Backup Gun Rant

Palouse

Palouse

Member
So my beloved Beretta 690 is at the gunsmith for a minor repair to the wood that I easily could have gotten through the season before having repaired. I've been hunting with my backup gun, a Stevens 555 12 GA 26". It's a perfectly fine gun and I love it, but I'm just not dialed in with it like I am with the sexy Beretta that never seems to miss. The balance, swing, reach and carry-ability of the Beretta is just irreplaceable.

No doubt I should just spend some time at the range with it, but I've hunted with the triple-nickel for a couple of years before the Beretta entered my life. I never had a problem with it. Now though in my second season with the Beretta, I am learning what it means to be spoiled, especially now without it. The Stevens is a great gun, but the Beretta is friggin amazing. How can two guns look so similar - one barrel atop another - and yet one just is so perfectly balanced and precise and the other....well, lets just say I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside with it.

Just this afternoon, my gifted Golden Retriever flushed a rooster....not TWO GUN LENGTHS in front of me and I missed it with both barrels of 3" #4's IC and F in that order. Id've been better to just swing the gun at him and knock him down. Penny (my dog) just looked at me like, "Really? I tee'd up that shot and you still missed? Have you been drinking? Is your 401(k) tanking? Did you file your taxes? Everything okay at home?" If a golden retriever ever could roll her eyes, it happened today.

I love that Stevens for what it taught me and because it was my first O/U, but I think I've been ruined by what a Beretta brings to a hunt. Call me spoiled....those are nice damn guns! Can't wait to get it back.
 
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As a highly-self-regarded wildlife specialist, I would be remiss if I did not point out the numerous studies conducted by pheasants in the field have determined that the safest place for a pheasant during hunting season is underfoot of an armed hunter. It completely changes the game and destroys what may have been years of training and practice for the armed biped who has been told that pheasants run and then fly from about 15-50 yards from the hunter. The biped gets flustered, then thinks, and then reconsiders, then adjusts, then thinks again, then hesitates, puts pressure on the trigger, relaxes the pressure, then jerks the trigger back. While this is going on, the freshly-flushed-feasant is building up wind-speed and reaches safety.

Don't blame the gun. The pheasant gotcha.
:oops:
 
Kismet said:
As a highly-self-regarded wildlife specialist, I would be remiss if I did not point out the numerous studies conducted by pheasants in the field have determined that the safest place for a pheasant during hunting season is underfoot of an armed hunter. It completely changes the game and destroys what may have been years of training and practice for the armed biped who has been told that pheasants run and then fly from about 15-50 yards from the hunter. The biped gets flustered, then thinks, and then reconsiders, then adjusts, then thinks again, then hesitates, puts pressure on the trigger, relaxes the pressure, then jerks the trigger back. While this is going on, the freshly-flushed-feasant is building up wind-speed and reaches safety.

Don't blame the gun. The pheasant gotcha.
:oops:
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Ha ha! So absolutely true!
 
So it's not just me!!!! I received a Stevens 555 12 for Fathers Day this year; took it out once and missed the two roosters I had a chance at. So I went back to the twenty plus season 1187 that has been tried and true ever since. If roosters weren't so dang few and far between I'd go back to the 555 again but I think I need a few rounds of clays with the 555 before I should.
 
Ericb said:
Maybe a spare 690 would keep you in your groove!
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No joke, this ordeal has had me looking at 693's with that very idea in mind. Unfortunately (or, "fortunately" if you were to ask my savings account) the 28-inchers have been hard to come by.
 
I bought a Franchi Infinity as a backup to my Benelli M2 and I like it so much I use them both. Very similar actions. I have an extended magazine tube on the M2 so I choke and use that anyplace steel is required. I can load (5) 3" rounds. We can still use lead in places so I choke and use the Franchi for lead. (5) rounds of 2 3/4. I end up using them both about equally and shoot them the same.
 
Palouse said:
Just this afternoon, my gifted Golden Retriever flushed a rooster....not TWO GUN LENGTHS in front of me and I missed it with both barrels of 3" #4's IC and F in that order. Id've been better to just swing the gun at him and knock him down. Penny (my dog) just looked at me like, "Really? I tee'd up that shot and you still missed? Have you been drinking? Is your 401(k) tanking? Did you file your taxes? Everything okay at home?" If a golden retriever ever could roll her eyes, it happened today.

