One shotgun

[Jubjub]

I was reminiscing with my sister about my uncle who taught me the fundamentals of hunting. He kept a bird dog, and hunted quail, limiting out on a regular basis. As the Missouri Conservation Department reintroduced turkeys, he took up turkey calling, and was consistently successful, back when they were much scarcer than they are now. He hunted deer down on Fort Leonard Wood, where shotguns with slugs were required, and always brought home meat.

He didn't have a quail gun, or a turkey gun, or a deer gun. The only shotgun he owned was a Remington 11-48 12 gauge 28" plain barrel with a modified choke.

It's always made me wonder why I need a bunch of different shotguns.

Obviously, I do need a bunch, I'm just not sure why.

 

[w_houle]

12, 20, .410
So at least three

 

[chas08]

Obviously, I do need a bunch, I'm just not sure why

.
NEED is probably not the right word. Want or Like may be a better choice. Guns are money in the bank for your wife or family after you pass on. And we get to play with them while we're here. For me, they are nothing more than toys. I have a journal with every gun I own with serial numbers and the price I paid for it. It may help my Wife or daughters to keep from getting stroked when they convert them back to cash after I'm gone. In the meantime play, play, play.

 

[Mark F]

.
NEED is probably not the right word. Want or Like may be a better choice. Guns are money in the bank for your wife or family after you pass on. And we get to play with them while we're here. For me, they are nothing more than toys. I have a journal with every gun I own with serial numbers and the price I paid for it. It may help my Wife or daughters to keep from getting stroked when they convert them back to cash after I'm gone. In the meantime play, play, play.

I did the same thing. Each gun I own is documented with a photo, serial number, and current value. The problem is... my wife now knows how many guns I "really" own. I used to get away with "a couple of em'".

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

There was a time when men hunted game with just a musket or later on, one shotgun or one rifle. Modern shotguns with all sort of chokes, barrel lengths, etc just make things a bit easier or more fun. But if you had to leave in the morning and come back with food, and all you had was even one single shot smooth bore, you'd make it happen, no matter what animal you were hunting.

 

[PJR]

It's always made me wonder why I need a bunch of different shotguns.

Obviously, I do need a bunch, I'm just not sure why.

For the same reason you need more than one knife in the kitchen, more than one tool in the tool box and more than one book on the shelf.

It is possible to get by with one shotgun but the usual result is one gun that is adequate for each purpose and excellent at nothing.

 

[oneounceload]

12, 20, .410
So at least three

WHAT??? Where's the 16, 28, 24 and 32???? Oh, the horrors of it all!....

 

[ArmedBear]

When frontiersmen used flintlock smoothbores to get their meat, there was an abundance of game. They chose their locations based, in part, on the abundance of game. If there wasn't a good food source, they moved on.

When there is an abundance of game, you can pick your shots. Since ammunition was scarce and game was not, they likely passed on many opportunities to shoot. You can hunt any game with a single-shot 20 Gauge, if you can afford to choose only the shots you can make with it.

Now, by comparison, ammunition is cheap and game is scarce, where most of us hunt. If you only get a few opportunities to take a shot in an entire day -- sometimes only one opportunity -- you can't be too picky about what shots to take. You can, however, try to match your gun to the hunting scenario. So it makes sense to have more than one gun, so you can maximize your hunting success.

Because of modern technology and radical changes in the economy over the past 200 years, most of us can afford at least two shotguns if there's a reason to have them. Our homes or vehicles may be the most valuable items we own, that contribute to our comfort and survival. For the frontier family, the gun probably was their most valuable possession. Anything else -- even a house -- they could build without financial cost, maybe with the help of some neighbors.

 

[P.B.Walsh]

Quote:
12, 20, .410
So at least three

WHAT??? Where's the 16, 28, 24 and 32???? Oh, the horrors of it all!....

Ummm, you forgot the 10 ga.!!!

 

[oneounceload]

Ummm, you forgot the 10 ga.!!!

And very deliberately I will add. Field artillery belongs in another group!....

 

[Water-Man]

Remington 870 Express Combo. Check it out if you haven't already done so.

 

[huntsman]

He didn't have a quail gun, or a turkey gun, or a deer gun. The only shotgun he owned was a Remington 11-48 12 gauge 28" plain barrel with a modified choke.

Yeah and I'll bet he was more about the hunt and kill and eating than the buying and the fondling and talking.

