June 5 -- had a really great road trip and got to shoot a couple of rounds of skeet in both El Paso and Silver City, New Mexico as well as getting to press the flesh at gun shows in Tucson, Socorro and Albuquerque.

Tucson was a big, pricey ($9 admission) show in an area where you wouldn't expect to find much in the way of shotguns to look over. Geographically, this is Cowboy Action Shooting country. But while looking at a $1,200 cart designed for cowboy action shooters to haul their gear around in, guess what practically leapt into my hands! Nothing less than a 16 gauge Husqvarna side-by-side hammer model. The hammers and low price make these guns popular with cowboy action shooters. They are usually found in 12 gauge with the cleaner ones priced in the $450-$500 range. The 16 gauge was close to pristine, with full case colors and both wood (with metal butt plate) and bluing were in the 90% range. Bores were on the rough side and I did not check the chamber length. An absolutely lovely old gun and worth the visit -- and maybe even the $750 asking price.

Soccoro, NM was a different kind of show, but you can never tell what you'll find. This is rifle and pistol country, with a strong sprinkling of coin dealers trading on the increased interest in silver as well as indian jewelry, western art and memorabilia. You can imagine my surprise in finding an original 20 gauge 95% condition Parker D.H.E. with a single selective trigger, skeleton butt plate, English grip with a semi-beavertail forearm. Beautiful wood and the gun is choked skeet "in and out." Almost like I wrote the specs myself. Absolutely magnificent in every respect. This is a museum grade gun.  Next to it lay a 12 gauge Francotte in equally nice condition, but without the magic of the Parker. Curiously, the owner of the guns was not at the show. I caught up with him at the Albuquerque show the following weekend. Nice meeting. And a long-distance conversation is continuing. Guns like this D.H.E. Parker and the Francotte are like gold. It's where you find it. And no small part of the fun is in the looking.

Initial Orders for Browning's 16 gauge 2007 production have been placed. These include some 2006 orders for Superlights and Grade IV's I had on order, but were never delivered. These have been rolled-over for the 2007 production run, to which I've added new orders received to date. So far so good. It is my intention to position my orders at the head of the list so as to try and get the soonest and surest service for my customers. They are still talking September-October delivery. I have a few 16 gauge Model 525 Fields with 26" barrels in stock at the 2006 price of $2,195.

28 Gauge Citori XS Skeet $2,395

A small lot of these guns were made in 2004, but were never catalogued by Browning and apparently never went into the Browning distribution system. These are full-featured guns with 30" barrels, two Skeet and one Improved Cylinder choke tubes, a palm-swell grip, finger groves on the forearm, II/III wood with satin finish, Triple Trigger System, which adjusts for finger length with a choice of three trigger shoes, HiViz front sight with an assortment of light bars and a factory pad to 14-3/8" LOP.

If a person wanted to master the 28 gauge for Skeet or Sporting Clays, it would be difficult to create a more perfect choice than this XS Skeet gun. It is designed to break clay targets. It has every possible shooting cue built into the gun to accomplish this task. I have access to only a few of these guns, but will endeavor to hand-pick these best wood I can for my customers.

Look what I found! Several years ago Stefano Fausti (the same Italian shop that makes the new L.C. Smith doubles for Marlin) designed a high-end .410 Elite Field III ST side-by-side for Traditions. A lovely little gun, but I suspect overpriced for Tradition's market @ $2,100. Note that these guns have high-grade wood, single trigger, ejectors and come with a hard case. I have four of these little gems close-out priced @ $1,695 + $40 S&H to your FFL holder.

Bruce Buck, the Gun Editor for Shooting Sportsman mentions the lack of pitch on his new Galazan RBL double he reviews in the May/June issue. Zero pitch on a cast-neutral gun might be okay to pop a few clays with, but on a flushing bird I'd bet this gun will shoot high and to the left. It certainly looks like an attractive package, but with doubles, the devil is always in the details. Read between the lines in this article.

The Pitch of a gun isn't a matter of concern on a bird hunter. Typically, birdguns come from the factory with about two degrees pitch. You can check the pitch on your gun by putting the butt flat on the floor, then touching the receiver against a wall. The muzzle should be about two inches from the wall, which is the correct amount of pitch for a birdgun. More than that and you have a gun that shoots downhill. Good for rabbits, bad for birds. Less than that and you have a gun that shoots high.

Clenzoil -- The long-term relationship between Clenzoil -- This is the Good Stuff -- and Bill Hanus Birdguns is going to continue. The new owners have shipped a supply as well as a nifty new applicator that I will enclose with every gun I ship. Both owners have purchased 28 gauge Bill Hanus Birdguns, so you can tell we're going to get along like a house on fire. I have long believed that there is a kind of marketing synergy (roughly defined as "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts") that takes place on this page accrues to everyone's benefit. You will be pleased to learn that the guys on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan will not longer have to buy Clenzoil with their own money. Clenzoil has received their first major military order. A win-win situation.

There isn't a month that goes by that I don't convert an AYA or Browning for left-hand use. Left-handed shooters who shoot shotguns made for right-handed shooters miss so often that they think they are just bum shots. Not so. What's happening is that when they cheek a cast-off or cast-neutral stock, they push the butt stock to the left and down so they shoot a couple of feet to the right and high. The only time they "get lucky" is on a rising bird that flushes to the right. Trust me, if you are left-handed with a dominant left eye, having the stock bent to accommodate your shooting requirements is the best $300 investment you'll ever make.

Suspicions Confirmed: The Summer, 2007 issue of The Upland Almanac has a one-page article by Terry M. Boyer entitled "Do We Still Need the 20 Gauge?" that is well worth your attention. The 16 gauge is his favorite because, as he says:

I have counted numerous patterns of one-ounce loads of different shot sizes out of different chokes in the 12, 16 and 20 gauge. The 16 gauge will consistently have a more equal distribution of pellets and a rounder area of impact than a 12 gauge. Twenty-gauge patterns are often elliptical, erratic and spotty."

I suspect his observations will confirm what a lot of readers on this web page already knew. But it's nice to have our experience confirmed once again.

More good news for 16 gauge shooters: Ballistic Products has long been a pioneer in 16 reloading has taken the big jump and now stocks all Fiocchi's 16 gauge loads, including the 1165 fps 1 oz. Multi-Sport (the only load I know of available in #9 shot); the 1310 fps 1-1/8 oz. Golden Pheasant nickel plated shot; and the 1300 fps 1-1/8 oz. High Velocity Field/Clays loads. The big news for hunters is that Ballistic Products will allow you to mix loads and still give you the case price! This means you'll not only be able to order different loads for different hunting situations; but it will also make it easier to use different sizes of shot in each barrel. For example, #9's in your first barrel and #8's in your second for a follow-up shot. Or #6's and #7-1/2's. A one-two punch, so to speak.

PLUS Ballistic Products stocks Kent Cartridge Company's 16 gauge Tungsten Matrix® nontoxic ammunition; as well as their Ultimate Upland Diamond Shot and a 2-1/2" Game & Hunting loads. The contact on Ballistic Products is 763/494-9237 for a catlog, or online @ www.ballisticproducts.com.

 

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