Pump action for doubles

It can be done, particularly if one is proficient with the pump action, but I (strongly) wouldn't recommend it as a way to learn shooting doubles.
 
For skeet and trap, a pump is not the best tool. If having the best tool for skeet and trap shooting is your goal, don't get a pump. If skeet and trap are just an occasional game to hone skills, go for it.
 
I shoot mostly sporting clays with an 870. It is not so bad, the trick is getting a smooth and deliberate pump so you can hit the first and immediately get on the second. I see a lot of people having a hard time with pumps because they are either too excited about the next target and really jerk it or they shortstroke and it doesn't cycle properly.

Just so it's out of the way now: "that's what she said".
 
Uh... no.
Just no.

Even a good semi-auto is a disadvantage for doubles, though not a huge one, though a bad semi-auto is not really practical. If you are serious about trap or about doubles... O/U is the best choice.
Also, if you start with pump, and get pi$$ed off because it's so much more difficult, going to semi or O/U will be harder because you will have developed terrible habits regarding timing that were the result of trying to cope with the disadvantage of the pump.
 
I would say it all depends on what you want out of it... will you win any registered tournaments with a pump? Unlikely, but I am sure it has been done. Will you have fun trying to break clays with a pump-action? I can't see how you wouldn't! If you wife likes a pumper, let her have at it. You may end up buying her another gun in the future, but who doesn't need an excuse for something new? A pump for singles is fine- but when you need two shots it is a handicap no matter how you look at it. If you are only competing with yourself, who really cares? If she wants to get serious- she'll need some coaching and a "proper" clays gun that fits her. Video guy hits clays with a pump, but in a serious tournament dropping just a single clay is a big deal. When it really matters you will see the O/U is the dominant action of choice. If you just want to head to the club Saturday morning and dust some clays, bring whatever you have in the cabinet (unless it is some tacticool shorty barrel) and have at it!
 
Their are a few of us sick bastards out there who shoot skeet with a pump and do just fine thank you very much. Like everything else in this game it all mental prep and subconscious that make it work. One of my favorite comments, usually coming a duck hunter, "I'd forget to work the slide on doubles if I used your gun", my usual response to them is "you go duck hunting with a pump and usually only come home with one duck?". If you wouldn't forget to work the action in a duck blind, why would you forget to do it on a skeet field?
 
cartwheel said:
I would say it all depends on what you want out of it... will you win any registered tournaments with a pump?

You clearly did not shoot in the 60's and 70's to think no registered events were won with a pump
I made the full registered circle with skeet guns starting with the pump and ending with the expensive tube sets. Guess what I shoot for the last 10 years my set of pumps I started with in 65. Having a ball but can kick ass with most o/u shooters still
Problem today is there are very few true pump gun shooters left. Many think they can use them but not from what I see anymore
Very odd time now I will see some old guy step up with a old model 12 usually with a old cutts on the end and I know enough to keep my money in my pocket and sit back , watch and smile
It is only a disadvantage if you have not put enough rounds in to learn how to use it properly which very few do today. How many guys do you know smoking off 10-20,000 rounds a year in a pump gun like we did in ther day NONE My mind has missed more birds for me than the pumps ever did.
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Maritime Storm said:
Their are a few of us sick bastards out there who shoot skeet with a pump and do just fine thank you very much. Like everything else in this game it all mental prep and subconscious that make it work. One of my favorite comments, usually coming a duck hunter, "I'd forget to work the slide on doubles if I used your gun", my usual response to them is "you go duck hunting with a pump and usually only come home with one duck?". If you wouldn't forget to work the action in a duck blind, why would you forget to do it on a skeet field?
Click to expand...

Here is another sick bastard also. :)Went back to my pumps for skeet and trap after I got tired of being a robot with the 32. Use mainly a 870 28ga wingmaster with a skeet barrel no. 9 shot and 7 1/2 shot and a full choke barrel for 16yd trap
Nothing like it especially kicking some 12ga ass :)
Cheers

A 870 will be fine as long as it is fitted for choke tubes or is a two barrel set one for skeet and one trap or full
 
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I use my 870 for skeet right now. I've been missinmg clays because I'm new to the game. Pumping the action is second nature, you just do it.
In fact on my first double I hit my first one and pumped the action open like I had done for the singles. The guys were shouting at me "rack it" haha. I had enough time to close the action aquire and shoot just before it went out of bounds. My first sucessful double. Dumb luck maybe but I went on to miss my doubles because of my lack of experience in leading and follow through, not the time it took to cycle the action.
Also, the reason I'm using my 870 is because I started shooting skeet to improve my hunting skills and the 870 is what I hunt with.