I love that Stevens for what it taught me and because it was my first O/U, but I think I've been ruined by what a Beretta brings to a hunt. Call me spoiled....those are nice damn guns! Can't wait to get it back.
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Palouse, so I hear you saying you'd never, EVER miss a gimme like that w/ your Beretta. Yeah, that's how I am w/ my old style Browning Sweet 16. Never, EVER!!! :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: Well, actually I could recount 1 experience w/ my old dog Buzz where he practically fell over in disbelief. But the whole thing is too painful & best not dredged up. :ROFLMAO:

I started this season with my 1929 Model 12 16 gauge because I love it, it's cool, I shoot it pretty well, & it weighs a small fraction of what an A5 weighs. And I have to use it early, because once it gets too cold, I can't fit my heavier gloves in the trigger guard. Granted, the difference between my guns is a bit more extreme than 2 O/U's. But man, as much as I love it, that Model 12 is not my A5. And it proved to me a couple times early on how MUCH it's not my A5. Missing shots no self-respecting gun should miss. So I showed it who's boss & put it away for the season. Since then it's been lights out w/ my Sweet 16 & I'm pretty sure that as long as I continue to shoot it, I'll never miss again. As the old saying goes, beware the man with one gun, as he probably knows how to use it.
 
I know how you feel, but when I go out west I have an armory of guns with me cause i just like to shoot them. Some i shoot well and others not so much. I have found that shots I have time to think about i miss most of the time, the ones that are snap and shoot I do much better. I primarily hunt ruffed grouse and woodcock, so good shooting opportunities need to be taken quickly and that does impact my pheasants hunts, i have to try and wait for the close flushes to get some distance from me before I shoot, even with IC chokes. Often the foot flushes are birds that are flying straight away from us and those I believe are the hardest shots to make as we don't like to cover the bird up. I know when I miss these gimme shots I'm already seeing my dogs retrieve the handsome bird, but instead they are giving me the bird with their eyes. I often shoot spreader loads in the grouse woods, wonder how they would work in the pheasant field for the first shot........my have to try that out.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
Palouse, so I hear you saying you'd never, EVER miss a gimme like that w/ your Beretta. Yeah, that's how I am w/ my old style Browning Sweet 16. Never, EVER!!! :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: Well, actually I could recount 1 experience w/ my old dog Buzz where he practically fell over in disbelief. But the whole thing is too painful & best not dredged up. :ROFLMAO:
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Ha ha! Touche` sir! More accurately, when I do miss with the Beretta I don't blame the gun!

"...only a bad workman blames his tools...." might be appropriate here!
 
OK, now...there's this thing I noticed about all the replies here...see, a few smiles, a few "likes"...then every one of the rationalize-rs international group that read the initial posts, went right back to talking about a second gun.

Er...when you miss a pool shot, do you look at the cue, regardless of how many shots you have just made with it?

just sayin'

:)
 
Kismet said:
Er...when you miss a pool shot, do you look at the cue, regardless of how many shots you have just made with it?

just sayin'

:)
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Yep usually break it to ease the suffering of others from using such a poor cue........:ROFLMAO:
 
Miforester said:
Yep usually break it to ease the suffering of others from using such a poor cue........:ROFLMAO:
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Breaking a pool cue over my knee when it doesn't perform is a lot more satisfying than breaking an Italian steelium shotgun over my knee. That would just hurt...and I know better.
 
You shoot a junk double then you must suffer. Had you had an auto or pump you could have missed again.....then it could be determined that you just suck and maybe you should pick a different hobby. :unsure::)
 
MinnHunter said:
I bought a Franchi Infinity as a backup to my Benelli M2 and I like it so much I use them both. Very similar actions. I have an extended magazine tube on the M2 so I choke and use that anyplace steel is required. I can load (5) 3" rounds. We can still use lead in places so I choke and use the Franchi for lead. (5) rounds of 2 3/4. I end up using them both about equally and shoot them the same.
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Thanks buddy I had to go out and buy an affinity!😆
 
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