One reason I prefer a double when shooting Tower birds (will be doing that Sat 17th. at Marion MI), as there can be a lot of action. I open whichever gun I am shooting to reload and look into the tubes as I drop in fresh shells, I don't shoot AA reloads or a repeater for those events. With the excitement of airborne pheasants, 12 or more other shooting stands in the circle zone, plus a possible shooting stand partner, it seems to me a better call to use a breaking action shotgun. If you were shooting a repeater and had a stuck wad (caused by whatever reasons) and then in the "flurry of the event" fired a second, or third shot- possible disaster.
Many years ago I had a hunting partner, a DVM- he had three nice 16 doubles (two Parkers and an Ithaca if memory serves) and loved to bird and duck hunt. This was early in the season for both grouse and ducks (prior to steel shot) and he had been bird hunting with a 16 the day before our duck hunt. We had a private blind on a brushy point on a very good lake, dawn broke, we both had 12 gauge Model 12's- (30" Full) and four big Canadas were heading right towards us- I shot one on my side and saw him fold, and heard a "Bloop"- He was wearing the same Filson hunting coat he wore for birds, and was using Remington green plastic hulls- however, back then Remington apparently used green for both 12 and 16 (unlike Federal with purple for 16 ga.) and the shell fired in the larger chamber, and jammed the bolt shut-I had to remove the barrel from the receiver and it took some time to cut apart the expanded plastic hull, and the wad was stuck halfway up the barrel. So he shot my gun (after we dumped out his hunting coat to remove any other 16 gauge hulls) and I finally got his M12 back to proper function.
I enjoyed the "Old Fart" comments, this experience is NOT the only reason why I shoot ONLY 12 gauge shotguns, but it was a telling one. I have several boxes of Spred-R no. 8 12 loads (not reloads) but have yet to shoot them in any of my 12 bores. Are they prone to having wad problems? Just curious?
