Single Shot Shotguns.

Since our son was born last December, I have been on a single shot shotgun crusade. I finally found one of the hammerless Berettas on GunBroker, and after buying it, found another even nicer at GunsAmerica. Bought it also.

Talk about nice, both of these are smooth as silk, and sport a lot of nice touches. Checkered walnut stocks, matted barrel tops, a folding feature that makes for simple transport, just classy. Both are also 12 gauge, so I ordered up a few boxes of all brass shells from Midway.

When the time comes for Vinny to start in entry into shotgunning, dad will have some nice light loads assembled with black powder! Smoother push than smokeless, and I want him to see a bit more (or less ) of what is going on. We will kill a pumpkin or watermelon to start out, so he is grounded right away.

Even with homemade light 12 gauge loads, I figured a 20 gauge would be a good investment as well, so when an old, but clean H&R M48 happened along, I snatched it up also. Far better finished than todays crop of H&R's, plus it has a walnut stock and all steel parts, no plastic.

Yup, I got it bad, and I have always wanted a field gun version BT-99 as well! I would be willing to pay a bit more than $400 to get it too. 28" barrel with vent rib and Invecta chokes, plus a safety, yum!

NEF/H&R and Stoeger make fine single shot shotguns that are reasonably priced.

In my youth (Ike was at the helm and there was still quail to be found in "Old Maid's " field), I hunted with an ancient, plastic-stocked, Iver Johnson "Champion", 12 ga. shotgun. My 'chuck gun was a Winchester Model 67 single-shot .22. That old Champion showed no mercy on this skinny (that was then!) fourteen year old's shoulder but it sure was death on Buckeye cotton-tails and bushy-tails.

I still have the Model 67 but the Champion is long gone(used to supplement the G.I. Bill for college while married and raising a little girl in Warrensburg, Missouri) and I often wonder what ever became of it. That little girl has her own children now and I know where the 67 will eventually end up some Christmas morning in the near future. In my mind's eye, I see some kid's eyes brighten in another home on another Christmas morn upon unwrapping that suspiciously long box that was tucked way under the tree. The smaller present, of course, has the twelve gauge shells...

SM,
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Spent alot of time daydreaming after reading you post.

thanx again.

Good thread.

I have two single shot shotguns. One is an early 1980s H&R Topper 12 gauge I got in high school, shortly before H&R went bankrupt in 1986. Their QC was on the decline before they closed up shop, and one day when shooting it the forearm lung sheared off under recoil. Since then the forearm has been held on with duct tape. There's a picture of this shotgun in Walt Rauch's book Real World Survival : What Has Worked For Me (my brother did some of the photos for the book and he used it as a prop).

The second is an H&R 158 Topper combo gun in .22 Hornet and 20 gauge, which I bought yesterday. I mainly got it because I've wanted a .22 Hornet for a long time, but I plan to try out the 20 gauge barrel, especially to see how well I can shoot slugs through it. If I can get minute-of-deer at 50 yards, I have a friend with 8 acres who'll let me hunt there.

My First Gun

Lee Lapin said:

Can't let this thread go just yet.

Used to be EVERYONE started with a single shot shotgun.

lpl/nc

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My first gun was also a single shotgun. However, I bought that gun last summer and I'm 55 years old.

Better late, than never.

RioShooter; Good for you! You've got a lot of catching up to do, which makes me kind of envious.

I've still got a 16 gauge single my uncle gave me when I was a kid. I used it for geese. I had an ejector made for it by a local gunsmith. He charged me less than 20 bucks! I think he just liked kids. The gun has "Hercules" on the receiver. I once wrote NRA for history on the gun. I think Iver Johnson, some known company built it for a chain five and dime, don't remember the details. The gun was discontinued after 1947. I haven't shot it in years and years, but won't sell due to sentiment of course.

Then there's this old fellow, passed on now, ran a local electrical contracting firm. His sons have it now. He was into trap shooting and his youngest went to the olympic trials once, didn't make the team. He had some sort of high dollar single shot trap gun, forget the brand, four barrels for it, was selling for something like $3K. "Uh", I told him, "I'm more of a Mossberg kinda guy." ROFLMAO!

Dang, I can't find the post again, but there's a post on another shotgun board about the auction of an ANIB 28 ga. Winchester Model 37. It went for well over $4,000.

