Your favorite shotguns

A

AWS

Retired PM Staff
I'm really partial to sxs shotguns, they just seem to fit me well. My special passion are hammer SxS's. Decent SxS's are such a pleasure to hunt with, slim wrists, everything at your finger tips, beautiful balance, they seem to come alive in your hands.

I have a little Bernardelli 12ga all steel and walnut that weighs 5 lb 15 oz it is so fast I need to wait so I don't blow up birds.

There are so many different types of SxS's. My personal favorites are side levers but I'm equally at home with top levers, trigger guard openers, under levers and sliding breech.

Most of mine have 65mm chambers and a shoot 11/16 to 1 oz in the 12s and 3/4 to 1 oz in the 16s.

Anyone else have an affinity for shotguns.
 
Yup. Had too many to count. My latest is a 1923 Ithaca 12 gauge double. I recently was hurt at work degloving my right hand so the tang safeties are a necessity. Mossberg 940 field model may be my next buy.
Do you carry your side by sides calling?
Maybe that could be the new cowboy shooting trend! Old rifles and shotguns calling coyotes. Maybe an old sharps and a side by side?
 
I love shotguns. I grew up tagging along with the men of the family, rabbit hunting behind a pack of beagles. And turkey hunting the Ozark mountains. My dad was a Browning Auto Five guy, and he also had an Ithaca SKB SxS that he used to good effect on rabbit, dove, crows, and quail. So naturally, a Belgian Browning Auto Five is one of my favorite shotguns. Here is my 1967 20 gauge...



This little 1968 Beretta SxS 20 gauge is a favorite game gun. It is simply magical...



There are others, an old 870 Wingmaster worn nearly silver from use. A Beretta O/U that makes me seem to be a much better wingshooter than I am. And some more that I keep around. Like this lean, mean Benelli M1 Tactical. I call it my "Thug gun." It lacks class, but it is brutally effective.





With all that said, if I had to pick an all-time favorite for all chores, I would be forced to choose my old H&K Benelli M1S90 camo turkey gun. This is an old friend that has traveled many, many miles throughout the Ozark mountains, hunting all sorts of critters. I nicknamed this shotgun "Havoc" because when it is time, this thing wrecks anything I cut it loose on. Rabbits, squirrels, doves, ducks, crows, turkeys, raccoons, opossums, armadillos, skunks, feral cats, fox, coyote, bobcat, hogs, and one deer have all fallen to this old, comforting shotgun. Dust, dirt, forest duff, rain, snow, ice, freezing temperatures, heat- nothing has stopped this gun from functioning, and it has never failed me.







 
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Well this was a hard question for years. Started out with pump action's and mostly Mossberg 500's, killed a lot of birds with them. Then came into a Browning Double Auto and loved it. Only auto I ever cared for! Then came the SxS's and they have consumed me! I have three AyA's; a 16ga, 28ga and a 410, and two CZ Bobwhite's; A 28ga and a 20ga I've never shot. I don't think I could choose a favorite as I simply love SxS's. I've reached a point where the favorite ga is 28 though so have an AyA and a CZ. AyA has a single trigger and 28" barrels. CZ has double trigger's and 26" barrels. I really like double triggers but also like the 28" barrels. Today my though is the CZ is my favorite but depending on where I'm going I prefer the 28" barrels. 28" for more open country and 26" for closed up country, like grouse cover! CZ or AyA, hum. Today maybe the CZ, really nice gun also!
 
I went through several brands of shotguns during my brief stent of skeet shooting. But in the end there are only two that I guess I'll call favorites, a Remington 870 Wingmaster and the good old 1100.
 
