Grouse guns
 

The opener is less than a month away and I'll be able to leave for the Upper Peninsula a week or so early this year giving me 5-6 weeks of hunting. This year I'll have two companions Ike who will be 2 and Duke who will see his first birthday in the U.P.
The gun selection begins. There will be only one 12 but it's the small bore choices that make these decisions both fun and thought provoking. Changing conditions dictate different guns as in leaves vs no leaves, warmer weather vs colder weather ect. Decisions, decisions, decisions:rotf:

Will be going into bird season with a greatly expanded small bore Arsenal. Hope to get them all out

Ha! Those are the tough decisions we all wish we had my friend.

Among the most promising is a 1 frame 16 with 26 inch original barrels that handles like a wand

Instead of counting sheep to get to sleep at night, I scheme on which gun to use for the upcoming hunts -- dove, grouse, woodcock, quail, ducks, etc. I hope I never cease to be optimistic for the future at this time of year. I think I'll not check the news any more, and just check the weather. On second thought, I'll pass on checking the weather, too.

That would keep me up

The 16's will be an A grade Fox 26 inch, Purdy with 28 inch barrels this is more for the later season as it's choked IC/F and a GHE 16. Gunner's Gun heads up the 20's but that's as far as I've thought it out:)

An excellent goal Mills:bowdown:

My son will be coming up this year with his 1 year old GSP, my DDH Milo left us this spring. My arsenal this year for my son and I will be a VHE skeet 16, and a Trojan 16 for my son. A GH 0 frame Damascus 16, a PH 1 frame 32” 16, and a VHE 20 for me. I may also bring up a PH 12 that weighs just over 6 1/2 lbs with its 26” barrels. My mind is still on walleye and perch on Lake Erie, but I am starting to daydream...

One of my favorite topics. A Parker that I can envision enriching October is one of my greatest weaknesses! As Rich has mentioned many times before “ the next one is the best one”, isn’t lost on me. I can do some serious mental gymnastics and become very creative with financial determinations if a Parker starts talking grouse to me. Should it be close to fitting me, I am toast! If I did not already have at least 3 go to Parker Bros and Parker backups for each it would be a serious void and necessary emergency steps would be required!

I know I have a problem, but this grouse gun topic is a daily concern and makes me think of one’s I have walked away from or couldn’t buy still haunt me. The AH 16 that gave me night sweats, it has a very good home with someone that appreciates it. “Rita” a no excuses Sexy D with kickers. She is well owned and cared for also. The 00 frame 28ga that after a lengthy dissertation on the vast differences between the 00 frame and 0 frame with the Chairman dead ended with her questioning how many Parker 28 ga guns do you have? Not as many as Dean wasn’t the correct response. I hunt grouse alone so I really do need that 16 hammer gun!

I think this year will be dominated by 20ga. guns. 2 will go for sure and a 28ga has to go also just because. The 16ga guns will just have to wait their turn come November and ditch parrots.

C.O.B.,
First, I’m envious that you will be spending 5 weeks “Up North”!! That alone is a treasure. Oh...then the decision on the guns!! I’ll be taking my A Grd. 16 Fox 2 barrel set for most of my Grouse/Woodcock trips this year. With two barrels/choke configurations is a good all around choice. Excited as this is Rosey’s first year in the woods and the excitement that comes w/a new pup!

Gary I woke up in the recliner at 2:45 am went to the bathroom then to bed. I laid there thinking what 20 gauges would make the trip to the U.P. I was still awake at 3:30:eek:

OK, I want to be sure I'm clear. I said I scheme for which gun to use for which season to help get me to sleep. I never said this strategy worked!:rotf:

Hey, if ya gotta stay awake, ya might as well be productive.

BTW, I've just about settled on what guns to take to MN for grouse and woodcock: my Dickson 28 bore (it's gone with me for 31 years), and my Parker DH 16 (this will be its 2nd season with me in MN). Both have very similar stock configurations and fit me well, and both have the straight/splinter/two trigger features I like best. I may (fingers crossed) have my AH 16 back and ready to go also.

Now, as for the dove opener, I'm still sleepless about this decision.:banghead:

Heff I have no idea how you can manage a 32 inch gun in the grouse coverts my max is 28 and sometimes that's more barrel length than I care for.

The only hunting I can manage with a hammer gun are quail. I've tried it always alone and just can't manage it comfortably. For those that do my hats off to you. Brett I think your next 28 should be a hammer gun,:)

Gary the Dickson sounds like a dream gun. I don't hunt doves so I can't help you there but if I did a grade 1 32inch 16ga hammer gun would be a top pick for me.

28 and 26 are the lengths I shoot for quail and woodcock. There is talk of grouse hunting in the Southern Appalachians too, so we'll see. Lost count of the new ones, but here are a few of them.

Mills if you have lost count of the new ones then your on the right track my friend:bowdown: I haven't bought a shotgun in quite a while. I'd like a 410 hammer gun preferably with 30 inch barrels and an open choked 20 hammer gun as my Boss is pretty tightly choked. I am however working on yet another rifle on a single shot Winchester High Wall action. I'll be picking out the stock blank today.

