{"id":202,"date":"2022-08-29T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/?p=202"},"modified":"2024-07-19T19:44:05","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T19:44:05","slug":"the-true-value-of-a-great-hunting-shotgun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/2022\/08\/29\/the-true-value-of-a-great-hunting-shotgun\/","title":{"rendered":"The True Value of a Great Hunting Shotgun"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Hunter<\/p>\n
\"Join<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
A pheasant hunter toting a classic Browning Auto 5 praises his dog after a good retrieve. Brian Grossenbacher<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more \u203a<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I HAVE A YUPPIE FRIEND<\/strong> named Gary whose operating principle when it comes to buying and selling guns is Can I get out of it what I have in it?<\/em> In fact, that\u2019s his mantra for buying and selling pretty much anything, and I\u2019m sure it\u2019s no coincidence that Gary has done much better for himself than I have.<\/p>\n

But my operating principle is more fun. I assume I\u2019m going to lose money on any gun I sell or trade, and I chalk it up to the rent I pay for the pleasure of owning it. This way, I can try a gun I\u2019m curious about or get the oddball guns that no one else wants without factoring in their resale value. I suppose if I saw a lifetime accounting of all the money I\u2019ve lost buying, selling, and trading guns, it would probably add up to, well, a lot more guns. But that\u2019s OK. I don\u2019t keep very good records.<\/p>\n

My constant gun churn also means that more than once I\u2019ve spotted an intriguing used gun, talked myself into buying it, then realized it was once mine before sheepishly setting it back in the rack. Still, by renting to own so many, I\u2019ve been able to shoot a ton of different guns, figure out what I like and don\u2019t like, and make some model-specific memories. Here are a few that jump to mind.<\/p>\n

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\"An<\/a>
Learn how to get the all-new Field & Stream journal!<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Master-Maker<\/h2>\n

There is no gun I have wanted to like more than the American-made Ruger Red Label. I\u2019ve owned four. The two 12s and the 20 I had were overweight and clunky, and I don\u2019t miss them. The 28 was the keeper I didn\u2019t keep. Built on a scaled frame, it was trim and light at 5\u00be pounds. It had 28-inch barrels, which was unusual for a small-bore back then, but I quickly realized it had just the right amount of weight out front.<\/p>\n

When you brought that 28 to your shoulder, it was as though it wanted to point and shoot itself, and it seemed to on a bobwhite cutting through a gap in a southern Iowa Osage orange hedgerow. The bird didn\u2019t hold for the dogs and caught us by surprise. It was all the way through the gap and out of sight when I pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n

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I assume I\u2019m going to lose money on any gun I sell or trade, and I chalk it up to the rent I pay for the pleasure of owning it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

There was a long, silent pause, then a single feather floated back into view. The dogs found the bird, very dead, not far away, and the friend I was hunting with looked at me wide-eyed. \u201cHow did you do that?\u201d he asked. For the rest of the day, he called me \u201cMaster of the 28-Gauge,\u201d and I\u2019ve got to say that felt pretty good.<\/p>\n

Like so many Red Labels, the 28 had a horrible wood-to-metal fit, with proud metal around the tang and gaps through which you could see springs and daylight. It bothered me more than the gun\u2019s shootability pleased me, and off it went. But without it and that bobwhite, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d be master of anything.<\/p>\n

Goodbye and Good Luck<\/h2>\n

Someone is going to get a deal on a 16-gauge Model 12 Winchester. It\u2019s still in my cabinet, but it\u2019s a dead gun walking. I\u2019m done with it. I want to be a classic upland pump person, but I\u2019m just not. I\u2019ve learned that lesson for good with this gun, because I can\u2019t imagine a better wide-open-spaces upland pump. It weighs 6\u00bd pounds with a plain, 28-inch Modified-choke barrel. It is beyond slick, in the way of a well-used Model 12. It\u2019s a year older than I am and better preserved. It\u2019s classy. Unlike a lot of Model 12s, it\u2019s not overly muzzle-light. It shoots straight and hits targets hard. There is no better example of the 16-gauge that \u201ccarries like a 20 and hits like a 12.\u201d<\/p>\n

I shot Zeke\u2019s first pheasant with this gun, too, over an adorable Is this what I\u2019m supposed to do?<\/em> puppy point that\u2019s as sweet as ever in my mind\u2019s eye. Despite all that, I can\u2019t get comfortable cycling a pump when I\u2019m bird hunting, even though I shoot pumps just fine in the duck blind. So the 16 sits in the back of the safe while I hunt with break actions, and I\u2019ll part with it sometime soon in a clear case of It\u2019s not you, it\u2019s me.<\/em> I hope it finds the owner it deserves.<\/p>\n

The Witch\u2019s Wand<\/h2>\n

<\/a>For a brief time, I had a Stevens 411, a Russian-made side-by-side with very little to recommend it except that it didn\u2019t cost much. Someone who clearly hadn\u2019t done much hunting had designed the engraving pattern: On the right side plate was a jowly English setter, crouched in an old-school, tail-down point on a pond bank with a mallard flushing from tall phragmites. It was ridiculous. Who walks up mallards with a setter? The scene was as unrealistic to me as the pheasant flying over a snowcapped mountain engraved on my long-gone SKB 500.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t keep the 411 for long and had about forgotten it until one afternoon when I was carrying yet another gun, following my English setter, Ike, along the bank of a public marsh where I often found pheasants. Ike, a square-headed, tricolor setter, slowed to a low creep in the thick cover on the water\u2019s edge, which had\u2014wait for it\u2014a tall stand of phragmites growing near the bank. I stepped in behind him, thinking he\u2019d found a marsh rooster. Instead, a mallard flushed, and, having loaded up with tungsten matrix just in case, I folded it. It wasn\u2019t until I looked at the duck floating belly up on the water that it registered with me that whoever had engraved the Stevens 411 didn\u2019t know anything about hunting, but was evidently a witch, because I had stepped into the scene on the 411\u2019s side plate.<\/p>\n

I have long since paid the rent on the 411, but that Twilight Zone<\/em> moment lives on, rent-free, inside my head.<\/p>\n

This story originally ran in the Limits Issue<\/a> of <\/em>Field & Stream. Read more F&S+<\/a> stories.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post The True Value of a Great Hunting Shotgun<\/a> appeared first on Field & Stream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pheasant hunter toting a classic Browning Auto 5 praises his dog after a good retrieve. Brian Grossenbacher We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more \u203a I HAVE A YUPPIE FRIEND named Gary whose operating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/devserv.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}