Lets See Your Upland Shotguns

[Certus]

Recently I purchased an EJ Churchill 12 bore. 25" barrels and 5 lbs. and 11 ounces. 16 were built in 1929. Just took a pheasant earlier in March over a friends dog. What an experience!

Gosh I want another XXV, regret selling mine. One day..

 

[roklok]

Blue grouse?

Spruce grouse in interior Alaska.

 

[coreydb]

I dearly love looking at the fine guns in this thread, but at the same time saddened that no sxs or o/u shotgun is currently manufactured in the U.S., with the exception of a few small custom houses that are priced higher than my budget allows.

Savage used to produce an economically priced 311, and Winchester had the marvelous model 21. Ithica and several others produced fine double shotguns, but all the average consumer has available at his local gun store are made to a very low grade in Turkey, etc.

Nothing against the fine guns made in Italy or even Japan, as I own several.

My heart longs for a standard grade 28ga sxs for quail and pheasants. Manufactured in New England if possible.

Savage/Stevens makes an O/U....model 555 that has positive reviews; around the 1k mark. Also, Weatherby makes the Orion O/U for a little over the 1k mark. Good reviews.

 

[mark-hunter]

B525, Factory scroll engraving is worth noting.

 

[Red Leg]

Thought I would add a couple of more, neither of which is found in every gun rack, and both of which have taken a lot of pheasants, driven and walked, and won several purses in Columbaire shoots.

Stephen Grant & Sons 12 bore Side Lever Sidelock - c. 1920 Note the location of the lever.

What I believe is the gun with the most elegant lines of any of the Golden Age creations. A Scottish James MacNaughton Round Action 12 Bore C. 1900

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Savage/Stevens makes an O/U....model 555 that has positive reviews; around the 1k mark. Also, Weatherby makes the Orion O/U for a little over the 1k mark. Good reviews.

Weatherby doesn't make the Orion. It's a Turkish ATA rebranded for Weatherby. But still one of the better if not best Turkish gunmakers.

 

[Certus]

Thought I would add a couple of more, neither of which is found in every gun rack, and both of which have taken a lot of pheasants, driven and walked, and won several purses in Columbaire shoots.

Stephen Grant & Sons 12 bore Side Lever Sidelock - c. 1920 Note the location of the lever.
View attachment 675824
View attachment 675825

What I believe is the gun with the most elegant lines of any of the Golden Age creations. A Scottish James MacNaughton Round Action 12 Bore C. 1900
View attachment 675826

Love the knots in that Macnaughton

 

[Tubby’s Canteen]

My favourite shotgun the last couple of years is of a different nature than most of those listed here. I spend a lot of mornings in the fall after the morning sit walking abandoned woods roads for partridge. I carry a browning bps 20 gauge with federal pheasants forever #5 3” in the barrel and the top one in the tube. The last one in is a Remington slugger. To me mixed bag still hunting is a dying art at least locally.

Same browning in the fall for upland/deer with a 24 inch smooth bore slug barrel, throws respectable groups with Remingtons and a decent pattern with federals to 20yards.

In the winter with 26” modified barrel for rabbit to extend the usable pattern distance.

 

[Velo Dog]

Fellow Hunters,

Although I have formerly owned quite a few shotguns, well suited to hunting upland birds plus rabbit and tree squirrel, none have been very impressive to look at nor very expensive for that matter.
But neither am I much to look at.
And I’m not worth much money either.
So, such simple hunting guns have all served me well enough in their time.

Anyway, below is my favorite upland gun.
Unlike the others, that have come and gone like the tide, this one will stay with me until the end.
The lovely Mrs. Velo Dog gave it to me as a Christmas present one year, after one of my friends told her that I had been examining it very closely, at a local gun store.
I am fond of this shotgun, partly because she gave it to me and partly because it’s pleasing to my eyes, it fits me and I shoot it straight enough to keep me grinning.

It is a late 1950’s to early 1960’s Beretta, Model 409, in 20 gauge, with 2 triggers.
It has two sets of extractor barrels, both sets are 2 & 3/4” chamber.
One is 26”, choked somewhere around improved cylinder and skeet (?).
The other set is 28” and choked modified and full.

It is light as a feather and has hand cut, scroll engraving, not lasered or rolled on.
The forend could be a tic more slim however, it fits me well enough, even with gloves on and so, I have no plans to have it changed in any way.
I do though plan to eventually have a large white bead installed on each set of barrels.

And, I also plan to one day sand out the right side 26” barrel (improved cylinder choke) out to true cylinder, as sanding out the right side barrel choke, is my habit with most of the field grade doubles I’ve owned over the years.
Since the 26” barrels are for close-in shooting, such as over pointers or decoyed ducks, I have been more and more thinking about possibly sanding out both chokes in the 26” barrels to true cylinder and true cylinder.

I apologize for not posting a decent picture of it fully assembled.
Hopefully I can remember to do that one day soon.
At any rate, my last picture attached below was taken at AH Sponsor’s (Gizmo) Texas Ranch, called The “Rockin G Ranch”.
Myself and two very good Alaskan friends / fellow AH members in that pic are Left to Right:
1.
Chuck “Mekaniks”.
2.
Don “1dirthawker”.
3.
Myself with the little Beretta, sporting its 26” set of barrels.

We had such a grand time there on quail, chukar, pheasant, ducks and cranes that, all 3 of us want to return one of these hunting seasons again someday.

Anyway, that’s my upland gun info.

Cheers,
Velo Dog.