Let's see, if I'd skipped the movies and baseball cards as a kid, and then all the dates in high school I could have had... Aw, forget it, I would have shot the thing and tossed the box the first day.

John

kennyboy said:

NEF/H&R and Stoeger make fine single shot shotguns that are reasonably priced.

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Boy do they ever! The Stoegers made in Brazil have a lot of features not found on single shots, like ventilated rib and interchangeable choke tubes (they take Mossburg or Browning Invector tubes). Plus a stainless receiver and a really thick soft recoil pad.

I bought one and gave it to my middle son who is 12. Cost me $124. It shoots great!

http://media.benelliusa.com/Upload/Stoeger/Product-Photos/Single-Barrel-Special.jpg

Thanks for the memories!

Hi all -

First post -- had to add my story. First shotgun was/is (still have it) an H&R .410. my grandad taught me to hunt and I walked many miles and shot lots of pheasants with him. He lived through some tough times and always said that shooting more than once was wasting shells!

Thanks for bringing up the memories!

I was raised with a singlt shot Stevens Long Tom, loaded, behind every door of the house. When Dad bought a Winchester m94, it was like the second coming at the house. Everyone came by to see the new gun. Got my first model 37 at age 11 in 20 guage. Just ordered and H&R 410 for my daughter today. If you don't think a single bbl is popular, take a look at the thousands of hunters who use the TC Contender exclusively.
Nothing wrong with a single shot, nothing at all

Iver Johnson

Looking for a Champion single shot 28 gauge shot gun. Anyone with interest on one for sale please advise.

I have seen 3 or 4 of the H&R single shot 12s around pawnshops. At $49.99 each I have thought about getting at least 2.

I have a Winchester Model 20, .410. It's vintage 20s or 30s but it spent most of that time in a case in the back of a neighbors closet.
You dont see them all that often but they are a Gem of a single shot.
It cost me a summer of indentured servitude in trade when I was a kid but I still think I got the best of the deal.

Is there any high quality single shots out there?

Not a "rugged and reliable" like a Baikal or N.E.F, but a well made gun with nice wood, good metal finish and 'perfect' mechanical precision? I know there exists single barrel trap-guns, but these are usually only a O/U with only one barrel. What I m looking for is a high end, light weight single shot huntig gun (nice if it is long barreled (28''-35'')), but not so high end and expencive as hand made austrian or german single shot rifles, preferrably in 16 guage (but 12 and 20 would be OK ). Does anyone make these?

In praise of the single shot shotgun...

I just had to resurrect this old thread, what with it being the shotgun time of year and all. It really takes me back... It's probably my favorite thread I've read on THR so far...

With my NEF receiver boxed up to head out for 5 new barrels, I'm as giddy as a little kid right now. I can't wait for springtime, when it all shows up at my doorstep. Trouble is, I may have to pick up another NEF to tote in the meantime...


gp911

I started out with my dad's EXEL 12 ga. single shot. He bought it when he was a kid for $3.50, new. That gun has killed a train car full of rabbits, squirrels and pheasants. When I was 12 y.o. they (my dad and uncle) let me hunt pheasants with them and I killed my limit of roosters, flying with it. I still have it although some internal part is broken and all the parts are in a medicine bottle. I should look into getting the gun fixed and put back together.

The thing I love is the smell of paper shells after they've been fired. I have a supply paper hulls that we collected along the roadsides of Iowa during the 50's and early 60's. I have everything I need to load them and do up special loads for special hunts. I also have four flats of Federal Champions I shoot for special grouse and wood cock hunts. Living on the west coast makes it difficult for woodcock, though.

The single shot I always wanted and never got was the hammerless Savage. Now days I shoot a 26" BSS. It'll have to do.

Of Mentors and Single Shots

So while some may consider me to be still a bit of a kid (heck, I just turned 30, but I feel older) I must confess to never having these opportunities when I *was* still a kid. Dad worked all the time, and while I got to spend time with him at his job (he built a fuel alcohol distillery in Brazil, which I believed to be my very own personal erector set) it wasn't quite the same. The only firearm in our home was a bolt action .22 which I was expressly forbidden to touch. Brazil's firearms culture is one in which really only criminals have firearms, especially when I was growing up. Granted, grandma had some other firearms, but these were family heirlooms, never fired, just lovingly cared for by an elderly widow.