Beyond that its just great fun!
 
This is a really interesting thread for me also, as I'm new to trap shooting and using an older Wingmaster that was threaded for removable chokes.
I can't really afford an over/under yet, so I'm using the gun I have and spending availabe money on ammo and practice.
So to 3macs1, and others with experience, any additional advise on how to use the pump for doubles?
I tried, the results weren't impressive.
Thanks.
 
The only shotgun I own is a cheap pump(maverick 88). Never tried anything but shooting hand thrown clays with a thrower (just bought it, no range membership) but I would play doubles with it in a heartbeat. Even if it's not as good as a o/u, it's just a game - as long as I have fun who cares what my score is.
 
Racking my Nova has become second nature in a hurry, like 3Macs full circle, started with a Wingmaster moved to a double and now I'm back to a pump, Benelli Nova in this case. Here's the kicker for me I miss rarely on doubles, for some reason I'm more apt to miss a single then a target on a double. Everything is a learning curve. For me my nemisis is high 8, with low 2 and low 6 being not far behind. The quickest way to learn to train yourself to rack a pump is to shoot a few rounds of double skeet.
 
I spent a good many years shooting Model 12's and 42's at Skeet & certainly a a good many Trap targets ... 16 yards right back to 27... and doubles.

Personally, I don't find the pump to be difficult at all ... but do acknowledge it is perhaps not quite as fast & smooth on doubles as an O/U.
The action of actually "pumping" does seem to serve however, as a bit of restraint against shooting too fast at the second target, sort of instituting a beneficial element of "timing" into things.

As 3macs1 inferred ... from virtualy the beginnings of Skeet in the 30's right through until the advent of the gas guns like Remington's 58 and 1100 in the late 50's/early 60's, Skeet was pretty much the domain of the Model 12/42 and the Remington 31/870 pump. Probably more Model 12's in use on the Trap fields than any other gun or make through the same period of time. I well remember Brad Dysinger (who usually squaded-up with a then, very young, Susan Nattrass ) "smokin' em" with his Model 12 ... which he shot for all events.

Your wife will no doubt get what she wants anyways (don't women usually ??? ) The 870 Wingmaster Trap sd a very smooth & reliable pump gun. Do encourage her to get some quality coaching
(from someone other than yourself ... husband/wife teaching doesn't usually work out to well !) and some help in ensuring her gun fits properly. I've noticed over the course of many years that women, and I do mean good women shooters, tend to need a higher comb than we normally think ... and shoot better with a somewhat shorter stock than we might recommend. Makes sense in that most women are somewhat smaller in stature than the average guy for whom most guns are stocked ... i.e., someone around 5'-10" to 6'-0" and 170 - 185 lbs, and are certainly built differently through the chest & shoulders.

Lots of practice shooting doubles with the pump certainly helps. I've won 3 "Pumps Only" Sporting Clays shoots at one of our local Clubs ... a good fitting well-balanced gun and lots of familiarity with the old corn-shucker made it a fairly easy task !

.... mark me down as another sick old bastard !
 
I shot two rounds of skeet today with my 870 express. Im a new shooter and some of the more experienced shooters have taken me under their wing if you will and have been giving me some good tips.
My point is that they were giving me "report doubles" which means when they heard my first shot they pressed the button for the second bird. Gives beginners a fighting chance at hitting their doubles. Anyways in the latter half of the game the guy forgot to give me a report double and just hit the button. I hit both clays.

If you are used to your gun then pumping is second nature. If your not then hold the shotgun against your shoulder by pulling on the pump not the grip. When you shoot you will start to cycle the action as soon as the trigger is pulled.
 
Not doing any serious skeet or trap, but the Trius One-Step Target Thrower in my hunt camp sees a lot of action. My old 870 express regularly beats my semi Beretta A400 and my Franchi SxS. But in all fairness, I have had a 5 years head start with it. Practice makes all the difference.
 
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