SHOTGUNS, AIRGUNS AND BLACK POWDER GUNS

SHOTGUNS

I'd like to find one of the Spanish made .410 double barrel and trigger and exposed hammer shotguns. They were also made in some number in 20 gauge, but the .410 is more useful to me. It is a break open side by side and then you hit another button and it folds in half. Very handy and portable. These were made under several different names from the 40's to the 70's, and I've seen them on various gun auction sites. I need to put out some searches for one of these because they are very handy guns. Very lightweight and I'd like to cut one down to about 20" barrels to make it more handy for taking fishing.

The older I get, the more I enjoy shooting 20 gauge at skeet and trap over 12 gauge. I remember being a young teen and wanting to move up from 20 to 12, and I completely skipped the venerable 16 gauge. Sometime back, I got a 16 gauge from an uncle. It's a bolt action Sears, probably made by Stevens or Savage, and it's a great shooting gun.

But I'd like to try an over/under 16, and also a Browning A5 in sweet 16.

I'm not saying my 12 gauge shooting days are over, because they are not. But there is no denying that my body finds it easier to relax after a day of shooting a couple of hundred rounds or more of 20's versus 12's, and I don't feel it so much the next day.

So I want to give the 16 a try and see how I like it. It might be the perfect in between size for me to use at the gun club for skeet and trap.

The 12 gauge will always be the gun of choice for home defense. Nothing wrong with using a 20  or 16 or even a .410, but that extra umph that a 12 gauge has is what you want if an intruder singular or plural are trying to come into your home.

I recommend smaller gauges to those who have problems with the recoil of the 12 gauge. I myself choose not to shoot a 10 gauge because the recoil is WAY too much, and the same thing applies down the line with other calibers. You're going to do better with a caliber you're comfortable with in almost any sporting or defense situation.

And the past couple of years, I've reached for the 20's on almost all occasions except one. This past spring, while staying at a resort that offered trap shooting, El Fisho Jr and I had to use some Remington 870's in 12 gauge. I must say they were fine shooting guns, but the shell and gun combination left us both with bruised and aching shoulders after the session.

I'll note they were fine shooting guns, though.

BLACKPOWDER GUNS

I've shot, but never owned any black powder weapons. But I'm ready to expand to a few weapons in that area. I'd like a nice, simple percussion rifle like the used one I have my eye on at the LGS. He doesn't sell many black powder weapons, although he does sell a lot of the blackpowder shooting supplies. He has several used percussion rifles in good shape with good bores that appear little used.

The first rifle I want, as I say, is a simple percussion rifle. Something akin to what might have been referred to as a trade rifle  a couple of  hundred years ago.

You can read some good posts about both black powder and air weapons over at Wild Ed's located in my blog roll. You'll have to search back through prior posts but there is some good stuff there.

Next, I'd like to finish out a pre-made Kentucky Rifle kit, since my kin onced used rifles of this sort. I'm sure they more likely used trade rifles too, but as they were part of the Westward Ho movement across the expanding US following the Revolutionary War, they probably used a lot of different types of rifles and smooth bores.

But somewhere along the way, several generations used what are referred to as Kentucky Rifles.

Basically, all I'm competent to do is finish out an already milled and drilled and ready to go sans finishing stock. Sand it and finish it and assemble. That's what I'd like to do. I'll either get a kit with the parts and barrel already blued or have it done somewheres. I'd prefer it to be ready to go except for the finishing.

I'd also like a Walker Colt black powder pistol. There is a cartridge adapter you can buy to shoot black powder cartridges from the Walker Colt and that would be a fun accessory to have.

AIRGUNS

I have a couple of good air guns, and a great Crosman pump pellet/bb pistol, and would like to add a couple of more spring air guns to the stable. I've had my eye on one they sell at Cabela's that comes with a premounted and bore sighted scope and is one of the high power spring air guns that you cock once by cocking the entire barrel.

It shoots at something crazy fast like 1200 fps and there are a whole bunch of different kinds of guns for sale in all price ranges that are powerful like this one.

A friend has one of the Chinese barrel cocking air guns that shoots like that, and I think he got it for something like $25 somewhere. He's had it for a couple of decades and it's going strong.

Airguns are always handy to have around for pest control. I want to trick out my Crosman pistol this year like Wild Ed talked about doing over at his blog a year or so ago. He had some great links over there but I'm too lazy to go look for them now but I will one of these days.

I've wanted one of the Sheridan Silver Streaks for about 40 years now, and I think I might get one soon. I've just never gotten around to getting one. A friend back in 1972 had one and I used to shoot it a lot. I liked it and thought it was a good shooting gun. It's not as powerful with many pumps as the newer single pump high power guns or the pneumatic guns, but it's right up there almost as powerful as they are.

I wish Crosman or Colt would bring back a single action pellet pistol, CO2 for sure, like the old spring cock BB gun Daisy used to make, which resembled a single action Colt. Crosman has for decades made various CO2 versions of S&W K and N frames, and it'd be nice to see Crosman or even someone like Beretta make a nice Single Action pellet pistol.

It would also be cool to see an airgun maker make a Mare's Leg cut down lever action pellet rifle, just for fun and for plinking. There are some really cool, and in some cases pretty powerful replica pellet and bb guns out there and I hope that market keeps expanding.