the uplands.

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Researcher
PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 7:25 am  Reply with quote



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My favorite O'Connor article is on the 20-gauge in the September 1965 issue of Outdoor Life. In it he states that the best shooting he ever did was with a 20-gauge was with a 30-inch barrel L.C. Smith and then goes on to explain why it was all wrong and his 26-inch barrel Model 21s are the way to go?!?

I don't recall Jack ever mentioning a Beretta 450 as a favorite, always his various Al Biesen stocked Model 21s and that Eusebio Arrizaga 28-gauge.

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steve voss
PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 9:55 am  Reply with quote



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AmericanMeet wrote:
Even guys that disagreed with him regarding a proper cartridge for big game considered him the best writer ever when the topic was describing a hunt so that the reader was standing alongside him. In the nearly forty years since his passing I have yet to read an article that placed me alongside the author as well as he did.


Amen to that!

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XVIgauge
PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:40 pm  Reply with quote
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canvasback wrote:
XVIgauge wrote:



I think Jack knew that American shooters would never adapt to the English style of straight grip, splinter forend, and double triggers due to their strong rifle indoctrination influenced by all of our wars.
xvigauge


Huh??

What? America is the only country involved in wars with rifles? I think Britain had something to do with at least a couple bigs ones, and a bunch of smaller ones. Give your head a shake.

Americans may not like straight grips on their shotguns but it has nothing to do with some unique rifle indoctrination from wartime experience.



"...the double has been on a constant decline in this country. There are many reasons for this. One, perhaps, is that the rifle training given millions of Americans in two world wars made shooters repeater-conscious and single-barrel conscious."
Jack O'Conner, Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns, page 357.

xvigauge

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