Does anyone still hunt with SxS today?

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My favorite SxS for hunting is my Turkish S&W Elite Gold in 20; balances and handles very well - love the fixed chokes and double triggers
 
Johnm1 said:
Mac - I see your from the Ozarks. Its been 40 years since I visited there. Beautiful place to visit. It must be nice to live there.

Tell me, is that farmer sill driving around on State Highway 21? You know the guy. Drives a '64 Dodge pickup pulling a hay trailer 25 MPH below the speed limit? :D

You get to see some beautiful country driving behind him.
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Yea, that guy is still here. That guy is me lol! Except it's a 71 IH Loadstar and it hauls more firewood than anything. Its beautiful country, for a fact. I was born and raised here, and though I've travelled a lot I wouldn't want to live elsewhere.

Mac
 
Fyrstyk said:
Macar;

Can you recommend someone that can open up the chokes on my old gun. I talked to a guy a long time ago, and he said he would not work on such an old gun for fear of damaging it.
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Google Mike Orlen, he does good work according to the SGW forum, and is very reasonable. I don't know where you are, but if near N. Arkansas, I recommend Delloyd Sparks. He does all my work and isn't far from me. If you would like his contact info, pm me.

Mac
 
Thanks, I will check out Mike Orlen. BTW, I am in the un-constitutional state of CT
 
I'm sorry to say I have only on SxS shotgun, a Pedersoli Black Powder 12.
Had a lot of fun with it last fall, this was the day before Christmas.
Walked about 200 yards and had three roosters. If I had the double triggers mastered I'd have had my birds in the first 100 yards.
Edit, These days I guess I have to mention, they are wild birds. Never shot a raised bird other than fliers when training dogs.
IMG_1690.JPG
 
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Fine Figure of a Man said:
I'm sorry to say I have only on SxS shotgun, a Pedersoli Black Powder 12.
Had a lot of fun with it last fall, this was the day before Christmas.
Walked about 200 yards and had three roosters. If I had the double triggers mastered I'd have had my birds in the first 100 yards.
Edit, These days I guess I have to mention, they are wild birds. Never shot a raised bird other than fliers when training dogs.
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I really really like my Pedersoli SXS 12 Ga.
 
Johnm1 said:
To keep my post on topic, I hunted last year with a Fox Model B in 16 Gauge. This year I'm preparing to hunt with a Fox Sterlingworth in 12 Gauge. We'll see how that goes.
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Will the chambers on that Sterlingworth accommodate 2-3/4" shells? Those old timers were often chambered for 2-5/8"
 
Fyrstyk said:
Thanks, I will check out Mike Orlen. BTW, I am in the un-constitutional state of CT
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Anytime, pard. Mike is in Massachusetts, so he isn't too far. His turn-around time is pretty good also, from what others have told me. Sure hope that he'll work out for you, I like to see those old guns in the field.

Mac
 
From what I read on the internet (it must be true) that Sterlingworths were designed to fire 2 3/4" shells from their inception in 1910. But Fox intentionally cut the chambers short to 2 5/8". I think (still researching) for better performance with the paper shells of the day. Same reason they tended to be choked tighter than todays modern shotguns. I'm leaning, so don't take anything I say today as gospel truth.

Most say the shoot 2 3/4" light loads in their Sterlingworths with no issues.

Now I'm working with a 1923 Lefever 16 gauge with Full/Cylinder chokes that I'm almost certain was chambered for 2 9/16" shells. I haven't read that Ithaca short chambered those, but that could be more of an issue if they are short chambered. Depending on what it may be short chambered to. I have to get both chambers (and leads) measured to see what I've really got. They are both 95 years old and it is not inconceivable that either or both were upgraded sometime in the 95 years.

Fortunately 2 1/2" shells are available for both albeit from the internet. I'm not overly concerned with the 12 gauge Sterlingworth but I am a bit concerned about the 16 Gauge Lefever.
 
Sure do! I hunt turkeys with. Stevens 312 12 gauge. Some guys comment that I am using ancient technology and I ask them how many turkeys they have shot in a given year. When they hear that I got 5 to 7 they have more respect for the old double barrel.
 
John Joseph said:
Will the chambers on that Sterlingworth accommodate 2-3/4" shells? Those old timers were often chambered for 2-5/8"
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"Fox Sterlingworth" stamping indicates Savage manufacture. Since chamber length converion occured ca 1930 vast majority of Foxes from Savage will have 2&3/4" chambers.
 