I'm a rifleman, not a shotgun shooter, cut my teeth on my dad's old Remington 12 ga sxs, then my mom's 16 ga Eastern Arms (Sears Stevens) for ducks. The old 12 fit like a glove, the 16 not so much so when I took up quail hunting in high school, I found an old beat up 20 ga. which had only the hard part of a recoil pad screwed on the very short butt. Looked like someone had run over it with a truck, as there was a small part of the receiver broken off where the release lever is....did not affect function; also the stock had obviously been broken at the wrist and someone had wrapped about 1.5" w/steel wire and soft soldered it, top and bottom. Very solid, if unsightly repair, and the price was right for a kid working part time for $.45/ hr. That short stock fit me almost as well as my dad's old Remington (which had long since been retired when we found it had damascus barrels. The little 20 ga. was my all time favorite quail and dove gun until I quit hunting birds.
 
Browning Sweet 16 Bird killing machine.. my grandpas were both bird hunters,, the sweet 16 was a gift at 11 years old.. had to carry it empty for one season,, SAFTEY first.. and yes,, I went every chance I could… Super 90 , 12 gage,, beat up looking,, cleaned every 200 rounds,, shoots full factory tube great!! Lite mod tube from some aftermarket joint, , Briley , also patterns great for doves and teal.. etc. If your ever at a sale and see a used shotgun,, and I mean used,, buy it,,, it shot where he was looking and preformed !!! That’s about the best advice I can give…🙈
 
Sweet Sixteen was quite a gift for an 11 year old, somebody loved you. Mine was a JC Higgins pump 16ga, shot it at trap until the breech block was so loose you had to point it down so the breech block was against the shell head and never bring it up beyond level to get it to fire. it shattered enough clay birds for me to get invited to shoot on a few different bar teams.

The first shotgun I purchased with my own money, a a converted English MZL to 16ga cartridge. Young and dumb I knew nothing of short chambers and Damascus barrels and it lived on a diet of high brass 5's. It put a lot of game on the table from woodcock to geese. It hangs in my BinL's living room/museum a little looser than it was 60+ years ago when I aguired it.
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Here's an interesting SxS, an English 10ga Upland bird gun from the 1870's, the top one. I have it pictured with a Hungarian upland 12ga to show how it compares. Pretty dainty for a 10. I'm still working up loads for it. It's a side lever also.
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I do take my SxS's out predator hunting but the ones I take usually have a rifle barrel nuzzled underneath. I'd say that 90% of the coyotes I shoot with them are killed with the shotgun barrel.

1907 German drilling 16ga/16ga/9.3x72R
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Only auto loader I ever liked was a Browning double auto. Pointed great and shot great. And compared to the auto 5 and rem 1000 was very light. Can't imagine why Browning quit making it!
 
An old Double Auto with a Cutts is one of my grail guns. They were expensive to make and demand really fell off when the market was flooded with inexpensive reliable auto loaders. Kind of like the demise of the Superposed and even the Auto Five.
 
My favorite us an Ithaca SKB 100 20 gauge. Light and quick to point. I have a Mossberg 940 Pro and a 12 Gauge BPS for varmints - tang safety for lefty. I also have a LH 870 and an 1100 (bought from a friend for $400.) Favorite one to think about is a Model 37 Heritage - 12 gauge. Also have a Browning Superposed 12 gauge okay except is a "salt" gun. I bought it without knowing anything about that topic and the ole boy who sold it never said squat. I still am hoping to see him one of these days at a LG show, to see if he wants to trade back for it. Probably not, but I hope to get a sammich from the SOB....
 
I started out with a Rem 870 Wingmaster 12 gauge pump a plan barrel. Shot that for many years and bought a Belgium Browning 2000 12 gauge which was a huge upgrade from the 870 and has two barrels, a 28 inch modified and 30 inch full (I still have that shotgun). Next I purchased in about 2003 the first edition Beretta Xtrema 12 gauge and shot it for many years on everything from dove to Canadian geese and turkey. Sent it off to have angle ported and love shooting that shotgun and still have it. Finally, I bought the Benelli Legacy 28 when they first came out and and have been exclusively using it for everything since about 2015 or there about.
I would love to have a Beretta combination set of 20 and 28 gauge over and under but will probably never spend that much money when I have everything I need today.
 
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