I have a lovely old Husqvarna SxS 12-gauge that I've owned for many years; nearly sold it a couple times, but I got it so cheaply and I like looking at it and playing with it so much that it's still here. Nice walnut, lots of honest blue wear but no rust, bank vault lock-up, double triggers, steel butt plate, straight grip...this thing defines "Nice Old Gun" to me.
When I say "no rust" I should qualify that with "now"; I got it at a garage sale back when such things were easily and legally done, and it had a fair bit of rust at both muzzles due to improper storage. I cut off both barrels at about 22 inches and screwed an old set of open sights to the rib, creating a poor man's double rifle that is an absolute blast to shoot...literally and figuratively. It groups 4 Challengers, two out of each side, into about 3 - 3.5 inches at 40 yards, slightly left of POA and a wee bit high, with Truballs shooting very close to the same as well. It's taken one bear and one deer during my ownership of it, at ranges that allowed for easy and effective Kentucky windage in the case of the deer, and point-blank for the bear. I used Challenger slugs for those, but it's also shot several hundred rounds of whatever cheap slugs I could lay my hands on for just plain fun.
The two barrels never cross; the left shoots on the left, the right shoots on the right, and the disparity increases with increasing range. This has always bugged me a wee bit, and I always figured I would try to do something about it somdeday. Time passed.
A few years back I was reading a series of threads on the Accurate Reloading website which detailed a big brouhaha centered around a bunch of SxS double rifles made by Sabatti. They were, by double rifle standards, very inexpensive, and one of the reasons for this was because they were regulated at the factory by the simple expedient of grinding tiny amounts of metal off portions of the inner edge of the muzzle, causing escaping gases to push the bullet over the other way a bit. I always toyed with the idea of trying this myself on a double shotgun, but...more time passed.
Now retired, I went into the basement yesterday...and a couple hours later I found my Dremel in my hand and a shiny spot on the edge of my gun's left muzzle.
It was a tiny amount of grinding, barely visible unless you were looking for it...just like those Sabattis. It was dark outside; I had to wait until today to try it out. I felt the same way you do when you shoot an animal, can't immediately find it, and need to wait till the next day to resume the search...i.e. really, really anxious...
Just came in from shooting up a bunch of assorted slugs. Groups sizes vary from brand to brand, as they always did...but the separation between the left and right barrels at 40 yards is unquestionably reduced, so much so that I need to check the target after each shot to be able to distinguish which one came from which barrel. Had no Challengers, but shot a bunch of Truballs and got some encouraging results.
No pics of today's shooting, but here's an old one of the gun shooting a couple of groups with likely a couple different loads; target stickers fell off before the pics were taken. I'll explore this DIY blasphemy a bit further and maybe post some pics.
Who knows? If it works out, I may take the next step to damnation and screw on a piece of pic rail and mount an optic!
When I say "no rust" I should qualify that with "now"; I got it at a garage sale back when such things were easily and legally done, and it had a fair bit of rust at both muzzles due to improper storage. I cut off both barrels at about 22 inches and screwed an old set of open sights to the rib, creating a poor man's double rifle that is an absolute blast to shoot...literally and figuratively. It groups 4 Challengers, two out of each side, into about 3 - 3.5 inches at 40 yards, slightly left of POA and a wee bit high, with Truballs shooting very close to the same as well. It's taken one bear and one deer during my ownership of it, at ranges that allowed for easy and effective Kentucky windage in the case of the deer, and point-blank for the bear. I used Challenger slugs for those, but it's also shot several hundred rounds of whatever cheap slugs I could lay my hands on for just plain fun.
The two barrels never cross; the left shoots on the left, the right shoots on the right, and the disparity increases with increasing range. This has always bugged me a wee bit, and I always figured I would try to do something about it somdeday. Time passed.
A few years back I was reading a series of threads on the Accurate Reloading website which detailed a big brouhaha centered around a bunch of SxS double rifles made by Sabatti. They were, by double rifle standards, very inexpensive, and one of the reasons for this was because they were regulated at the factory by the simple expedient of grinding tiny amounts of metal off portions of the inner edge of the muzzle, causing escaping gases to push the bullet over the other way a bit. I always toyed with the idea of trying this myself on a double shotgun, but...more time passed.
Now retired, I went into the basement yesterday...and a couple hours later I found my Dremel in my hand and a shiny spot on the edge of my gun's left muzzle.
It was a tiny amount of grinding, barely visible unless you were looking for it...just like those Sabattis. It was dark outside; I had to wait until today to try it out. I felt the same way you do when you shoot an animal, can't immediately find it, and need to wait till the next day to resume the search...i.e. really, really anxious...Just came in from shooting up a bunch of assorted slugs. Groups sizes vary from brand to brand, as they always did...but the separation between the left and right barrels at 40 yards is unquestionably reduced, so much so that I need to check the target after each shot to be able to distinguish which one came from which barrel. Had no Challengers, but shot a bunch of Truballs and got some encouraging results.
No pics of today's shooting, but here's an old one of the gun shooting a couple of groups with likely a couple different loads; target stickers fell off before the pics were taken. I'll explore this DIY blasphemy a bit further and maybe post some pics.
Who knows? If it works out, I may take the next step to damnation and screw on a piece of pic rail and mount an optic! 
