Basic stuff for many here maybe but any reading about SxS shotguns is worthwhile in my book.
Why Side-by-Side Double Barrel Shotguns Survive
A side-by-side double barrel shotgun is much more than a fashion statement. The type has been a practical choice for hunters for more than 180 years.
Why Side-by-Side Double Barrel Shotguns Survive SEE PHOTO GALLERY
The reason side-by-side double barrel shotguns survived into the 21st century? Because they work so well.
September 17, 2019
By John Barsness
Photos by Michael Anschuetz
While some hunters consider the side-by-side double barrel shotguns the epitome of mechanical perfection and style, some wingshooters think it’s a weird antique. In 2001 my wife, Eileen, and I were invited to hunt a South Dakota farm owned by a young man named Cameron Wyly. He had let wild vegetation grow between his cornfields to allow pheasants to nest and hide from predators. We’d met Cam that spring on a snow goose hunt arranged by the state tourism department, and he had invited us to hunt wild pheasants in the fall.
In October we packed up shotguns and a young bird dog named Gideon, the result of a midnight dalliance between a Labrador retriever and a Llewellin setter, and arrived at Cam’s place shortly before the noon opening of pheasant season. It’s a ritual as important to South Dakota as Mardi Gras is to Louisiana. Cam also invited some local friends who’d joined us on the goose hunt, and we caravanned to the first cornfield, a half-mile strip of still-standing stalks, where I uncased my A.H. Fox 12-gauge side-by-side. It is an antique made in 1911.
The South Dakotans all had repeaters, mostly semiautos like those we’d used on the goose hunt, and they looked at the Fox as if it might explode. Finally, Cam asked, “What the heck is that?” When I said a Fox, they looked puzzled.
Why-Double-Barrel-Shotguns-Survive-1 SEE PHOTO GALLERY
Two-trigger side-by-side double barrel shotguns, like John’s 12-gauge Merkel 47E, are particularly useful for upland birds that can get up both near and far because the triggers provide an instant choice of choke.
Eventually, we all positioned ourselves at the ends of the corn, with Eileen, Gideon, and me among the hunters walking toward the blockers at the other end. Soon Gideon put up a rooster in front of me, and it fell to the right-hand, open-choked barrel of the Fox. The next rooster got up farther out, but I squeezed the left trigger and the tighter-choked barrel dropped it cleanly as well. Nearer to the blockers, one rooster flew back over me, and the open barrel worked again.
That filled my daily limit, so I planned to shoot with a camera. When we gathered around the vehicles for the trip to the next field, I started to case the Fox, but the others now wanted to handle my ancient relic. I obliged.
In one sense, the first impression of Cam and his friends was correct. The side-by-side shotgun is a primitive artifact and was the original solution to a problem that plagued firearms during their first several hundred years: the lack of a quick repeat shot. This particularly bothered hunters who wanted to shoot flying birds but couldn’t because early ignition systems were too slow. While a hunter could certainly point a matchlock at a flying bird, by the time the fuse touched off the powder, the bird would be out of range of a choke-free barrel. (Choke didn’t appear until the 1800s.)
Early “self-igniting” systems using flint and steel, such as wheellocks and snaphaunces, went bang somewhat faster than matchlocks but not by much. Wingshooting didn’t become truly practical until what some call “true” flintlocks appeared in the early 1600s. The priming-powder cover and striker steel were combined into a single unit, knocked out of the way by the falling hammer-flint, shortening the delay between trigger pull and ignition. Putting a pair of flintlocks and barrels next to each other in one stock resulted in the first practical two-shot bird guns.
By the late 1700s, side-by-side shotguns were pretty common, and the quick second shot was attractive not only to hunters but also to soldiers. For close combat a side-by-side shotgun was preferred by many, including Col. William Travis, commander of the Texas forces at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
By then, percussion caps had made flintlocks nearly obsolete and also had doomed caplock muzzleloaders by making self-contained cartridges very practical. The first break-action, breech-loading side-by-sides appeared around 1860, followed quickly by “hammerless” actions. Opening the gun cocked the small internal hammers. But cartridges also resulted in actual repeating shotguns, with one barrel and a magazine full of cartridges. Side-by-side shotguns became an option rather than a necessity. And inevitably, they became something of a fashion statement.
Shooters tend to cling to what’s worked even after major technological advancement. A famous example of shotgun stubbornness was George V, king of England from 1910 until his death in 1936, who insisted on outside-hammer doubles. (His father, Edward VII, wasn’t so picky, using both hammer and hammerless guns.)
Cartridges also resulted in the boxlock action, with the firing mechanisms for both barrels contained in one action rather than a separate lock on each side of the shotgun. Developed in the 1870s as an improvement over sidelocks, some 21st-century shotgunners still consider sidelocks superior, though the extra inletting required for two locks weakens the head of the buttstock. Still, the classic cachet of sidelocks means plenty are produced, even though they normally cost more than the equivalent boxlock.
https://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/why-double-barrel-shotguns-survive/367871?fbclid=IwAR0pfe8fWwTrbCxRPA58CICdAeGFwyo56kPrxcE0jsgBPR8GLhn-e00NLGg
Why Side-by-Side Double Barrel Shotguns Survive
A side-by-side double barrel shotgun is much more than a fashion statement. The type has been a practical choice for hunters for more than 180 years.
