sorry to have been out of the loop lately--was felled by a bug of some sort and spent the last 48 or so hours in stuporific doze under a mass of quilted blankets.
Anyway, just in case nobody's up-to-date and current on reading their 5 Smart Guys comments, Superior Shooter this morning pleads with us to help him address his off-season gun woes. To wit:
Maybe the esteemed panel can suggest a new gun for the house (grounds for divorce on my end if I get caught!)? What is the best left-handed poor-man's aint-got-no-good gun dog gun that you can recommend? I'll not impose any limits on the conversation but I'm currently limiting my looking to the Ithaca 37, the 870, the 1187, a "loose" citori and possibly a new Ohio born NID (all in 20 ga). Note that the last two choices require some lucky tickets at the next Red squirrels sportman's dinner potluck and bbq.For the sweet love of the almighty, will someone here please help the not-so-humble one figure out what his options are? Also, if Superior would provide us with more detail about the RUMORS that he's passing on about Ohio-made New Ithaca Doubles in 20 gauge, that would be much appreciated by yourn' truly.
I know we've got some lefties out there--and I'm not just talking Al Franken fans--so let's pony up some good gun advice for the shooter.
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13 comments:
one word: Benelli SBE II. under 2K at a retail outlet near you. shim kit included. QED
I could probably find you a used Parker for something on the order of $1000-1200, it will shoot light loads fine, it will have a wood stock--Uncle Pete swears by his, in fact, he never misses with it! 12 gauge, though, maybe a 16. 20 gauge would be hard to come by. anyway. wood is good, I agree with that.
Yeah, what they said -- I've seen a few ads lately for 12 ga Parkers under 1200. The BPS is a nice pump. Should be able to find an SKB 20 ga for under 1000... but if if you NEED an American made, get a used 37 or BPS pump and save your money, don't have too many kids, get a job, and buy the NID (or gold label?) as soon as it becomes available.
forgot about the SKB option. Path Walker speaks the truth. we got one for . . . what's that Penn State guy's name again? anyway, Mr. Mike and I got a nice one not too long ago for $550 or so. single trigger though. but a real nice gun.
alright, a few more thoughts.
if you're gonna build a gun out of parts, then just do it. don't tell us about shopping for n-i-b NIDs, Citoris, 1100s, and the rest. sheesh fer frigginchrissakes.
second. you can take a rasp to any goddamned WOODEN buttstock that you want to. That's what wood is for. you yerself said "wood is good"--well, have at it. turn any gun into a lefty gun that way, and leave us out of it.
third. you introduced the steel shot issue (for western pheasant??) pretty damn late in the game. You want to go hunt pheasants, well Mike's got plenty of POAS in Buffalo--that should be far enough west for the likes of you.
fourth. one gun cannot do it all. get used to it. you simply NEED multiple guns. so your grouse gun is one thing, your western chukar chaser can be something else. although in that case the same gun probably would work. bad example.
fifth. don't think there's a fifth. well, except at grouse camp, but Josh usually drinks it all before I get any.
those are my thoughts. your mileage may vary.
alright, sixth. that good grouse guns are made not born crap. CRAP. good grouse hunters are born, the rest work hard at it too. Your gun's as good as the nut behind the buttplate. some guns shoot fine right out of the box, and the rest (MIKE) end up trading them in after several unsatisfying seasons of shooting a foot high and another foot to the left.
oh yeah, there is a serious point I'd make. Those CZ guns, the Huglus. I'd definitely look at those. for $2k or thereabouts, it sounds like you can get a pretty sweet gun with either single or double triggers, depending on what you want. and if you have to take a rasp to the wood to make it lefty, so what. But I bet they make 'em in lefty, so save yer sweat. that's what I'd look at if $2k is the cutoff.
huglu web site is bobwhite or ringneck. hey, those guns are $1,000 msrp. so I bet that the bobwhite would be aroun 800 bucks. THAT'S the way you ought to go. comes in a .410 even.
sounds like I just found my own next gun
hey, let me parse that for you Mr. Mike.
"Some guns" meaning some "shooters," shooters being identified as "guns" in common experience, "shoot [their firearms] fine right out of the box," etc. etc. Perfectly clear to me.
:-)
you know, I caught that one too before I hit the publish button, but I was in too big a hurry to edit and revise. And my parse actually makes grammatical and syntactical sense of it now, so there. nyah nyah.
Milt, you old codger, we've missed you over at the sugar shack/smelt fry/whatever you're calling it these days. how the hell are you? we really should collaborate again with Rusty, Cagey, and the boys.
and you're right--Superior Shooter has some nerve giving himself that kind of moniker. harumph. superior bull shooter is more like it. heh heh
ahhh, Superior Shooter, as in the lake. . . . clever. that explains a lot. . . . (insert eye roll icon here)
some where in private correspondence (for shame, MM, for shame!) Mr. Mike averred to the following:
"Finally, I owned a Huglu. I find them very heavy for their gauges and built with a certain Teutonic majesty that is not to my taste. I would also beware of a custom order (the unfortunate route I took); if the one in your hands is to your liking, fine. They are probably worth exactly what is being axed..."
Just thought I'd add that, my best understanding is: that the current "CZ" marketed shotguns are not in fact identical to those marketed directly under the "Huglu" name several years ago--these current guns are in fact different guns, even though Huglu still has a hand (somewhere) along the line in their production. If you look at the weights, for example, of the guns in the specs in the CZ pdf brochure, the weights seem pretty low. Guys on the shooting sportsman board who have examined these new guns think they're pretty nice--much better than the Teutonic lump that Mike owned. But that's my understanding.
Apparently they have these guns available for inspection at the Gander Mountains in Rochester and in Syracuse. . . . Who's up for a road trip??
oops, Professor mode accidentally left on. mea culpa
I won a CZ/Huglu SxS Ringneck 20 ga last year at our local RGS banquet. Really like the little gun and have been happy with it's performance.
Won another gun again last week at our RGS banquet and upgraded it to the Verona LX503 28 ga O/U. Looking forward to getting it in the coverts this fall.
There were very few options in the O/U, SxS type guns less than 1K. Someone mentioned the Franchi Veloce is the hot item these days, but couldn't find one for less than $1200.
Need to find a sugar momma like JT, so I can build my gun collection!
SJ
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