It's an easier decision for me. I have two GHs, a 12 and a 20 both with 26" barrels, and each will get time afield. I'll bring along my old Browning lightning 20 ga which I just can't make myself leave home. The Parkers that I think about at night are the ones I don't have...yet. What keeps me awake is the scheming on how to get them.

I am not buying any more right now and enjoying the new ones. I am thinking about getting some Spanish guns next. AyA and Arrieta 28 and 410s maybe. Also want to add to the rifle collection which is basically one right now.

A friend of mine just bought a Parker hammer gun -- his first. We shot some black powder loads out of it on the skeet field. It was a lot of fun. We got to talking about hunting with a hammer gun. I assume you carry them with hammer's uncocked and when a bird flushes you cock and shoot one barrel at a time. Is that right? Or is it possible to cock bother barrels as you bring up the gun?

If the terrain permits, I prefer hammers cocked with the action open. Fast shots seem easier that way.

I'm sure it takes a lot of practice.

I witnessed this only once. New Years Shoot in NH years ago. Austin Hogan did this with his hammer gun. Skeet station eight. Called for a double, low house first and overhead from high house. Hammer gun uncocked, mounted low gun. Called pull, cocked both hammers and he smashed them both.

This is the way I hunt a hammer gun too. It’s by far the safest way to hunt with a hammer gun.





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I’ll have to check the mainspring tension on the locks of the gun he was shooting that day. As I recall it was the 2-frame Grade 0 twelve gauge with the Vulcan Steel barrels.
Austin left that gun to the PGCA and dubbed it the “Editors Gun” and I will pass it along to the next editor of Parker Pages. It is a really nice shooting gun.

I have never been able to cock my hammers on the rise of a flushing bird or clay in time to get off a decent shot... hence my reasoning in having both hammers cocked and the action open while hunting. I think it’s a bit unsafe to be quickly trying to cock hammers against stubborn mainsprings.... What happens when you mess up ? And all that unnecessary cocking and releasing the hammers again and again on barrels remaining unfired is, in my mind, just asking for a slip up.





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C.O.B.

I have attended a series of your lectures on Acquisition & Justification of Double guns. I know you could easily work it out:rotf:

Because the Chairman keeps plenty of birds for the Boys, and finding they prefer you to kill one with regularity I can see a hammer gun getting some practice. As for a hammer 28ga, and the fact that I am not allergic to upgrades that’s a phone call to another Uncle, a bit of pleading and hand wringing, but has been done before.

Why must you put these thoughts in my head:cuss:

i have had a couple of upland hammer guns that i could cock both hammers as i raised the gun, i hunteud grouse and woodcock for years with that 30" Wm Moore & Grey i had listed here some time ago.

i will admit to having some trouble cocking both on my Parker 10, that one has very strong springs

I gave the method of open gun and hammers cocked a go a couple of times but mostly just lost the shells that were in the gun:shock:

Austin Hogan that New Years Day at Major Waldron's in New Hampshire with his hammer gun.

Well, that didn't work...
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Probably a really dumb question but those of you who carry gun closed and hammers down, how do you cock both barrels at the same time? You must have a really long thumb -- or do you somehow reach back with the other hand, kind of like they do with a six gun on a fast draw in spaghetti westerns?

i carry it with my thumb across the top of the action, web of the hand against the frame, barrels up - i can pull both hammers back as I rotate the gun into position

When I hunt with a hammer gun I cheat. It has a safety.

That is cheating:rotf:

I know of only one Parker hammer gun with a safety. It is in the PGCA Collection and can be displayed at any official PGCA event.





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Dean is the safety original to the gun? I would assume so but I've never heard of one but as the saying goes never say never. I would also assume this was a special order request.

I don’t remember if it was original to the gun.

I’ll post a picture or two tonight.

Someone else may know the history of how it came to be. Something in my memory tells me it was experimental and may have been created at PB in Meriden - though I may very well be wrong.





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God willing, I will start the grouse season on blue grouse in Northern Nevada in a couple weeks. The gun will be a choke-tube Winchester M 21, with 28" bbls. The following month will be ruffs in Idaho, where the go to gun will be a 20 gauge Trojan.

Okay, I found a better picture of Austin that day...


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Decisions? What decisions? Who's losing sleep. We buy guns in the same way we buy the right screwdrivers or other tools for the job. Grouse SKB o/u or LC Featherweight, both 20 ga. Parker16 0 frame waits for birds over decoys; hammers slow me a speck on grouse.

“If you don’t have any trouble deciding what guns to take on a hunting trip you don’t own enough guns.” — Anonymous

Exactly! there are a few to choose from. I tend to take what I didn't take last year for the most part. Gunner's Gun is a staple it goes everywhere:)

Rich: I am in the same quandary but it's duck guns. I have made my choices for 2019 well in advance of the season. From a potential list of 25 I am down to the final 5. Some are virgins I haven't taken game with others are old friends. CH 10ga 34", Fox C-HE 12ga 30, Parker DHE 12ga #3 frame, Parker BH 12ga 30" #2 frame, Parker DHE 20ga 30" California duck gun.
Good luck take some nubies and a few old friends. Life is good if you can hunt with more than 1 gun.