Bought a Sidelock Shotgun

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stubblejumper

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After a week of moving my mother to her condo, and liquidating her old house and contents, I decided to stop in at Prophet River on my way home. Of course I had to have a look at some firearms, and Clay told me he had a nice 20 gauge AYA Number 2 on consignment for a great price, and he could make the price even more attractive, if I was interested. I really wasn't looking for another shotgun, but the gun was in extremely good condition, and the price was well below the normal asking price for comparable guns, and it fit pretty much perfect. It has the round action ,28" barrels, and is choked IC and Mod. I will have to get used to the double triggers, but I think that it will prove to be a very nice gun for pheasant and upland birds.

Pictures from Prophet River site.

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Well done!! Shoot it and enjoy. I have a couple sidelocks but different vintages....one circa 1900 and the other circa 1920.
 
Great looking gun. Perfect for upland. I shoot a DT gun in the field and with a little practice it's not a difficult transition.
 
Claybuster said:
I shoot a DT gun in the field and with a little practice it's not a difficult transition.
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You say that now. When I switched from 30 years of pump guns to SxS, I spent a bunch of time wondering why the forend wouldn't slide and the front trigger wouldn't fire twice. LOL
 
Always interesting how the instincts kick in when the birds start to fly. When I started shooting doubles I constantly forgot to set the safety to off after closing the gun. My previous gun was no safety just #### the trigger.
 
I put 200 rounds through the gun shooting sporting clays, and I am very pleased. I have never shot as well with any sxs gun, and other than forgetting about the stupid auto safety a few times, and squeezing the same trigger a couple of times, I actually didn't miss a lot more targets than I normally miss with my sporting clays guns.
 
stubblejumper said:
That is exactly how I feel about automatic safeties.
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Auto safeties and double triggers are an adjustment. I've found that if I shoot gun down I can manage more easily. But if I shoot with the gun pre-mounted I'm more likely to forget the auto safety and pull twice on the front trigger.

Does your gun have hand detachable locks? I've found them pretty helpful. If not it's a good idea to have a set of screw drivers that fit properly. I've seen a depressing number of sidelocks with marred plate screws.
 
Claybuster said:
Auto safeties and double triggers are an adjustment. I've found that if I shoot gun down I can manage more easily. But if I shoot with the gun pre-mounted I'm more likely to forget the auto safety and pull twice on the front trigger.

Does your gun have hand detachable locks? I've found them pretty helpful. If not it's a good idea to have a set of screw drivers that fit properly. I've seen a depressing number of sidelocks with marred plate screws.
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As far as I can tell, you do need a screwdriver to remove the side plates. As far as automatic safeties go, I see no use full purpose in them at all. That is one more reason that I like my Brownimg Citori shotguns.
 
stubblejumper said:
As far as I can tell, you do need a screwdriver to remove the side plates. As far as automatic safeties go, I see no use full purpose in them at all. That is one more reason that I like my Brownimg Citori shotguns.
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I don't know if the auto safety can be removed from your AyA. I've just learned to live with mine.

Here's a link to some sidelock ####. Scroll down to see a picture of a gun with a detachable sidelock.

http://www.hallowellco.com/sidelock definition.htm
 
stubblejumper said:
As far as I can tell, you do need a screwdriver to remove the side plates. As far as automatic safeties go, I see no use full purpose in them at all. That is one more reason that I like my Brownimg Citori shotguns.
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Automatic safeties evolved because of the British style of driven shoots, where the gunner is often using a pair of guns with a loader at his elbow. When the gun is passed off to the loader it is automatically put on safe when he thumbs the lever over, so there's no doubt in anybody's mind as to the condition. I've simply gotten used to it; when the gun is brought to my shoulder, I instinctively push the safety forward. An English friend of mine who was used to automatic safeties fumbled when he tried using a gun without one. He couldn't understand why he couldn't push the safety forward when it was already off.
 
9.3mauser said:
Automatic safeties evolved because of the British style of driven shoots, where the gunner is often using a pair of guns with a loader at his elbow. When the gun is passed off to the loader it is automatically put on safe when he thumbs the lever over, so there's no doubt in anybody's mind as to the condition. I've simply gotten used to it; when the gun is brought to my shoulder, I instinctively push the safety forward. An English friend of mine who was used to automatic safeties fumbled when he tried using a gun without one. He couldn't understand why he couldn't push the safety forward when it was already off.
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I carry my sxs and o/u guns broken, whether shooting clays, or while hunting. I don't close the action until I am ready to shoot, and I never use the safety on these guns. An open action is much safer than relying on a safety, and everyone in the party can also see that your gun is safe.
 
My Merkel double rifle has an automatic safety. It scares the #### out of me. Luckily I just continue to practice flicking it off every time I mount the gun so that it doesn't get me killed.

Less likely to happen hunting upland birds though.
 
Shot two rounds of skeet today, and no trigger or safety issues. First round was a 23, second round shooting all doubles at stations 1 through 7 resulted in a 22. I am comfortble enough to hunt with the gun now.
 
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