Shotguns! Can We Chat?!

[1MoreFord]

OCD cleaning compulsion? ...................................................................................................
Why change the oil in your vehicle? It will run with dirty oil in it!!!

If you don't have an OCD compulsion cleaning your gun then do you change your oil nearly every time you drive your vehicle?

 

[forktender]

If you don't have an OCD compulsion cleaning your gun then do you change your oil nearly every time you drive your vehicle?

Only after 4500 mile trips.

 

[1MoreFord]

Only after 4500 mile trips.

I feel the same way about full disassembly of guns for cleaning. Better have been shot a lot or thru rough conditions.

 

[gnappi]

When my son was 10 I got him a Beretta 391 "youth" which worked pretty good for him. Unfortunately I think they're no longer made and most other shotguns do not work well on a youth's body type unless they're large.

 

[chopsaw]

My first shotgun was a Single shot 20GA sear & Roebuck Ted Williams model, I got it when I was 5 or 6 yrs old, and I still have it.

Yup . J C Higgins , then Ted Williams . I have one too , ( single 20 . Full choke ) . It just says Sears Roebuck on it , but I looked up the number , and it's made by Stevens .

 

[normanaj]

Yup . J C Higgins ,

Not to hijack this thread from it's original intent but I had a JC Higgins "Westerner" bb gun from Sears. Have no idea what ever happened to it.

 

[texomakid]

I had to get some of mine out this morning too . Lol .
I know nothing about that , but would love to own one , and for you it has personal value . That's the best kind .
Love to research this kind of stuff . Here's a link . Looks like it's made by Noble . Model 60 .
First I've heard of Noble .

Westernfield E-X - Gunners Den

Gunner's Den exists to be the internet destination for all things guns. From concealed carry to collecting, we're your source for information.

gunnersden.com

This is so cool. I appreciate you sharing that Chop. I'd love to know what dad paid for it new but my guess is probably less than $100 and in the late 60's he was hustling a full time job with about 3 side ventures just to make ends meet. Money was tight!

Quail hunting was a big part of that time period. Papaw, dad, and uncles hunted a lot. Around Thanksgiving every year they would start hitting the fields. Papaw had a couple of pointers that he trained. Ladybird & Duke. I can remember walking around Southern Oklahoma pastures & woods around the Blue River early in the morning. Wet, cold, dogs working. Sometimes a group of guys, Sometimes just me and papaw. I was probably around 5 yrs old when they started taking me with them? We ate a lot of fried quail (but they fried everything back then.) I was taught to hunt that shot with my tongue while eating quail and spit them out - same with bones eating catfish!

I probably consumed a lead pellet or 2 back then

 

[chopsaw]

I had a JC Higgins "Westerner" bb gun from Sears.

Did it look like this ? That one just says " Sears Roebuck " on it .

 

[normanaj]

Pretty much but I think I remember it having some kind of medallion on the stock and lever was stamped sheet metal.

 

[chopsaw]

That one has plastic stocks , but the rest is stamped metal . Nothin fancy .

 

[forktender]

My Gramp's was one of the US ARMY men that stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. Gramp's drilled taking care of your weapons so the chance of failure to feed/fire, and last were one of the utmost important things a person could do to assure their weapon was ready when need be. He was adamant about cleaning guns after each use, not cleaning your guns is just plain laziness, what does it take? 10 to 15 minutes max.

You would be amazed at how many guys don't know how to break down their weapons.
I clean guns from two buddies that run waterfowl guide services, they shoot these guns 120+ days straight without cleaning them, and they hunt either brackish, or straight up salt water, and hunt grain fields out of layout blinds. They own several Benelli, and Beretta shotguns for themselves and have a few for loaner guns for their clients.
These guns get completely trashed for 120+ straight days and are a nightmare to clean.
After a few failures in the field, I've finally got them to wipe down the exterior with a lightly oiled rag then a bore swab and a few drops of Shooter's Choice FP10 (which is the best gun oil on the planet). Just that alone has really helped extend the life of their guns.

Yup . J C Higgins , then Ted Williams . I have one too , ( single 20 . Full choke ) . It just says Sears Roebuck on it , but I looked up the number , and it's made by Stevens .

Same here, when I got the gun it was a hand me down from my older bruth'a, by the time I got it the extractor/ ejector lip was broken off. My Dad tried to braze on a new lip to the eextractor, but it was unsuccesful. So I had to carry a three piece wooden gun cleaning rod to use as a ramrod. LOL!!!
I got good with my reloading, and on a big group of geese I could get two shots off. I'd hold an extra shell in my mouth, eject the shell and pop the new shell in.
My Dad and his buddies would watch in amazment, laughing their asses off at me.

One of my Dad's old bosses heard about my reloading skills using a broken gun, and had my dad bring me to his fancy Trap and Skeet club to show them off. Atfer shooting half a round of Skeet, they stopped in the middle of the round and proceeded to give me a pristine Sweet 16Ga Saint Louis Browning A5 with the most amazing wood you've ever seen on it. H is boss got up a collection from his shooting club members to buy me a new gun, well one of the members, his name was Mr Jimmy, didn't like the gun they bought me and pulled me away from everyone to trade me for his Sweet 16 Ga that his father bought him many yrs ago, I remember my Dad had a tear in his eye when I asked him if I could trade for Mr Jimmy's Browning. Damn that was 50+ yrs ago!!!

The gun still looks as good as it did when I got it, the wood is a little darker but works flawlessly still. Thanks to my Dad drilling into my head that guns get cleaned after each use.