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Guest

My oldest brother joined my next-oldest bro and me for a game farm hunt Sunday. Oldest bro's had a heck of a couple years, including deaths in the family and hasn't been out with us much lately.

It was fun to have all 3 bros (and four dogs) together again. We all shot well and had a good time giving each other the business. We paid to have 15 put out, shot all 15. The little 3-year-old Lew and oldest bro's Lab retreived 'em all. It was around 30 degrees out with some wind and light snow ... felt great!

Eldest bro carried my Verona LX 501 (he's been looking for a light 16 O/U); middle bro carried his Sig/B.Riz TR30U in 20; and baby bro (me) carried a 28" Benelli SuperSport in 12 and choked Light Mod. I've been wanting to take it out for at leat one spin in the field to see how she'd handle.

What I learned: The SuperSport remains a fun, reliable and soft-shooting gun for claybirds, but I prefer my lighter, shorter, quicker O/Us for the uplands. The 12 functioned flawlessly and I took & made some long finishers with 6s and 5s (hey, that's a $17 bird on the wing), but I found the SuperSport less responsive for the "in your face" flushes. Overall, I'm not a quick-reflexed shooter, but I'm a tad quicker with my field O/Us. We've got three hunts left this year, and I'm returning to the FAIR 600 Gold with 26" barrels for those. She's been a deadly sweetheart.

Oldest bro shot the 501 well and wanted it to take it home. I let him have it for $600. Had he not wanted it, I'd have put it up here for $700 (the difference to cover my shipping and FFL fees). I threw in a Boyt soft breakdown case and 8 boxes of shells for him and told him if he had any probs with the gun, call me and I'd get it taken care of. Hey, he is family, and it's not like I don't have plenty of cases and flats around the place.

Now just awaiting the arrival of the Dewings Prestige Limited (16, of course). Way amped about that one.

Sounds like a great time was had by all. Good move taking care of family first. My brother still refuses to mess around with the 16 ga. His loss I guess.

rudyc

Guest

My eldest bro has a Sweet 16, but likes to hunt with a break-open gun, probably because we all did as kids. He's always lusted after my my older Beretta 12 UL in the onyx finish. I told him sorry, but he wasn't getting that one. Anyway, he's mentioned more than once he'd like to find a light 16 O/U. Since I already had a couple of 16s, I bought the Verona 501 with the idea of giving it a good testing and letting him have it if it met my satisfaction. It did, so it's at his house now.

My bros are good guys, fun to hunt with and good dog men. Got to take care of your own ... especially when they own good bird dogs and their wives will not only tolerate you, but feed you, too. Laughing