What is your favorite hunting gun?

[fox-admin]

What is your favorite hunting gun? I have a Fox HE that I shoot very well on ducks but it is not my go to gun for sporting clays. It just seems to point itself in the duck blind but it is just an average clays gun. Do any of you guys experience the same? Why do some guns just seem to work in the field but it doesn't translate to clay targets. I have shot many ducks with the HE and rarely cripple a duck (with Lucy's help). Either dead or a miss. What say you.

[cockerman]

So I have a German, Austrian, Belgium bastard from 1939 in 16g. It kills birds and is my go to on dewey mornings or rain days....otherwise my Potter Sterlingworth ....

[ROMAC]

My early B 12 gauge with a straight grip is killer on trap, but I rarely use it for upland hunting due to weight. My XE 12 is lighter but I don't like to crawl on my hands or knees with it. So I use both these guns for dove and less difficult cover.

My current favorite grouse honey hole is a 4 mile walk around a swamp, half of which pulls at your clothes every step and the other half is boot sucking bog along the edge cover. It is only marginally better when it is frozen.

I usually hunt this cover with my Philly A 16, or a 16 Sterlingworth. Next time I hunt this spot it will be my new to me late B 16.

It is so thick in some spots I feel under gunned with a 20, especially in the early part of the season when the leave are only half gone.

I use my 20's almost exclusively for rabbits or preserve hunts.

So I guess I have favorites for different situations.

[Stan Hillis]

Craig,

I shoot clays much better with my Perazzi MX-8 than with any of my S x Ss, I'd say I'd average 6-8 birds better on a round of 100. But, as to favorites ........... my favorite duck and clays S x S is a BSS 30" barreled double with 3" chambers. I had the left barrel opened to match the right, at .018". I shoot 3" steel loads in it with abandon. It is just a super duck gun, and it is my go to duck S x S. But, I always take my Foxes out for a duck hunt or two each season. The 32" HE, the 32" BE, and occasionally the 32" A grade. I can probably kill ducks with the HE and 3" bismuth loads as well as any duck gun I ever owned. It just "goes where it needs to" on ducks.

For doves, I can't say I have A favorite. I use .410s early, my 20 ga. 687 SP II Sporting mid, and the 32" BE Fox or the 32" 16 ga. L C Smith late. Quail? ...........one of the .410s.

SRH

[vaturkey]

My little restocked 20 gauge Sterly ejector is what I carry most of the time. Fits like a glove and weight 5 lb 13 oz. Nice little hunting gun and I shoot it well. Its also my fall down the mountain gun and rainy day gun. When I hunt out west for roosters I normally carry the Abby gun. 12 gauge at 6 lb 12 ounces and choked IC and Full. Everything was restocked to fit me.

[FoxintheHenHouse]

I love all my old SxSs, high grade Remington 1894s, a 16 & a 12, Pigeon grade L.C. Smith 12 gauge with chain damascus barrels, Ithaca "New Ithaca Field" 28 gauge. Haven't tried my Fox Sterlingworth 20 gauge with 30" barrels yet on gobblers, just got it. But my oldest gun, a Remington Model 1893 , made in 1893, is a "B" grade 28 gauge single barrel and was a blast on three turkey hunts last year. Deadly patterns out to 40 yds with 1 oz Winchesters. Can't wait til spring !!







FoxintheHenHouse

[Sporrns]

For ducks my 3-inch HE SuperFox (currently in the hospital for treatment of locking bolt issues!). For ducks in the 'pre-Fox era', my go-to guns were all Brownings; two 12-ga. Superposeds, one a Diana grade, the other a Pointer grade, which I used exclusively with Kent Tungsten Matrix. Both SPs are 28-inch guns bored M&F, the Pointer has a second set of barrels, also 28-inch, bored IC/IC which I sometimes use for decoyed pond ducks. As an all-everywhere backup gun for use with steel shot, I bought a Jap A-5 3-inch magnum with replaced Carlstrom stocks and Invector chokes. As perfect a combo as I can think of.

So far as upland game goes, I agree with Romac in that for grouse in the early season with plenty of leaves on the trees, I sometimes felt undergunned with a 20 gauge re: canopy penetration, especially on the second barrel kills/misses. I remedied that by picking up a nice 26-inch 16 ga. Skeet & Upland Game Gun with .005/.009 chokes. My intended first test hunt with the SKUGG got rained out both days; can't wait for drier weather to check it outl For woodcock, I use a 28 ga. Parker bored "wide open" and a Fox AE 20 ga. bored M&F, both with RST's 2.5" spreader loads with #10 shot. (Also perfect for railbird shooting!).

I recently received my newly-restocked 12 ga. X/DE from Dan Rossiter, a 30-inch gun with .023/.033 chokes, and took it out to a tower shoot with pheasants and pigeons for a shakedown and practice shoot. The gun "steers" and shoots like a dream; very fluid and almost spontaneous in movement when you commit to the shot. For the tower shoot I used the funky but 'stout' Westley Richards 2.5-inch 1 1/16 oz. Game Load with #6 shot, which hits with authority! I am most eager to take it out for both wild pheasants and ducks as opportunities and the weather cooperate.

