SxS Doubles tough to shoot well

I just retired and moved to a place that has a decent population of ruffed grouse and it has rekindled a desire to hunt upland birds again. I’ve been getting some birds with an 870 20 ga. I’ve mostly shot the Remingtons and a model 12 over the years and always did quite well with them. How ever I have always admired fine doubles and appreciate the nostalgia of hunting upland game with them. I’d love to have a fine double in 28 ga or possibly a 20 but the few I’ve tried I could not hit the broad side of a barn with. I have owned a couple of Citori’s and a beautiful 101 Pigeon grade that I also shot well so what is it about a SxS that makes them so difficult for me? Do any of you have these same issues? Short of remortgaging the house and being fitted with a fine double maybe I’m just not meant to shoot one

 

I've been using a Spanish SxS for 30 years or so, mostly Dove. It does the job.
Seems to fit me well.

 

the old trapshooters rule of thumb is 500rds before you pass judgment.

Pattern it for confirmation.

I have a sxs 20ga and an o/u 28ga, but i don't compare them to my old 12 ga auto

FYI, and maybe you already know this, but 28ga is hard to find andnot that much difference in a 20ga imho. If you're getting a reloader and going all in, then go for it.
My first hunting gun was a 20ga LC Smith sxs, as a bloodthirsty teenager I migrated to a 12 ga auto. Now I'm back to the 20s, 28s, and .410s

 

I actually shoot my SxSs better than my O/Us and single barrels.
Make sure it fits you
Make sure the different look of 2 barrels, doesn't have you "looking down the barrel" , instead of hard focus on the bird.

 

Consider the possibility of cross dominance (right handed and left eyed or vice versa), a problem I suffer from. It's said to be an advantage when swinging at a baseball, but it can complicate life with a shotgun.

 

i have owned quite a few double barreled shotguns over the last 50+ years, but this browning BSS sporter in 20 ga has stayed. three generations of hunters have used it for over 40 years and it has fired thousands of factory-reloaded shells with out any ftf-fte. it shows field use. i would buy another if found at a good price.

 

I’m a lefty so a double trigger SXS takes a bit of getting used to, the one thing I had to avoid was cast.

The old US doubles were neutral cast so that’s pretty much what I owned but some brands had crazy drop so you really have to shoulder them a few times before buying.

overall I found SXS easy to shoot and easy to carry in the woods especially in thick stuff.

 

Beautiful gun Eastbank. Unspeakable, I’m not cross dominant but my middle son is. I watched him miss turkey after turkey that Ray Charles could have hit till I figured out what was going on. I had him close one eye and that solved that issue. Had he continued to hunt I would have tried to get him to go southpaw.

 

Barrette I’ve actually shot a lot of skeet so focus on the target isn’t the issue. The guns I’ve tried possibly have too little drop. I see a bit more barrel than I should. I prefer a gun with substantial drop. They seem to point better at least as far as rifles go. My 1873 Winchester is a natural pointer for me and so is my 1893 Marlin. Probably just answered my own question. Being on an island with limited resources makes me hesitant to buy a gun online. I probably should stick to models I’m familiar with.

 

Couple things, I believe fit in a SxS is more important than others. Secondly I've found that it takes awhile for some people to just shoot down the rib and ignore the barrels. I had trouble with that after shooting pumps for years and then going back to a SxS.
Good luck and I hope you find a gun that works well for you.

 

The pattern board will tell you a lot more than I can....

 

What SxS guns have you tried? Older guns have stocks that are poorly fitting for most folks today. My S&W Elite Gold, made in Turkey, has a neutral cast stock so as a LH, it is pretty easy for me to shoot. Spanish guns are awesome - all the quality of an English best at a lot less cost.

 

Some Spanish but mostly old Stevens and a Fox. Probably not enough to give me a clear idea of what they are like

 

Skeet shoot with it for a month. I have shot all kinds of shotguns while a properly fit one is awesome if you only use one thats not and learn the gun you can do well with it. You can usually find older doubles for around the 500$ mark. The only real restriction on them is that you do not want to shoot steel through them. That will destroy older shotguns as the barrels can't handle it. If you are looking to pick one up you want to pass on anything Damascus or twist barreled. Most of those were made for black powder and you would need to us low pressure/ low recoil rounds. There are a lot of Cresent company made shotguns under many names that can handle standard loads and light loads with no problems. I have one with hammers in 16ga that I have shot with standared dove rounds. I got it for 200$ it had been cleaned and the extractor was stuck but other then that its pretty much serviceable. The important thing when looking at one is that both hammers click and that the lock up is still tight. Though you can sometimes tweak them to tighten them up but I would say thats if you have moderate to high gun smithing experience. The most common failures in the old doubles are cracked wrists on the stocks (Using a Slip on Kick pad will help prevent this sometimes). This happens quite a bit but can be repaired. And when people shoot express rounds or modern rounds in a gun designed for black powder and burst the barrels. Also know that the barrels are often very thin on some of the older ones and will take a dent extremely easily. If that occurs that can induce a barrel failure. Here are photos of the Cresent I bought. It turned out I had another barrel in my parts box so now I have a coach gun set as well as the long barrels for it. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5of_oshH1i/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

Skeet is not a good way to evaluate a field SxS. Sporting clays, perhaps.

Many field SxS will be IC/M choked. That's great for pheasants. It's silly for skeet. Some, especially older SxS will choked even tighter. Again, silly for skeet.

 

The BEST way to evaluate is by using the pattern plate.

 

I love sxs shotguns for most upland bird hunting venues (my favorite is a little 20 gauge Merkel) but there's no denying that there are few if any serious trap/skeet/sporting clays competitors who use one. The reasons are many and debatable, but "single sighting plane" guns, be they pumps, over/unders, autos or single-shots, have dominated the clay sport arenas for a very long time and, doubtless, for good reasons.

 

I won’t be shooting any skeet or sporting clays anymore. This island has about the same resources it did during the turn of the last century! Grouse and woodcock will be about all I’ll hunt as far as small game is concerned.

 

I have and use my old Savage SXS and like them a lot but would love to have this one https://cz-usa.com/product/cz-bobwhite-g2/

 

If I am going Turkish, I am going for the Dickinson from AKUS via Cabela's - oh wait, I did in the form of the S&W Elite Gold which was the daddy to the Dickinson - same gun, same company.

 

Sugar Island?

 

Thank you for all your replies gentlemen, it’s much appreciated.Beaver Island

 

And when it comes to SxS guns, especially a field gun, it has to have double triggers and a splinter forearm to go with the straight English stock.

 

If a shotgun fits me, which, to me, means that I pull it up and pull the trigger and it hits where I'm looking, I'm good with it pretty much from the first shot. If it doesn't fit me, which to me, means that it doesn't hit where I'm looking, and I'd probably need to fire hundreds of rounds to try and adjust myself to the way that the gun does not fit me, I don't want the gun. I only have 4 shotguns - a SxS, an O/U, a semi-auto, and a pump - all of which I specifically chose because they fit me. The SxS is a 20 gauge Savage Fox Model B that I like a lot, even though it's a simple, inexpensive gun.

 

This ^^^^^. Looking at the barrels, or the bead, will cause a miss almost all the time.