Hunting with Your Sporting Clays Gun

[Border]

I was wondering how many hunt with their SC gun? I have a Mossberg 500 but just traded in my field Orion for a Browning XS 30" and I'd planned to hunt with it. My friend says he would cry if he got scratches on his SC gun! Well, I can't afford another O/U right now and never saw a problem with scratches on a gun. (unless it was one of those 10K plus models)! Is that unusual?

[HSMITH]

I do it and don't see a problem with it. A toothbrush (soft) and warm water works good for getting mud out of checkering too.....

[PJR]

For several years I had one over/under and used it for everything. I now have a better selection of guns but my sporting clays gun remains my back up hunting gun should the need arise.

As for scratches, I suspect my gun got more dings being bumped in the racks at the range or taken out of the safe than while hunting.

Guns are meant to be used and when you do that avoiding some dings is impossible. When they becomes unsightly you can have them refinished.

[Quickdraw Limpsalot]

Huh? I sometimes shoot clays with my hunting guns, does that count? :D

I can't afford guns that I can't USE, y'know?

[Greybeard]

Quote: "Huh? I sometimes shoot clays with my hunting guns"

Amen to that!

[redneck2]

I think that kinda depends on the hunting. I have an Orion Grade II for clays. I'd use it for birds, but I'd never take it duck or deer hunting. If you want a knock around gun, go to Wal-Mart and get a Mossy 500. I fail to understand why someone would buy a fancy gun because it looks good then beat it around.

Some guys use their guns like sledge hammers. Use some sense. Don't use it to whack at thorn bushes. If you want a beater, look through the pawn shop or the used gun rack at the gun shop. Why would you lower the value of your gun by $500 when you can buy a beater for $150?? Defies all logic.

[ArmedBear]

What kind of birds you thinking about shooting at?

[Quickdraw Limpsalot]

Some guys use their guns like sledge hammers. Use some sense. Don't use it to whack at thorn bushes. If you want a beater, look through the pawn shop or the used gun rack at the gun shop. Why would you lower the value of your gun $500 when you can buy a beater for $150?? That borders on stupidity. Actually, it crosses the border.


Well, y'see.. I think we're going headed the same direction but travelin' different roads. If you add up the cost of all three of my shotguns, I'm hitting right at the $500-550 mark. I doubt I'll ever spend more than a few hundred bucks on any shotgun since I have no trouble baggin' birds or clays with my do-it-all Maverick 88 that some folks wouldn't own if it were free. ...And that's fine. Low demand keeps 'em cheap for folks like me!

[redneck2]

Quail, pheasant. To me, that's "bird" hunting. Duck hunting is duck hunting.

Maybe I tend to look at things a little differently. I drive a 1999 Jeep Cherokee that has 208,000 miles. I'm in sales and cover 40k+ miles a year. Jeep's paid for and owes me nothing. One of my friends has my same job and has over 425k on his Jeep.

I could have a real nice new vehicle and $600 a month payments or put the $600 toward guns (or something else I want). I'd rather have a nice gun than a fancy car. 10 years from now I'll still have my guns. Other guys trade cars every few years and wonder why they have no money. It went away with the last trade-in.

I know I don't take great care of a car looks-wise, so why buy a shiny new one and get it crapped up???

[redneck2]

.

[ArmedBear]

redneck2, I'd call those "birds" as well, but I was wondering about Border.:)

At least the way it's done here (lots of mileage on the Vibrams), I'd almost rather shoot MYSELF than walk for miles carrying an 8 pound artillery piece like a 30" Citori XS Sporting, especially when it's too pretty to put it down in the dirt and the pistol grip torques my wrist. How you gonna take a whiz without putting your gun down in the dirt or in the wet bushes?

My 34" trap gun weighs a good deal more than 8 lb., but it doesn't go with me in the field!

That's why Browning makes this version:
http://www.browning.com/products/catalog/firearms/images/013055m.jpg

Furthermore, I have had a hard time mounting a 12 Gauge pump field gun quickly enough to hit flushing quail in tall brush, and it's a much "quicker" gun than a heavy 30" double. The quail come out fast, they make a lot of racket to throw you off balance, and they drop again fast. 30" barrels would be an enormous handicap around here, anyway. My next purchase will most likely be a 26" 20 gauge double, with an English or POW grip, or maybe this old 16 I've been eyeing at the shop.

[Hawk]

I haven't done much hunting but I noticed my clay type Beretta is about a full pound more than the same field model.

I'm another klutz that chews up a sporting clays gun pretty well.

[STiTkacik]

That Browning is a beautiful gun...


*drool*

[bowfin]

Border,

No, you are thinking right. If you want something just to look at, clip a picture of a fancy shotgun out of a magazine, frame it, and hang it up. It is much cheaper. Of course, I am the guy who once painted his Ithaca / SKB with acrylic paint to camouflage it, because I wanted to take it turkey hunting, and thought it shined way too much for the task.

Another thing to consider is if you have less of a chance of crippling game with a shotgun because you shoot it better, than you almost have a moral obligation to take that one out, scratches or not. Besides, it is of little consolation to say to yourself to say, "Well. another 0 for 3 covey flush, but at least I didn't get a scratch on my pretty gun that's safely back home."

[ArmedBear]

Scratches be damned; I still wouldn't take that beast upland hunting.