Why Side-by-Side Double Barrel Shotguns Survive SEE PHOTO GALLERY
The reason side-by-side double barrel shotguns survived into the 21st century? Because they work so well.
September 17, 2019
By John Barsness
Photos by Michael Anschuetz
While some hunters consider the side-by-side double barrel shotguns the epitome of mechanical perfection and style, some wingshooters think it’s a weird antique. In 2001 my wife, Eileen, and I were invited to hunt a South Dakota farm owned by a young man named Cameron Wyly. He had let wild vegetation grow between his cornfields to allow pheasants to nest and hide from predators. We’d met Cam that spring on a snow goose hunt arranged by the state tourism department, and he had invited us to hunt wild pheasants in the fall.
In October we packed up shotguns and a young bird dog named Gideon, the result of a midnight dalliance between a Labrador retriever and a Llewellin setter, and arrived at Cam’s place shortly before the noon opening of pheasant season. It’s a ritual as important to South Dakota as Mardi Gras is to Louisiana. Cam also invited some local friends who’d joined us on the goose hunt, and we caravanned to the first cornfield, a half-mile strip of still-standing stalks, where I uncased my A.H. Fox 12-gauge side-by-side. It is an antique made in 1911.
The South Dakotans all had repeaters, mostly semiautos like those we’d used on the goose hunt, and they looked at the Fox as if it might explode. Finally, Cam asked, “What the heck is that?” When I said a Fox, they looked puzzled.
Why-Double-Barrel-Shotguns-Survive-1 SEE PHOTO GALLERY
Two-trigger side-by-side double barrel shotguns, like John’s 12-gauge Merkel 47E, are particularly useful for upland birds that can get up both near and far because the triggers provide an instant choice of choke.
Eventually, we all positioned ourselves at the ends of the corn, with Eileen, Gideon, and me among the hunters walking toward the blockers at the other end. Soon Gideon put up a rooster in front of me, and it fell to the right-hand, open-choked barrel of the Fox. The next rooster got up farther out, but I squeezed the left trigger and the tighter-choked barrel dropped it cleanly as well. Nearer to the blockers, one rooster flew back over me, and the open barrel worked again.
That filled my daily limit, so I planned to shoot with a camera. When we gathered around the vehicles for the trip to the next field, I started to case the Fox, but the others now wanted to handle my ancient relic. I obliged.
In one sense, the first impression of Cam and his friends was correct. The side-by-side shotgun is a primitive artifact and was the original solution to a problem that plagued firearms during their first several hundred years: the lack of a quick repeat shot. This particularly bothered hunters who wanted to shoot flying birds but couldn’t because early ignition systems were too slow. While a hunter could certainly point a matchlock at a flying bird, by the time the fuse touched off the powder, the bird would be out of range of a choke-free barrel. (Choke didn’t appear until the 1800s.)
Early “self-igniting” systems using flint and steel, such as wheellocks and snaphaunces, went bang somewhat faster than matchlocks but not by much. Wingshooting didn’t become truly practical until what some call “true” flintlocks appeared in the early 1600s. The priming-powder cover and striker steel were combined into a single unit, knocked out of the way by the falling hammer-flint, shortening the delay between trigger pull and ignition. Putting a pair of flintlocks and barrels next to each other in one stock resulted in the first practical two-shot bird guns.
By the late 1700s, side-by-side shotguns were pretty common, and the quick second shot was attractive not only to hunters but also to soldiers. For close combat a side-by-side shotgun was preferred by many, including Col. William Travis, commander of the Texas forces at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
By then, percussion caps had made flintlocks nearly obsolete and also had doomed caplock muzzleloaders by making self-contained cartridges very practical. The first break-action, breech-loading side-by-sides appeared around 1860, followed quickly by “hammerless” actions. Opening the gun cocked the small internal hammers. But cartridges also resulted in actual repeating shotguns, with one barrel and a magazine full of cartridges. Side-by-side shotguns became an option rather than a necessity. And inevitably, they became something of a fashion statement.
Shooters tend to cling to what’s worked even after major technological advancement. A famous example of shotgun stubbornness was George V, king of England from 1910 until his death in 1936, who insisted on outside-hammer doubles. (His father, Edward VII, wasn’t so picky, using both hammer and hammerless guns.)
Cartridges also resulted in the boxlock action, with the firing mechanisms for both barrels contained in one action rather than a separate lock on each side of the shotgun. Developed in the 1870s as an improvement over sidelocks, some 21st-century shotgunners still consider sidelocks superior, though the extra inletting required for two locks weakens the head of the buttstock. Still, the classic cachet of sidelocks means plenty are produced, even though they normally cost more than the equivalent boxlock.
https://www.shootingtimes.com/editorial/why-double-barrel-shotguns-survive/367871?fbclid=IwAR0pfe8fWwTrbCxRPA58CICdAeGFwyo56kPrxcE0jsgBPR8GLhn-e00NLGg
