Ah, my preferences are probably the result of a 1950's FIELD AND STREAM, laying on a linoleum-topped table in the neighborhood barber shop. They were filled with Old Mossback lunker bass stories, impossible hunts for moose in deep snow in Canada, and great hunts over hardly-mentioned dogs in the Dakotas. I wasn't 10 years old yet, but I inhaled those stories and drawings--all given to some artistic license--of the sharp-chinned hunter sighting down his sxs 12 bore at a magnificent pheasant (usually losing some feathers in his flight to escape.)
I WANTED desperately to be one of those men, as I sat, waiting for the clip and shaver haircut from Al, the barber, who'd never hunted in his life. Sometimes, we create definitions of a future from completely inaccurate research data gathered as a kid. No one in my family hunted, rarely fished, and vacations were spent at Northern Wisconsin resorts for a week of splashing in a cold lake, or later, swimming out to an oil barrel float raft from the mostly mud shores. I remember leeches--not as bait, but as things to be covered with salt to make them stop feeding on me. (Still creepy.)
But the imprint was there, although my first shotgun was (and still is) an 1933 manufactured 1897 Winchester pump, 30 inch, 12 gauge knuckle-buster at age 17. I wanted a double-barrelled gun, as the guy (all of a 20 year-old mentor) who first took me hunting was using his grandfather's field grade 20 L.C. Smith. It seemed weightless when compared to the long and barrel-heavy '97. He also was a regular shooter and so much more accurate than I that it was laughable. I equated his skill shooting with the equipment he used. I've since learned that's not how it works.
So, with that historical preamble, here's a shot of the three I had a year ago:
An AYA 20 gauge, 26 inch barrel, single trigger, vent rib, improved cylinder and modified gun. Model Matador II, the love of my life and the only shotgun mentioned in my will.
A Stevens 5100 12 gauge, mod and full barrelled, field grade gun, which is so much more than it was intended to be. Really a great tool for longer shots, and those hunts on which I will not be walking a lot (hey, I'm old!) Passing shots on waterfowl are a particular strength, as are wild bird far flushes. Really well-made.
An AYA 12 gauge, 28inch barrel, dual trigger gun made for Sears in 1970. It had the barrels honed out to improved cylinder and modified. (I sold it this year.) Nice gun, and responsible for one of the few doubles I have shot in recent years.
And, as the years pass and the hunt limit is 2 a day, with 6 in possession, I've leaned towards single shots. My currently inventory is 2 Montgomery Wards Hercules singles--a 12 and a 20, both full; a New England Firearms 20, modified; finally, a Winchester Model 370 which I had cut down to 26 inches and threaded for changeable chokes. They are lighter and a lucky double pheasant flush doesn't end the day's hunt.
