Phaedrus/69
Member
I have one shotgun and it does everything I need a shottie to do (Mossberg 500 Mariner/nickel in 12 ga).
Least amount of shotguns?
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Ironicaintit
Member
I'd be fine if my 20" 1300 defender was my only one.
But I have a pair of 1920s vintage mdl 12 winchesters in 16 gauge too (well worn heirlooms)
But I have a pair of 1920s vintage mdl 12 winchesters in 16 gauge too (well worn heirlooms)
870TB from 1972 for trap, brother's TC backup, '64 Superposed Lightning for doubles, 1100 for skeet, Savage 220 for deer, SKB Ithaca 100 20gauge for doves, Savage 320 20 gauge for my wife for Turkey, SXP for me for Turkey, and I can justify the next ten.......
ChanceMcCall
Member
I have the same problem understanding the need for the longer barrels. Almost everyone in the trap community agrees that longer is better and some are shooting 34" barrels. I shoot a 30" barrel on my 1966 Winchester 101 and normally stay in the 20s at 16 practice, but while I shot some trap in the late 1960s I only came back to it recently, and just dug out my old trap gun that had been a safe queen for many years. The interesting thing to me is that one of my trap buddies has a higher average than me and he is using a 26" barrel.
I kind of look at it like the longer barrel will let you be a bit more aware of where you are pointing the shotgun. For example, is an 8" barrel handgun easier to shoot longer distances accurately than a 2" barrel? I can use short barrels on a shotgun, but I like the feel and the way a longer barrel points
Problem I have with the long barrels is after a day of shooting a lot of clay my arm is tired. Before I got my Browning I used to use a Mossberg 500 Mariner, only problem I had with it was the open choke. But if I could catch the bird quick enough I was OK.
But I sure do like the Browning even though it's a 30.
But I sure do like the Browning even though it's a 30.
Old Dog
Member
No shotgun games for me, and I don't hunt birds or waterfowl anymore, so I'm gonna say I can get by with TWO shotguns. If I ever have to put game on the table again, I've got my Mossberg 500 with a 24" slug barrel and a 28" barrel with a couple different chokes is in the closet and my Mossberg 590A1 Blackwater stays ready for home defense.
The key to great shotgun is fit and handling not barrel length or weight and key to fine balance is barrel blueprinting. No one did that better than the British. Now is great time to pick nice vintage double. The best deals can be found on those with 25" or 26" barrels. Kent of WV just released fine upland load 3/4 oz shot @1200fps in 65mm case with avg. gas pressure under 8000psi. What is remarkable cost per box is less than Winchester AA at Walmart.
I couldn't agree more on fit. It's just my opinion but I really like an O/U with 26". Made up my mind that my next one will have a 26" barrel, just seems to balance better.
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I hear what you are saying; I myself like Mossberg 695T , They are hard to find, since they haven't made one since 1998. It is an all propose 12 gauge, smoothbore, it takes different chokes, it's camo, bolt-action, scope ready. I have a few, they do a lot! Turkey, deer, clay, etc. In bad weather I carried two, scoped an open, winter is hard.
Sebastian the Ibis
Member
I am not a shot gunner, but I think the following would be adequate:
- VEPR with a red-dot for sporting clays. It is the most popular "sporting" shotgun and so effective they are going to ban it any day. The guy at the gun store told me that red-dots are great for rapid target acquisition. I was thinking about a 3 power red-dot so I can blast clays at longer range. Plus I can get a couple 25 round drums!!
- Remington Tac -14 for the wife. She is very recoil shy, so this way she can shoot full house 3 inch magnums without having to worry about her shoulder.
- Ishpore Enfield .410 for geese. .410 has less recoil that way I can get quicker follow up shots. Also you can shoot so fast with an Enfield that the Germans thought they were machine guns. Google Mad Minute and Sergeant Snoxall if you don't believe me. Also some of those older Enfields have volley sights and can reach out thousands of yards. I'd sweep the sky with one. Plus I have a .303 Enfield for squirrels and doves in trees so I am familiar with the platform.
