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.

 

[Velo Dog]

CORRECTION:
In my above photo of 3 hunters, I typed incorrectly the order of each person.

Shown L to R, the following is correct:
1.
Chuck “Mekaniks”.
2.
Myself Paul “Velo Dog”.
3.
Don “1dirthawker”

 

[RLD]

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.

I love my 555. Great bang for the buck.

 

[Cooposo]

Well, this is my first contribution to this fine forum after years of lurking. Last year I got a Brittany for Christmas and a Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon for Father’s Day. My wife picked it out and wisely went with a 26” 12 gauge. I live in Idaho Chukar country and my first year of upland hunting with the pup absolutely blew my expectations out of the water. Pictured is the dog, the dog and his litter mates at 13 months of age after a morning of Nevada chukar hunting, the dog again, our first day of Pheasant hunting, our first double on pointed Chukars, and finally I got around to the gun itself. A shotgun that genuinely fits me and points naturally is a whole new experience and my shooting immediately improved because of it.

 

[WAB]

I’ve got quite a few upland guns. This is my favorite, but its position is in jeopardy as I’m working on importing a Westley Richards droplock.

Well his is the usurper to the throne, a best grade Westley Richards droplock. I picked this up from a friend’s shop in the UK. Imagine my surprise to find out that BATF does not consider this is a firearm as it was manufactured prior to their arbitrary cutoff date!

 

[Wahoo]

Currently just wrapped up a nice morning of getting humbled by turkeys with my 1935 production Charles Ingram 12 bore

 

[Finprof]

View attachment 675066
My beloved 1987 made Beretta Model 626E in 12 gauge 3” Magnum.
Left barrel is fully choked. Right barrel is half choked.
Single selective trigger. I’m never letting this one go.

I also have a Beretta 626E but mine has a 26 inch barrel and Beretta Mobil chokes. I bought it for upland hunting but found out that I do better with it at skeet and sporting clays than with my Beretta 694. We have some side by side matches around here where most of the competitors are using Parkers and Foxes.

 

[rookhawk]

Not a shotgun today, but this is our Small Munsterlander pup. (the one @flying sailor shot pheasants over earlier in the thread). She's a versatile gal, here she recovered my 13 year old's archery buck last year.

 

[Nevada Mike]

Henry Atkin 20b 1947

Henry Atkin 12b self opener 1930

Robertson 20b (upper) and Jos. Harkom 16b (lower)

Ainsley Fox 16b with unfortunate prairie chickens 1915

Lindner Dally 20b Damascus 1898?

 

[Kdgj]

This is an old Dickson made in 1898. The barrels were sleeved at some point, but it still weighs 6 lbs 5 oz.

 

[Flipper Dude]

Some gorgeous shotguns, fellas. My first African safari battery consisted of a Winchester 70 Featherweight in ‘06 accompanied by my Browning BSS 20. What an adventure.

 

[Tbitty]

I shoot more shotguns than I do rifles, and I enjoy a little variety of life in doing so.

My first gun was a single shot .410 that had been my Old Man's first gun. Monkey Ward break open, full choke. Honed my shooting skills nicely to take pheasant and quail with that, otherwise I went home empty handed.

Then I graduated to a Remington Model 11 (A5 Clone) 20 gauge fixed Mod choke that was my grandpa's and handed down to me. Shot everything under the sun with that old gun, and for many, many years. The downside is it could not fire 3" shells, and 2-3/4" 20ga steel shot was rare, so when I got into Waterfowl hunting, I found a used 12ga Mossberg 500 for all that a poor high school kid could afford and used that for ducks and geese. But the Rem 11 went everywhere else. ... Side note, in KS the bag limits used to be (I think it still is) 4 rooster pheasant. My only ever 4/4 wild Roosters were taken with this old Rem 11. A particularly cold, snowy, sleeting miserable day had grouped probably 2-3 dozen pheasant into a thicket of super tall CRP grass that was only about 15x15 yards square. Sent the dog in, and as the birds busted out I picked out the Roosters and laid them down.

A few years later, I'd finally saved aside some $ and bought myself a brand new Browning Maxus Stalker 3.5" 12 Gauge when they first came out. I've worn out 2 sets of synthetic stocks/forearms (do not get anything with their "Dura-touch" coating, it eventually wears out and becomes like holding a sticky-trap of glue), so the 3rd stock set I bought the wood Maxus Sporting set and wish I had done so sooner. Wood guns are so much nicer to look at. I still take this one out regularly, but it's primarily become a waterfowl and sporting clays gun now.

Life has been generous enough to me that when the new A5's came out, I added a Sweet 16 that has become my dominant upland gun.

A few pics of me and my crazy pointing lab on some pheasants in the snow, and a dove hunt in west TX, carrying the Sweet 16.

2 More to mention that get some good work in these days are my new A5 12 gauge and a 20ga Browning Silver for when I want to shoot small bore at targets or have a 3" capable 20 gauge.

I've got a handful of others, including a couple 28's, but don't pull most of these out but maybe once or twice a year.