Paul is correct for Sterlingworths manufactured by Savage in Utica after the 1929 buyout/merger. Also around/after 1930 Savage began to mark the barrels for chamber length. I understand that if a Fox manufactured before the merger/buyout was returned to Savage for repairs after 1930, the chambers would have been marked on the barrel the same as all new Savage made Foxes. At least that is what I read.

Mine happens to be 1923 manufacture with no added markings for chamber length.

Paul - the 'Fox Sterlingworth' stamping you mentioned, is that what Savage put on the side of the receiver when they began manufacturing them in Utica? My 1923 Sterlingworth just has 'Sterlingworth' on the receiver. (maybe I read too much into your post).
 
Haven't hunted in a couple of years, but when I did, it was with an sxs 20. I liked being able to break open the action and remove the shells- much easier to do than with a pump or auto.
 
Taurus 617 CCW said:
Sure do! I hunt turkeys with. Stevens 312 12 gauge. Some guys comment that I am using ancient technology and I ask them how many turkeys they have shot in a given year. When they hear that I got 5 to 7 they have more respect for the old double barrel.
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What chokes do you have in your double? We moved south from NE Washington state, so used to be not far from you. Turkeys were getting to be rampant when we left.
 
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Although I no longer hunt birds with it (or any other gun for that matter), I use my Sterlingworth 12 ga all the time for sporting clays shooting. Love side-by-sides.
 
357smallbore said:
Anyone really do any hunting with the double barrel any more?
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Yep. Sometimes for just the heck of it, sometimes because there's a dress code in invitational hunts, specifying SxS sidelock, boxlock acceptable. In hunts like those you can take photos that look like straight from 1800's if you use sepia filter in your camera. Maybe it's an european thing... :)
 
LRDGCO said:
I just remembered a good hunting with SxS story. It makes me look a bit of a buffoon but, well, that's because I was.

Years and years ago, getting on for 30, I had a Spanish made Sears 20 ga SxS. No idea who the maker was, that sort of thing didn't occur to me at the time. It was a double trigger box lock, beaver forend and pistol grip (uggggh). But it was a decent grouse gun and not too heavy. I can't recall how, but I got a rifled tube, like 6-8" , chambered for 30-30 that hammered into the barrel with a couple of big rubber O rings to locate it inside the barrel. No ejector, just a little cut out that you could get a pen knife in to lift the spent cartridge out.

So I went out grouse hunting in the deer season overlap, having shot the 30-30 insert all of about three times at 50 yards. I don't recall whether I got any grouse but late afternoon after putting my dog up, I went for a wander down the brook to a good game trail and, sure enough, there was a great southern Vermont whitetail buck - meaning an anorexic 2x2 on meth - at certainly less than 50 yards. I lined up from behind a stone wall, using the very effective shotgun bead, fired and....nothing. Didn't hit the tweaker, and other than being startled, he just went rigid and didn't move. I dropped behind the stone wall, fumbled with a jacknife to get the spent 30-30 case out, dug another one out, loaded it, and closed the gun. I peaked over the wall expecting Breaking Bad to be gone, or dead of old age at this point. But no, there he was: rooted, rigid, and ready for another go. I lined up extra careful, pulled the trigger, and...nada.

Well, second go, the buck sees me. And slack-jawed in amazement, he sort of snorts derisively, turns and ambles (ambled I say, not ran) off with evident disdain.

I paced it out and it was more like 70 yards. I looked and looked hoping for some sign of a tree strike to show where POI was relative to the deer. Nothing whatsoever.

Needless perhaps to say, the 30-30 tube never came out again. Gave the shotgun to a cousin a few years later. No idea what became of the 30-30 tube...
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i have a new 308 mauser barrel that's like 19'', the chamber was buggered up. any thing to clean up the chamber is not the best with only 19'' and don't want it in a mauser anyway. i was thing of making a chamber insert for a sxs. i am on the look out for a newer sxs all mine are old. i thing i could do 7.62x39, 3030 would be easy tho. .
 
I would rather spend $100 to get the chokes reamed out to imp & imp. this is a nice old gun, built in my home town, and it fits me perfectly. Like I said in my earlier post, It points where I am looking, goes up easy, and is light weight. I couldn't sell this gun, it is a part of me.
 
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