- Grand Pappy's break action for home defense. I want burglars to know that I am serious by cocking the exposed hammer. Racking a slide is just gauche. Black powder has the added benefit of creating a smoke cloud I can hide in while I re-load. Plus Grand Pappy shot a brigand with it, so I know it works!
- H&H Royal Double as an investment. These are great investments, so are NFA firearms. So just think of how much you could get for an SBR Royal Double!! I can't believe nobody else has submitted a Form 1 and gotten an electro pencil and hacksaw.
- VEPR with a red-dot for sporting clays. It is the most popular "sporting" shotgun and so effective they are going to ban it any day. The guy at the gun store told me that red-dots are great for rapid target acquisition. I was thinking about a 3 power red-dot so I can blast clays at longer range. Plus I can get a couple 25 round drums!!
- Remington Tac -14 for the wife. She is very recoil shy, so this way she can shoot full house 3 inch magnums without having to worry about her shoulder.
- Ishpore Enfield .410 for geese. .410 has less recoil that way I can get quicker follow up shots. Also you can shoot so fast with an Enfield that the Germans thought they were machine guns. Google Mad Minute and Sergeant Snoxall if you don't believe me. Also some of those older Enfields have volley sights and can reach out thousands of yards. I'd sweep the sky with one. Plus I have a .303 Enfield for squirrels and doves in trees so I am familiar with the platform.
- Grand Pappy's break action for home defense. I want burglars to know that I am serious by cocking the exposed hammer. Racking a slide is just gauche. Black powder has the added benefit of creating a smoke cloud I can hide in while I re-load. Plus Grand Pappy shot a brigand with it, so I know it works!
- H&H Royal Double as an investment. These are great investments, so are NFA firearms. So just think of how much you could get for an SBR Royal Double!! I can't believe nobody else has submitted a Form 1 and gotten an electro pencil and hacksaw.
cdb1
Member
Got say Sebastian it took me a minute to realize your post was made tongue in cheek.
I wonder what happened to brigands? Have they totally disappeared? Is it climate change? Your post is the first time I’ve heard brigands mentioned in years. I might pose this inquiry to Dave Petzal.
I wonder what happened to brigands? Have they totally disappeared? Is it climate change? Your post is the first time I’ve heard brigands mentioned in years. I might pose this inquiry to Dave Petzal.
Hertzer
Member
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Well if your going to twist my arm here and I must declare a needed number of shotguns, with the shotgunning I do anymore it would be just 1. I think the Rem. 870 with 2 barrels would do it. But I'm not going to get rid of my trap gun or overland under 0r any of the one I inherited so for the record I'll say all of them
I have a 12 gauge O/U, a 20 gauge side-by-side, and an Auto-5 with an 18" barrel and screw-in chokes. I do pretty much every shotgun thing I do with any or all of them. I definitely wouldn't want to give up either of the other two but I would be just fine using the Auto-5 for anything I do with a shotgun. I love shooting it with the short barrel waaay more than I ever did with the full-length barrel.
cdb1
Member
That is the first short barreled A5 with screw in chokes I’ve ever seen.
I've always been a O/U and SxS shotgun guy. I bought the Auto-5 not many years ago to make a HD gun out of it. I cut the barrel, shot it a little bit and loved it, but cylinder bore doesn't cut it for longer range applications. I sent the barrel to Michael Orlen to install the Colonial Sporting Clays screw-in chokes and lengthen/polish the forcing cone. I'd shot Auto-5s a bit over the years, I admired them as a mechanical work of art (one of these old A5s would probably be a $4K gun +/- if they were produced today with the same craftsmanship that went into the old ones like this 1954 model) but they felt long and kinda cumbersome.
With the short barrel the gun is just right for me. I find it very well balanced, super-fast pointing, just the right feel and length, and it never malfunctions. 18.25" sounds like a short barrel, but keep in mind that the long receiver gives it the sight radius of a 24" O/U. The stock is original length except without the thick rubber pad, so length of pull is now 13.5". I have quite a few guns but this is one that makes me want to take it out and find something to shoot at just to enjoy using it (does it sound like I kind of like it?
).Here's another photo to show the size of it compared to other guns that everyone is familiar with.
Fine Figure of a Man
Member
Pretty cool, has me thinking about refurbishing one of my Remington Model 11's.
