Shotgun Musings
When it comes to firearms, your humble correspondent is firmly of the opinion that sufficient is never enough. Aside form my boyhood fascination with guns that I freely admit that I have never grown out of, I want them all – at times I am not quite sure what I want, or indeed why I want it … but I want it NOW! Even today, with nine firearms that can call Free Market Towers home sweet home, I spend hours secretly plotting further purchases, either on the my ‘puter or pouring over the positively Alpine sized pile of gunporn that resides in the downstairs kharzi.
It hasn’t always been thus but since 1978 there hasn’t been a time when I haven’t owned at least one firearm. The actual number has gone up & down over the years, depending upon where I have been living, how much dosh I have been making, availability of shooting & lastly (cue red mist at this point) how many of my lawfully owned processions the State has seen fit to seize in a parliamentary mandated fit of vindictiveness.
At the moment, the Gat-o-meter is at nine & trust me when I say that the needle is going in one direction. However when we quit London & moved back to civilisation, all that was in the cabinet in those days was my Beretta 12-bore.
Now as you can see, she isn’t one of their rather spiffy SO models, or indeed even one of the higher grade 687s, she was & I think, still is just about the cheapest model in the range.
I bought her because at the time (1989 I think) it was the best that I could afford & back in those days £500 for a nearly new half decent shotgun was a lot of money.
Unlike my rifles, the tech spec of shotguns holds little interest for me. She has fixed chokes (what they are I don’t know) & I couldn’t tell you what I barrel lengths are … I just shoot the damn thing … & over the last 18 years, shot her a great deal.
I can tell you without having to resort to going & actually looking in the shotgun safe that there are four marks on the woodwork. I can tell you the circumstances & story of each one. The gold plating on the trigger face has long since worn away & if I look after her & believe you me I do, she wont just see Boy out so much as see his nippers out as well.
When chums start talking about the latest okkie cokey high velocity cartridge, I have tendency to shug my shoulders: clays, I’ll use any old cr*p, but for game I shoot Eley’s excellent VIP 32g No.6s. Nothing else. Again, it just works & I can’t even begin to count the amount of game as well as vermin that I have killed with that combination over the years.
Currently, there are four other shotguns in the shotgun safe: Mrs FM’s Beretta Silver Pigeon 20g, my Franchi semi-auto 20g bunny gun, an AYA .410 single barrel that Boy will have in a couple of years, as well as my father in laws Spanish 12g side by side that will also become Boy’s in due course. After all, every lad should in time have his grandfather’s gun – it doesn’t matter how cheap, old or battered it is- that’s not the point.
I try to shoot everything in that safe on a reasonably regular basis, just to keep everything moving & if nothing else regularly cleaned & oiled. However my default setting is always to reach for the Beretta. It doesn’t matter whether I am on a smart 300 bird driven day or just walking round the farm potting the odd pigeon, she never looks out of place. My only reservation is when out lamping rabbits in– bouncing across a ploughed field at night in Larry Landrover is a sure fire way of destroying woodwork; hence that why I have the synthetically stocked Franchi.
Would I like a half decent side by side box lock ejector – you betcha! I can regularly we seen scanning the racks in the numerous gun shops that I frequent for the right deal. Will I ever buy myself another shotgun … possibly not.
Comments
Spooky coincidences...
Main Gun = bobby basic grade Beretta Silver Pigeon.
Old Piece of Tat but I love it = Elderly Laurona SBS non ejector.
Former bunny splatter = Franchi 20b s/a synthetic (now sold to make space - sniff). Officially bought for the Obergruppenfuhrer (Domestic) when she indicated she might like to start shooting. And the rifle that replaced it is a POS in my hands...
Anyhoo, the Beretta is the equivalent of a Barbour or a legendary credit card - acceptable in any circumstances. Every mark on the wood has a story (usually one involving a lot of swearing), as does the dink in the top rib that I WILL get fixed properly one day.
I just hope that Junior will be able to inherit the things when I get old and dribbly or will we by then be restricted by law to rubber bands and damp towels in the hands of the civilian population? (and an increasingly tooled up Polis and criminal fraternity, or course).
He'll definitely be getting the Brocock pistol as I can't sell it - I think I'll put him in for his S1 ticket at the age of ten, the 'good reason' being 'bloody stupid knee-jerk legislation'. That'll learn 'em.
Posted by: Civvy_Shot | October 17, 2007 1:59 PM
I have a little 686 in 28 bore but that is one of many, when you have had a little longer in the cuds can catch up with me!
You need smileys for this response alone!
Posted by: TimC | October 17, 2007 6:24 PM
I'm sort of like you. I have a favorite (an old Spanish SxS 16ga) and... not much else. The Mrs. has a 20ga semi-auto, and Son&Heir shows little interest in shotgunning (maybe because he's trying to be the world's best competition air pistol shot), but that's not to say he can't shoot shotguns, as you may recall.
I'd like to get the AyA No.4 16ga (and preferably a pair of 'em), and a Browning Sweet 16, but really, that's about it.
Posted by: Kim du Toit | October 17, 2007 10:31 PM
I've owned various shotguns over the years, but I've always come back to my Beretta 686 - 12 bore, I've been fortunate to shoot most species the UK has to offer.
Posted by: ratty | October 17, 2007 11:44 PM