 

[waterhouse]

It's always made me wonder why I need a bunch of different shotguns.

You don't need a bunch of different shotguns, but depending on your uses owning several may make life more enjoyable.

 

[natman]

I was reminiscing with my sister about my uncle who taught me the fundamentals of hunting. He kept a bird dog, and hunted quail, limiting out on a regular basis. As the Missouri Conservation Department reintroduced turkeys, he took up turkey calling, and was consistently successful, back when they were much scarcer than they are now. He hunted deer down on Fort Leonard Wood, where shotguns with slugs were required, and always brought home meat.

He didn't have a quail gun, or a turkey gun, or a deer gun. The only shotgun he owned was a Remington 11-48 12 gauge 28" plain barrel with a modified choke.

It's always made me wonder why I need a bunch of different shotguns.

Obviously, I do need a bunch, I'm just not sure why.

You don't need a bunch of shotguns, and if I were going to try to do it all with one shotgun and one choke, it would be with a 26" 12ga, mod choke.

However, let's take a look at what a more specialized shotgun brings to the table. Take for example my turkey gun.



It has a 20" barrel that's a lot easier to carry in the woods. Since turkey guns are fired like rifles there's no need for a long barrel to promote a smooth swing.

It has a tight turkey choke, that gives better range and a surer kill than a modified choke.

It has fiber optic sights. Turkey guns get fired from all kinds of strange positions and it's easy to neglect to get your cheek down on the stock. This happened to me once and I missed the bird. So now my turkey gun has open sights. Haven't missed one since.

It's camouflaged. Not strictly required, but nice to have. I've had hens come close enough that I could have kicked them. Gobblers don't get to come that close.

It has sling swivels. This is pretty much required in a turkey gun.

The end result is a lot nicer to hunt turkeys with than a 28" blued modified choke gun. I know, because that's what I started with and I changed it gradually until I had a cobbled together version of the gun shown. I liked the old gun so much that when I found a lightly used example of the illustrated gun for $200 I bought it. I enjoy having a gun that fits its purpose so well and I'm not going back.

 

[chas08]

Yeah and I'll bet he was more about the hunt and kill and eating than the buying and the fondling and talking.

I can remember My Grandpa buying shells for his only shotgun, by the shell, not by the box. His idea of dove hunting involved a small sack of millet, a waterhole, and a couple of shells at most. You can imagine the rest. A different culture for a different time, when guns were considered tools not toys.

 

[ArmedBear]

His idea of dove hunting involved a small sack of millet, a waterhole, and a couple of shells at most.

That kind of hunting has gotten a LOT more expensive.

 

[w_houle]

Here we go, a nice picture

 

[oneounceload]

That kind of hunting has gotten a LOT more expensive.

and rare to boot. The few fields around here where folks are paying $100+ for a few chances aren't producing very good results.......

 

[ArmedBear]

I'm talking about spreading bait, waiting for a group of doves to land and start eating, then opening fire with two rounds from cylinder bores. That's what I understand that he was doing. That gets REALLY expensive these days.

$100+ to shoot flying varmints?

Dove shooting is fun, but I've never PAID for it. For one thing, I've never cooked up a game bird that I didn't like better than mourning dove...

 

[oneounceload]

Remember AB, you live in the West where there is a lot of open public land........here in the East, to hunt just about anything involves joining a hunt club, or leasing property, paying for trespass rights, etc......

 

[ArmedBear]

I understand that the East is different that way; I just don't figure I'd pay for dove hunting, if I were going to pay.

Idaho isn't all that good for dove, though I know where to find some. However, down along the border, 100 miles either side of Yuma, there is a good amount of accessible private land as well. Like I said, the birds are varmints, to the farmers and feed lot owners.

 

[chas08]

That kind of hunting has gotten a LOT more expensive

Yep it has. And I don't employ those tactics. He's been gone for 48 years now. But among his generation it was the norm. I was just a small kid the last time he drug me along. Game wardens were few and far between. Putting food on the table, not sport, was the reason he hunted. Legalities were never a conscern as they are today.

 

[ArmedBear]

Putting food on the table, not sport, was the reason he hunted.

Cheap food from factory farming is a vastly underappreciated blessing these days.

 

[waterhouse]

For one thing, I've never cooked up a game bird that I didn't like better than mourning dove

You must be forgetting the bacon

 

[ArmedBear]

You can cook quail, chukar and pheasant with bacon, also.