My Dad has a Model 11 that he bought used in the early 1950s for quail hunting. I started shooting it as early as I was brave enough to withstand the recoil, probably about 9 years old or so. My brothers and I used it for all sorts of things over the years. It has a 26" Cylinder Bore (came from the factory that way) and we would often take it shooting black birds (they used to swarm by the thousands in winter around the livestock feed so they were good targets and plenty of 'em), and other things. We all noticed, separately, that that gun would hold a uniform pattern amazingly well out to ranges where other guns required Modified or tighter chokes to get the job done, yet the Model 11 pattern was nice and open at short distances. We patterned all these guns and the Model 11 just amazed us and our shooting friends with the seemingly impossible uniform and effective patterns at both short and longer distances.
We're all much older now, but still talk of that gun as having the best barrel of any shotgun we've ever used. When I cut the barrel on my A5 I was hoping it'd pattern something like the old Cylinder Bore Model 11, but it did not. It was VERY open and didn't maintain a good pattern at all once you got out to a little distance, to the point that the maximum range for reliable wing shooting was probably in neighborhood of 20 yards.
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doubleh
Member
I could easily do everything with my 20 guage O&U. My only bird hunting options are quail and dove and an occasional clay bird and it excels at those activities. Out of sentimentality I use my Granpa's single barrel 410 that I inherited for my gopher gun. It take care of the nicely and make me remember Grandpa all at the same time.
bassjam
Member
Everything I do can easily be done with my 870 12 ga with the vent rib barrel and smoothbore slug barrel:
Over the years I've used it for doves, turkey, rabbit, squirrel, deer, home defense, and sporting clay courses. I still often grab it over nicer shotguns I have.
Since so many other's have listed several shotguns, I guess I'll add my .410 Partner as well. Mostly because my 10 year old daughter has been asking me to take her squirrel hunting and she's pretty recoil sensitive.
Over the years I've used it for doves, turkey, rabbit, squirrel, deer, home defense, and sporting clay courses. I still often grab it over nicer shotguns I have.
Since so many other's have listed several shotguns, I guess I'll add my .410 Partner as well. Mostly because my 10 year old daughter has been asking me to take her squirrel hunting and she's pretty recoil sensitive.
George P
member
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If you go with a carrier barrel and tubes, your subgauges can equal the weight of your 12 gauge barrel. That is the preferred set-up by skeet shooters and sub-gauge sporting clay shooters
Yes, when I was shooting competitive skeet in the 1990's most of the tubed guns were 12 gauge with tubes for the three sub gauges. Carrier barrels were very few and far between in those days.
I could never get the tubeless 12 gauge gun to swing like it did with tubes in so I shot 20 ga in the 12 ga event. My 20 ga averages were better than my 12 ga averages. I stopped shooting competitively in the early 2000's.
Lots of things have changed in the tube set world since then.
NIGHTLORD40K
Member
I've always been a O/U and SxS shotgun guy. I bought the Auto-5 not many years ago to make a HD gun out of it. I cut the barrel, shot it a little bit and loved it, but cylinder bore doesn't cut it for longer range applications. I sent the barrel to Michael Orlen to install the Colonial Sporting Clays screw-in chokes and lengthen/polish the forcing cone. I'd shot Auto-5s a bit over the years, I admired them as a mechanical work of art (one of these old A5s would probably be a $4K gun +/- if they were produced today with the same craftsmanship that went into the old ones like this 1954 model) but they felt long and kinda cumbersome.
With the short barrel the gun is just right for me. I find it very well balanced, super-fast pointing, just the right feel and length, and it never malfunctions. 18.25" sounds like a short barrel, but keep in mind that the long receiver gives it the sight radius of a 24" O/U. The stock is original length except without the thick rubber pad, so length of pull is now 13.5". I have quite a few guns but this is one that makes me want to take it out and find something to shoot at just to enjoy using it (does it sound like I kind of like it?
Here's another photo to show the size of it compared to other guns that everyone is familiar with.
View attachment 790391
Well....I was on the fence about cutting down my Auto-5, but that does it, I'm in! That looks great!
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