Flues 20

[Steve McCarty]

No fleas on a Flues, but for my money, I'd spring for a Fox Sterlingworth. I think that a similar conditioned Sterlingworth would cost about $500 more or than a like Flues though.

I like early 20th Century doubles and have a Baker, Ithaca, Fox and an ancient Spanish double.

All of those guns are working hunting guns and well made.

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Steve McCarty

No fleas on a Flues, but for my money, I'd spring for a Fox Sterlingworth. I think that a similar conditioned Sterlingworth would cost about $500 more or than a like Flues though.

I like early 20th Century doubles and have a Baker, Ithaca, Fox and an ancient Spanish double.

All of those guns are working hunting guns and well made.

Thanks

but Foxes I got and have had several others through the years, just still thinking about the Flues as an oddity, never had one, NIDs but no Flues.

and if you find a solid 20 bore sterlingworth for 500 more than this Ithaca grab it and run before the seller sobers up

[Steve McCarty]

LOL

I paid a grand for my Fox Sterlingworth 13 years ago. It came with the original leg-0-muffin case and the letter. The gun is in wonderful condition. The sellor was a sporting good store and he told me it was a steal. He was right.

I think having a Flues would make a great addition to a collection of like guns. They have become important guns of the era. I recall passing one up, cheap and like many wonderful guns that I missed, I am ashamed by the event. (Not to mention the G grade Ithaca for $200 that I passed on several years ago that was in perfect condition. I should have been drunk! I was put off by the damascus...sadly.)

I am having a little trouble shooting too many shotguns. I shoot weekly in our local skeet/trap club and since I have more shotguns than toes and fingers I switch one to another. Not good. But geeze I enjoy shooting these old beasts!

[charlie cleveland]

steve i too enjoy shooting a lot of differant guns...its cost me some game at times like a nice 6 point buck and 2 differant big turkeys...but i never could just get used to shooting just one brand of gun...i would shoot a parker lifter 8 ga today and a stevens 410 tommorrow... it aint the so much of hitting with the old gun for me as is the just getting to shoot it.... charlie

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by charlie cleveland

steve i too enjoy shooting a lot of differant guns...its cost me some game at times like a nice 6 point buck and 2 differant big turkeys...but i never could just get used to shooting just one brand of gun...i would shoot a parker lifter 8 ga today and a stevens 410 tommorrow... it aint the so much of hitting with the old gun for me as is the just getting to shoot it.... charlie

I've lost track of how many shotguns I own, not as many as some people though. Today I'm shooting a Browning Gold Fusion at skeet, a Parker SBT SC at trap, a Remington 870 20 gauge (bran new!) at skeet, a Win Model 12, 12 gauge at trap. For hunting (wish I could do more of it) I'm shooting a Fox Sterlingworth and a Spanish ASTRA double. I own two fine Ithaca 37's one with screw in chokes (a 12) and another modified 16 and have NEVER shot either! Also an Ithaca I grade double...haven't shot it either. I've got four model 12's, two 12's, a 20 and a 16. For chukar hunting I carry a Win Model 59 with the modified barrel (I have two tubes). It's lite and easy to hump over our rocky hills where chukar like to torture you. I'm creeping up on 70 and it is not as easy as it once was.

Oh, I've got an ancient long tang Superposed that I seldom shoot and two Miroku's in 20 and 12 that I haven't shot for years, but I used to a lot. They are a bit dinged up. Hunted from a Dodge Power wagon and the guns got tossed around a bit. Then my Rem model 11 in 20 gauge that I love and that's all I can think of now, but I know I've got a few more. Oh, a Win 1300 with the Win choke, almost never shoot it. Then muzzle loaders, all originals. My dad's old Baker 20, nice little gun.

Switching from gun to gun doesn't do anything for my scores....but frankly I really don't care. I do my best. If I do some more work at Trap with my old Parker I think I can get sorta good....medium old man sorta good and that's good enough for me. I'd like to average 23 with my Parker and if I can do that I'll buy you all a round. I have never hit them all.

[Autumn Daze]

Steve, I'm with ya there. I just can't seem to stay with one gun either. I guess whats the sense of having a bunch of em if ya don't shoot them all. Lately though I have been shooting my new to me Skeet configured 12 gauge VH and the scores show when sticking to one gun. I also have a couple Model 12's a 12 gauge 2 barrel set and a great little 16. I'm kinda half-assed looking for a 20 to go with them. God this disease never let's up....

[Double Lab]

Dave;
You'll get that M12-20 right after I find that solid rib 20, I still think about that sweet little 16
And Steve, don't feel that you are alone. I never shoot the same gun two times in a row. When I shoot a round of 100 clays, I shoot one gun on the first 50 and then another gun on the second 50, most times two different gauges. Every gun has it's own personality and life is really too short to shoot one gun. Is'nt that why so many were made?

[C.O.B.]

I've had the same woman for 20 years but I shoot a different gun every week. When bird season rolls around I rotate those also. You can never have to many guns, but more than one woman will get you in trouble faster than a sloppy gun mount.

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by Dave Suponski

Steve, I'm with ya there. I just can't seem to stay with one gun either. I guess whats the sense of having a bunch of em if ya don't shoot them all. Lately though I have been shooting my new to me Skeet configured 12 gauge VH and the scores show when sticking to one gun. I also have a couple Model 12's a 12 gauge 2 barrel set and a great little 16. I'm kinda half-assed looking for a 20 to go with them. God this disease never let's up....

While I started my gun collection trying to acquire representative US rifles/muskets since 1776, I loved collecting old shotguns. It has to do with my early days shooting with my dad and his dad, days that I'd give anything to relive. While I'm sure no one will believe me, I cannot recall my father missing a single shot! I'm sure he did, but I don't recall any. His dad was no slouch either. My dad and his father hunted constantly during the Depression (Western Kansas). Decades later I'd dig around in my grandfather's basement and pull out boxes of old paper shells. I tried to shoot them. Most either didn't go off, or hanged fire. In those days, (the 1950's), shells cost a $1.35 a box. A case contained 20 boxes. Even at that price we didn't consider shells cheap.
Today skeet loads cost $7 a box and I consider them about the same price as I paid five decades ago. Shotshells have never been cheap.

[Larry the Gun Guy]

There is a 20 gauge Winchester Model 12 marked "TRAP" solid rib at a local gun shop.