My first firearms experience came once we'd moved to the US, we were visiting my Mother's grandparents in Bellingham, WA. Great-uncle had several different firearms, and got the OK to take myself and my younger brother shooting. I was 12, brother was 10, and after going over the safety stuff that night, I don't think either one of us slept well, we were so excited.

So we load everything into his land yacht of a car (I still remember that car, this teal green monstrosity that seemed to take up a lane and a half) and drive out to where a friend of his has an informal shooting range on his property.

We spent most of that day shooting a Ruger .22 revolver, hitting most of the tin cans we were shooting at. He wasn't really that great at teaching us, but we didn't fault him for that. Pretty hard to teach someone to shoot when you can't take a good stance due to polio in your youth. But we figured out the basics with his help, and what we lacked in experience, we more than made up for in youthful exhuberance.

Now I glance over at him, and he's sitting in his wheelchair, loading up the big brother to the revolver we'd been shooting, a mathing Ruger in .44 Magnum. Now I was getting excited! "You going to shoot that???" I asked him. "Nope, you are," was his reply. I suddenly wasn't quite so excited, and was becoming a bit concerned. "ME?????" I managed to squeak out... "Yep... Now here's what'll happen. You're going to have two empty chambers, to get used to the weight of the gun and the trigger pull, then you'll have a live round." "Ok," I thought, "I can do this. Two empty chambers, live round. Two empty chambers, live round." I repeated this mantra to myself, knowing that I had a few more seconds to live before the front sight of this cannon implanted itself in my forehead..... "Two empty chambers, live round....." Pull back the hammer, get a good sight picture, breathe, hold it, squeeeeeeeeze, CLICK.... *sigh* "Ok, i can do this. One more empty chamber, then a live round...." Pull back the hammer, get a good sight picture, breathe, hold it, squeeeeeeze..... BOOOOM!!!!! I try to level the most accusatory glare a 12 year old can muster at him.... "I thought you said TWO empty chambers....." He looked over at me, smiled, and replied, "Always be prepared......."

We tried out a couple of other firearms he brought with him that day, including a Marlin semi-auto carbine in .44 Mag... THAT was fun! And then, towards the end of the day, we load everything up and drive a little further into this friends property, where there was an open field. We get back out, and out comes this box. "Clay pigeons?" I ask, "What're those?". He doesn't really answer me, just tells me that I'd understand in a minute. And out comes this long gun, and a box of shells. "Four ten? what's that?" "It's a shotshell," he explains, "the smallest one they make. It's time to break some pigeons."

And he sets up a thrower. Loads in a bird, explains to us where to stand, how to follow through, how to lead the bird. Shows us how to set things up, how to break open the gun. Yep. A single shot .410. Would't remember the manufacturer to save my life, but I remember that the furniture on it was stained to match his car. Same teal color, but for some reason on this gun it wasn't ugly. Out of the 10 pigeons he launched, I only managed to hit 1. But my younger brother got 9 of 10. So I can't blame the gun. I've never really managed to get the feel for it though.

But I did have fun.....

My first gun was a 20 ga H&R Topper. I sold it, and now regret doing so. Lesson... Never sell a gun! Like bicycles, you'll regret every one you sell.

But I just got back into the single shot game with my Grandma's Springfield/Savage 16 gauge. I love that gun, even though it needs a new firing pin, FTF'ing with depressing regularity. The family history implied in a gun that rode in Grandma's trunk in South Dakota and kept the family fed, got taken to Japan ini the 1960's and was re-finished in hand-applied laquer, passed through my aunt's hands, back to my dad, and now to me... She's a keeper, that's for sure.

Carries so nice afeild, points great, shoots good (when it goes bang...), what's not to like?

Oh, and the gun's turned me into a 16 gauge fan, as well.

--Shannon

Neat post, SM! My first shotgun was a single-shot, .410 H&R. It would have been a great gun, if it hadn't been .410! My single-shot Remington .22, however... That was a wonderful rifle.

If you can't do the job with one shot, you can't do the job!

goosegunner,
Sounds like your single shot has been around awhile!
Good to see it still in use after all these years, minus the interruption.
What kind is it?