[Researcher]

My go to hunting gun for fifty years has been my 1914-vintage A-Grade with 28-inch 3-weight Krupp barrels and a straight grip. It left North 18th Street and Windrim Avenue bored improved modified (.027") in both barrels. I had the right barrel opened a bit by the gunsmiths at Warshal's Sporting Goods, First & Madison in Seattle almost immediately. Mid way through my 50th season with it the bottom rib popped and it is currently at Batchelder's in Grand Rapids.



December 2014 --



In that most of my clay target shooting is skeet, my favorite double for skeet is my 1937 vintage, 12-gauge, 28-inch barrel, Fox-Sterlingworth Ejector Skeet & Upland Game Gun --





I have several nicer side by side skeet guns from the 1930s to 50s, with more options, SPE-Grade Skeet & Upland Game Gun, Ithaca No. 4E NID, Lefever A-Grade, Winchester Model 21, but I shoot the Fox-Sterlingworth Ejector Skeet & Upland Game Gun the best. I've twice run 75 straight with it, one of which I converted to a 99 out of 100, but those 100 straights of my life have all been with Model 12s or over-unders.

[mc15426378]

While I have several Foxes my favorite hunter is my 20 ga SP grade. 28" barrels choked SK & IC. Ducks, doves, squirrels, etc it just gets the game.



For clays my favorite is my J grade SBT.



Researcher, what are you using while "meat in the pot" is in the hospital?

Mike

[AmarilloMike]

My favorite bird gun is a Fox XE 20 gauge with 26" barrels. Factory single trigger. It weighs 5-3/4 pounds. It was ordered with cylinder and cylinder barrels but is choked 5/1000ths and 5/1000ths, chambers measure 2-7/16''. It has 2-7/8" of drop with a 1/2" of cast off. 14-5/8 LOP over a leather faced Silvers pad. The single trigger has not failed a single time after about 500 rounds.

The gun seems to point itself, all I have to do is look at the bird.

[Jeff S]

For 25 years I used a 12 ga. BSS with 26" barrels. Great gun for partridge and woodcock, but a smidge bulky with the beavertail forearm. Then I caught the Fox bug and my favorite is my 1923 12 ga. sterlingworth with 26" #3 barrels. A little under 7 pounds and a joy to carry in the woods.

[jolly bill]

What is your favorite hunting gun? What say you.

Oh boy, where do we start?

1st choice for most things I shoot at these days, sporting clays and skeet, will be my Early A 12 gauge, 28" Krupp barreled SN 7983 that's choked IC in the right barrel and Full in the left. Have owned the gun 48 years. For close targets 1/2 ounce #8.5's in the right barrel and 3/4 ounce #8's in the left barrel for longer shots. If I hit 'em they break, if I miss, they keep going.

For cottontails with my brother Tom (now gone) would be my Ithaca Lefever 410 with 26" barrels choked "2" and "4" / Mod and Full. 1/2 ounce #4's in the right barrel for the close shots, 11/16 ounce #4's in the left barrels for the longer shots. My English Springer Teddy Rough Rider Roosevelt does the rest, including retrieving.

For grouse, the 410 Ithaca Lefever, 1/2 ounce #7.5's in the Modified choked right barrel and 11/16 ounce 6's or 7.5's in the Full choke left barrel.

Turkey's - I wanna get a spring gobbler with my 20 gauge HE 32" Full and Full with 2 1/2 inch chambers: RST 7/8 ounce #6. No opportunities - yet!

Ducks - I haven't shot at a duck since steel was required in all gauges back 20 - 30 or ?? years ago. My early A (see above) was the one when I could shoot lead. And when you couldn't use lead in 12 gauge, it was my 16 gauge Sterlingworth with 2 9/16 inch chambers using old Remington high brass #4's, 5's or 6's.

Nice to have choices!

Jolly

[Researcher]

Researcher, what are you using while "meat in the pot" is in the hospital?

I finished out last year using my RBL-16 choked IMP CYL & MOD and a 12-gauge Superposed 28-inch Lightning choked **_ & **. With all the rain we've had here I haven't been out hunting yet this season. I'm kind of itching to use the Model 31 Skeet Gun I got from Mr. Wyraz at Hausmann's last June.

[fullchoke16]

For ducks a Remington Versa Max, upland birds is a RBL 16, trap is a Fox J, sporting clays with a Sterlingworth that had the chokes opened up, turkeys is a model 12 heavy duck gun.

[Fin2Feather]

Lately it's been my 1924 16ga A Grade...



And at the range my Parker SC SBT...



But really my trio of Utica Sterlingworths (12, 16 & 20) cover all the bases...