A5 Browning 20 Gauge
Benelli 20 gauge Montefeltro
The first quail gun I bought was a 20 gauge Browning A5. I used it to hunt almost everything I went after. I shot a lot of quail and killed my first deer with it. I, probably, killed my first pheasant with it, also. I hunted with it exclusively for the first 25 years I owned it. Then I bought a Benelli 20 gauge Montefeltro but I still took the Browning on most of my hunts for a backup in case, either my gun or someone’s gun that was with me, wouldn’t function.
The Benelli was lighter and worked really well. I used it instead of the Browning for 4 or 5 years until someone broke into my truck and stole the Browning, the Benelli and a Mark X 7×57. Seventeen years after it was stolen I found the Browning at a skeet range near my house. I wrote the story of finding the Browning last October. You can read about it by going to the October archives. I bought another Benelli but I never quit looking for the Browning.
16 Gauge L C Smith
AYA 4/53
I had bought the Browning from a cousin by marriage, Cal Morgan, who was also a good friend. I was with him the first time he hunted with a 16 gauge L C Smith. When he passed away I bought the Smith from his son. It was choked full and full. I had no need for a full and full shotgun. I was griping about the tight chokes to a friend, Mike Goldsmith, and he said, “why don’t you have them opened up.” I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it but I hadn’t.
I took it to a well known gun shop in Kansas to have the chokes opened. I asked for the right barrel to be skeet and the left improved cylinder. They bored the right improved cylinder and the left skeet. Also, they bored them off center. This was the first 16 gauge I had ever hunted with and it amazed me with some of the shots I made.
Some time later I was hunting with another friend, Tony Pulse, when his dog pointed and we kicked a covey of quail up. The birds came up on the other side of him and I couldn’t shoot but I was surprised when he shot 3 times from a Beretta over and under. When I asked him about it he said he always walked into a point with 2 shells in his hand so he could reload fast when he shot both shells in his gun. The Smith didn’t have ejectors only extractors so I started looking for a gun with ejectors.
After doing a lot of research I found a used AYA 4/53 16 gauge that weighed 6 pounds and 2 ounces. It had ejectors and was choked improved cylinder and modified. I thought it was perfect until I hunted with it for a while. Since the debacle with the Smith’s chokes I had met and become friends with a gunsmith, Don Hansen, and I had him open the right barrel to skeet and the left to improved cylinder. He did them right and kept them centered, too. It has made an excellent quail gun but I haven’t mastered Tony Pulse’s quick reload yet.
12 gauge Francotte
12 Gauge Francotte
I shoot skeet often since the Missouri Conservation Department built a trap and skeet range about two miles from my home. I found a 12 gauge Francotte, on Guns International, that I thought was a good buy, so I bought it. It also had full and full chokes. I had my friend, Don Hansen, open them up to skeet 1 and skeet 2. Again he did a great job. I will use this gun for bird hunting and to shoot skeet, also.
When I first started hunting with the LC Smith 16 gauge and I was hunting with English setters, I thought I should be smoking a pipe or dress like the guys did in the 1940’s. When I first started hunting fire power was important. And it was fun to have 5 shells in your gun, in Kansas. But now with the quail down more each year I don’t have the need to kill a huge number of birds. Now shooting a side by side with 2 triggers suits me just fine.