anybody like doubles?

[kcub]

I recently bought a CSM model 21 20 gauge.

Took it quail hunting and just couldn't miss.  I heart it dearly.  It supplants the model 21 my dad should have left me but instead gave to some obscure friend's daughter for no special reason decades ago.

[Richard S]

I recently bought a CSM model 21 20 gauge.

Took it quail hunting and just couldn't miss.  I heart it dearly.  It supplants the model 21 my dad should have left me but instead gave to some obscure friend's daughter for no special reason decades ago.

That is one fine shotgun you have there!

I think a side-by-side 20-guage is my favorite shotgun. The best wing shot I ever made was accomplished with one -- an old engraved Stevens SxS 20-guage double. It was back around 1980 and I was hunting migratory doves with the  retriever I owned at the time, a young but very talented Vizsla bitch, down on the James River in Goochland County, Virginia. We were on the north bank of the river looking upland when a pair of doves came straight at us, high and fast. The dog was sitting on her haunches just to my right. Somehow, I managed to lead the pair exactly right and they fell about half a second apart literally at the dog's feet. She looked at the birds, which were both cleanly killed and not moving, looked up at me, looked back at the birds, and finally looked up at me again as if to say, "What am I supposed to do now?"

And speaking of CSM Model 21s, take a look at this custom engraved beauty:

http://www.gunsinternational.com/WINCHESTER-Model-21-CSM-CUSTON-ENGRAVED.cfm?gun_id=100087951

[kjtrains]

I recently bought a CSM model 21 20 gauge.

Took it quail hunting and just couldn't miss.  I heart it dearly.  It supplants the model 21 my dad should have left me but instead gave to some obscure friend's daughter for no special reason decades ago.

One excellent shotgun, indeed.  My story is very similar, as I was looking forward someday to getting my Dad's double barrel
Fox 16 guage.  Lo and behold, went over to visit Mom and Dad one day and Dad says he just sold his Fox shotgun.

I was devastated, to say the least.  Some guy was going around stopping at each and every house wanting to know if they had any old stuff for sale.  He offered Dad $400 and, of course, the gun was sold.  This was many years ago as well.

Now, I haven't gotten one to fill its spot yet, so to speak, but maybe.............. one day.

[kcub]

Well CSM is remaking the Fox as well, though like the 21, you'll pay through the nose for one.

http://www.connecticutshotgun.com/ahfox1.html

My 21 is blued and engraved very much like this picture.

[kjtrains]

kcub.  Thanks for the link to the Fox.  I had no idea they were now that expensive.  $WOW!

[yankee2500]

Makes the Barrett seem like a real steal.

John

[kjtrains]

The Fox now goes to the backburner!    

[theirishguard]

I once had a english double rifle... Watson Bros., London .450 nitro #2. made in 1913  Tom

[tracker]

The .450 is definitely Savanna material. Did you ever fire it?

[Richard S]

I once had a english double rifle... Watson Bros., London .450 nitro #2. made in 1913  Tom

Tom:

That "monster" cartridge was legendary among professional hunters leading African safaris back in the late-19th and early-20th Centuries. To have owned a double express rifle chambered for it must have been a source of great pride.

I believe the original .450 Nitro was one of the cartridges favored by Frederick Courteney Selous, African hunting buddy of President Theodore Roosevelt. Selous was the inspiration for H. R. Haggard's Allan Quatermain novels. Those novels, in turn, inspired the Indiana Jones series. And  Quatermain returned to popular culture in recent years as the main character played by Sean Connery in the movie,  League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

All back to the .450 Nitro . . . .  

[yankee2500]

Richard,
   Very interesting info, its great to get on here and learn new things.

John

[kjtrains]

The .450 Rigby rimmed 3 1/4" Nitro Express; very potent!

[yankee2500]

kj, Maybe you can have a pistol made in that caliber.

John

[kjtrains]

I'll stick with the rifle!    

[kcub]

I used to have a Westley Richards droplock .470 and did some African hunting.

I met an interesting former professional hunter Mike Hissey who had the distinction of killing a wounded leopard with a knife.

The leopard let Hissey and the client go by and jumped on the tracker.  Hissey couldn't shoot for fear of killing the tracker so he dropped his gun, pulled his knife, and dove in.