And seriously, if you have a nice SKB, but that's not what you want, why not sell it and buy one of these for turkey?

http://www.hr1871.com/firearms/small/PardTMO10G_T.jpg

Reducing its resale value by more than the cost of a perfectly effective turkey gun just doesn't make sense. Why not just sell it?

I'm not saying not to use what you buy, but some things don't add up.

[Border]

My first love is traditional bowhunting. I have a beautiful cocobolo and shedua recurve that cost over a grand now. It's got scratches that I love because they all came going to or being on great hunts for the most part. They add "character" in my opinion and I would never sell it. It's worth more to me with the scratches if you can understand that! :D

My Orion II, field gun that I traded in for the Browning weighs as much as the Browning as do many of the Browning fields. I lift weights and do not mind the weight; I just add the shotgun carrying to the workout regimen so to speak. Good to build stamina.

One of the reasons that I bought the SC was because I realize that I actually spend more time clay shooting than pheasant hunting as I prefer to be in the woods deerhunting with the bow, even during shotgun season! I had the thought that just shooting one gun for trap, skeet and sc would only improve my hunting/shooting skills as Bowfin suggests and that the Browning XS was the best all around compromise (and given that having only shot SC once, I already find it much more fun than trap although my trap scores are much better)! Make sense?

Thanks everyone, and I hope that this thread continues for awhile. (Oh, and I will not trade this gun in so "resale value" doesn't really mean much and besides they don't seem to offer that much more for "scratchfree" as my friend recently experienced).

For ducks I am going with my Mossberg 500. It sat brand new, never fired, in a co-worker's closet for 30 years-he sold it to me for $40! :)

Thanks again,

Steve

[sm]

A dead bird is a dead bird. Be it orange or edible.

I have taken nice Skeet Guns afield, along with other nice shotguns, handguns and rifles.

Buddy of mine took his $53K Custom Krieghoff out to shoot doves with us with the 28 ga bbl set up. Anniversary gift from the wife, "I bought it for you to enjoy, and use, not going to do either of us any good if you don't use it, get some enjoyment and when we are dead, what do we care?"

Yeah his competititon gun for Skeet, 5 stand and Sporting Clays...he took 15 birds with 10 shells. A game we play dove hunting.

Heavy guns for not toting like we do for doves...
I prefer a lighter gun for toting, like a 28 ga with nice blue and wood :p

Hey the jackrabbit did not know he had been hit by a 9x23 from a Custom Caspian 1911 style pistol either....*grin*

[bowfin]

Armed Bear,

I now have a 10 gauge single shot for turkey. As far as reducing the value of my shotgun, I don't buy and sell, I buy and use, so resale value has never been a factor in my decisions.

Anyhow, it was what I had at the time, and I had a place to hunt that I knew no one had ever hunted turkeys there in anyone's lifetime. I took the gun I could count on,the most, since this hunt was bigger to me than any gun. I got what will probably be my biggest, my first Spring hunt (a shade under 27 pounds), although the shot was actually not that tough.

/*but some things don't add up*/

I think you are talking price, not value, in which case you are right. It doesn't make "price" sense, but it made sense to me as to the "value".

Up out of that canyon, in a gun store or gun safe that SKB has a blue book value, same as any other gun. Down in that canyon, on my first turkey hunt, too nervous to even pull the trigger as the bird was in plain sight, that gun was absolutely priceless, as it was the only one in the world I had absolute confidence in shooting at that bird. Having it polka dot camouflage made it even more valuable, and I was glad I did it. or at least didn't regret it. (BTW, the paint wasn't permanent, I mixed it with Matte Medium, so it "peeled off" for the most part, the checkering needing a toothbrush). Now after 25 years, I probably wouldn't put so much stock in having a certain gun or piece of equipment, but I got every penny's worth of value out of that gun just on that one day, even if the price went down.

[ArmedBear]

Cool story, bowfin!

But really, I'm not advocating keeping the gun pristine, or not using it when it's called for. I'm just suggesting that it's about the second-to-last gun I'd want to use for upland hunting, just ahead of a single-barrel trap gun. And I also lift weights. It's not that I can't carry a shotgun.

However... Trying it once will making spending the money on another gun a lot easier to stomach.:)

[TrapperReady]

My main clays gun is a Browning 425 O/U. I've probably shot at least 150 birds with it. It's heavy, but I've got to be out there for 3+ hours to really start to notice.

My current backup gun is a Beretta 391 autoloader. I shot a mess of geese with it last year. At one point, it took a pretty good dunk while I was sinking in some mud while pulling in my decoys. Cleaned up nicely (me and the gun).

Frankly, I buy guns to shoot them. In my opinion, a little honest wear improves their looks.

[PJR]

I buy guns to shoot them. In my opinion, a little honest wear improves their looks.
My sentiments exactly. I never saw the purpose in buying a nice gun only to use something else while hunting. Why spend the money on a quality gun only to shoot a lesser gun because you are worried about a few dings or scratches?

One November I was on a preserve pheasant hunt in a freezing rain/snowstorm. Another hunter in our party was carrying a breathtaking Italian sxs worth at the time more than all my guns put together. When someone asked why he was taking such a nice gun on such a bad day. His said that he bought this gun to hunt in fair and foul weather and that if HE was going out in that weather so could his gun.