A man after me own black Mick heart-- I like what our late writer and alpha male Ernest Hemingway did what that phrase- when he was a correspondent in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1940 (aka- a dress rehearsal for Goering's Luftwaffe and the dreaded Stukas) he wired home for more funds, and when the terse reply came back- asking him, the great "Don Ernesto" Hemingway for a detailed accounting- he then replied back "Upstick-Asswise" as apparently his spare with words writing style and the price of a Western Union reply dictated brevity--
I shoot pretty much well-worn lower grade 12 bores, all with double triggers, most have ejectors- ejectors are nice for rapid reloading on a driven bird shoot, but if you reload, and want the empties, then you need to remember to catch them in your hand as you unbreech your gun. My working Parker is a 12 GHE with 28" barrels choked Imp. Cyl. right hand tube and a tight Mod. left hand tube- perhaps your 1/4 and 3/4 chokes, and it is my "go to" pheasant gun--it patterns evenly with any 2 & 3/4" or RST 2 & 1/2" length shell, any shot size- WK stamp on the barrels, No 2 frame size. I also shoot 12 LC Smiths.
I have the new book about Hemingway's guns, he was an avid shotgunner, great live bird (box birds and columbaire) competitor- but very practical and even a bit frugal in his purchase- he almost always bought used guns from A&F or friends in Europe, won a Browning O/U, believe the only two guns he bought new were the same two I would choose if I could only have one Center Fire rifle and one shotgun to cover everything I wanted to kill- his 1903 Springfield G&H custom 30-06 and a 12 gauge Winchester M12 pump 30" full he bought new in 1928 after the success of his WW1 novel "A Farewell To Arms"-- He often said- "A gun is to shoot" and he most certainly proved that in his days afield, here and in Africa and elsewhere.
Your Gough Thomas, a man with I believe an engineering background, once described the American shotgun invention - the pump action repeater-- and being suited to the natural motions of a shooter from recoil and recovery. I have always wanted to shoot one of my 7 Winchester M12's against a Brit with his matched pair of ejector double guns- he can have his four shells and the flunky to reload the emptied gun, I'll take the 3 shot plug out of my "pet" 12 and load it with 4 rounds, one in the chamber and three "in the pipe" and we'll see what's afoot.
2 shells per bird- incoming, flaring, wind factors, is Damn fine shooting. Our late shotgunning Force majeur- T. Nash Bucking ham once wrote, in his great article "The Dove"--quote: "Any day you can cleanly kill a limit of 15 mourning doves in flight with a carton of hulls (read 25 shells), Mister, you have done yourself proud, and you can walk out of the dove field with your head held high"-- He also wrote in that same great article, quote: "When you've blotted out a high incomer and watch him crumple from the shot, hard hit and well centered, you've had about all of the thrills shotgunning can offer a man"--
