Be very careful Mills your treading on a slippery slope:)

I still think it's good to have a theme when collecting, it could be one of a thousand themes but collect what floats your boat. I have a bunch of friends who love vintage side by sides but we rarely run up against each other. We have a Ithaca guy, a condition guy, a 32" small bore guy, a one in every gauge Parker guy, a fixer up guy, a new one every week guy, a Sterlingworth guy, etc. I love my big waterfowl guns and they make me smile everytime I take them off the rack and swing on an imaginary duck.
I don't try to understand rifle guys, to me they hold little interest but I am 100% sure they get the same high from handling their favorite rifle.

I grew up hunting quail, dove, crows and rabbits. Quail hunting will always be special and I will always have a few quail guns. But the long barrels work on dove and crows so I need a few of them as well. Themes are difficult when you have multiple likes!!

One 7 X 57 will handle anything in North America.

So no problem Reggie your theme is quail, doves crows and rabbits. Just like waterfowl guns, little early season ducks (teal), mid season ducks Gadwalls and Widgeon and late season Mallards and Blacks----let's not forget Geese. Leaves me plenty of room!!!

But three will do it better. Mine are a pre 64 M70 carbine a custom 7x57 Improved and another custom in 275 Rigby.

I can hunt anything that walks the earth with a rifle lol

In Sweden only 6 guns, sheesh, I'd have trouble once I hit 6 gun safes.

I live hundreds of miles from Craig Larter, but I am well acquainted with all the collectors he mentions.

New guy digging up old threads again... :D

I just read through this, very interesting discussion as I just started getting into SxS's about 8 years ago, or about the time I turned 50.....

The interest in SxS's seems to be an ebb and flow sort of thing, although I do think those ebbs and flows are getting smaller as time passes.

A couple of reasons for this, IMHO... In my home state, hunting is still very popular, but most of the hunting today is Deer, Turkeys, and waterfowl. Hunting for small game like rabbits, squirrel is down, and upland bird hunting outside of preserves, seems to be dissapearing, unless you are able to own your own land and manage for the birds. For turkey and waterfowl hunting, the old SxS is a long way from the shotgun of choice, because for waterfowl, you have to use steel/nontoxic shot, and for Turkeys, everyone is wanting to use 3.5" high velocity shells, with TSS being the rage now. For some reason, these guys think you can't kill a turkey with #6 pheasant load....

I will say, and do hope that many of todays younger hunters get to a stage in their life, where using guns like this becomes desireable to them. I bough my son a 16ga Lefever Nitro when he graduated his Nuke Trainging with the Navy, to sort of introduce him to SxS's.

In the last 6 weeks, I have bought my first 2 Parkers, at prices I didn't think I would ever buy a nice Parker for. I had been looking for a long time, and just never saw a gun I couldn't live without for a price I felt comfortable with.

First was a very clean Parker Trojan, that I had been watching on GB for $699. Late one Saturday night after a few patio cocktails with my wife, it was getting down to end of Auction and still no bids, so I bid $700 just for kicks. Went to bed and next morning was surprised to see I had got it for that price. It's a very nice gun, although pretty heavy, and I plan to use it on some duck hunts, and shooting trap.

Getting that Trojan only made my desire to pick up a VH or nicer even more. Ran across a nice VH12ga on GI, that the guy originally had been asking $1800 for, then he dropped to $1500, and I offered him $1400 and he accepted. Will I lose money on this gun? I don't know, and don't really worry bout it that much, as I intend for it to be my primary upland gun, and have no intention to ever sell it. Some day, my son will get this one.

I am not really a collector like many of you, I am just fascinated by these old guns and wanted to own at least one each of the American made SxS's. I don't have a real Lefever or Win21 right now, and may never own those unless prices on 21's come down, or I find just the right lefever for me.

I joined PGCA because I love the fact that with Parker guns there is a group of people out there that are keeping the history of them alive, and hopefully future generations will learn to enjoy these guns as much as we have.

Ordered the Letter for my VH yesterday, and can't wait to get it.:cheers:

guns
 

I said I would stop at 50. 100. and now 150, I just bought three yesterday, someone asked why do you need so many guns, I always answer need and want have no correlation want always wins.

Ron Moore