Stork delivered a new 5lb 10oz baby today

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Andrew Sacco

More details if you like but an honest bird chaser.

20 or 28 ?

[Jerry VanHorn]

They are indeed out there..My 16 hammer is also an "O" frame with the lightening cuts....28"............ I bought a 16 hammer from Jim Hall 20 years ago..long since gone..and I don't recall the frame size..

[Andy]

Originally Posted by CraigThompson

20 or 28 ?

16 Craig

[JAMES HALL]

0 with light cuts

[todd allen]

I picked up a 28" BBLd 16 ga hammer gun years ago. SN# 72105 An "0" frame with lightening cuts, fish tail top lever, and pistol grip stock.
It is a project gun, despite having been apparently used very little. (wood and metal are in fantastic condition) Some clown cold-blued the barrels, and put some kind of shellac or cheap clear coat over the stock wood.
I very carefully removed all of the barrel blue, as well as the incorrect wood finish. Stock dimensions are wrong for me, with 3 1/2" DAH and would need to be bent upward. LOP is perfect for me, @ 14 1/4".
I spoke to Brad Bachelder about a mild restoration, and had a price established for the work, but unfortunately Brad passed away before I pulled the trigger on the job. My bad!

[Andy]

That sounds like a nice gun Todd.

[Craig Larter]

Frank I know you have done much study and shooting research with respect to chokes so I value your opinion. I have a 20 ga Fox that I want to make into a grouse and woodcock gun (now M&F). I was thinking of .006 (IC) and .010 (light modified). Your input appreciated.

[Stan Hillis]

Originally Posted by Craig Larter

Frank I know you have done much study and shooting research with respect to chokes so I value your opinion. I have a 20 ga Fox that I want to make into a grouse and woodcock gun (now M&F). I was thinking of .006 (IC) and .010 (light modified). Your input appreciated.

Craig, I would trust Frank's judgement on choking a bird gun without question. I did the same thing you're considering about a year and a half ago. I have a sweet Fox 20 Sterly Ejector that I wanted to be my dedicated quail and woodcock gun. Dean Harris opened it to .006" and .016", at my request. Used it last season on several hunts and found it to be perfect for my needs. He also lengthened the chambers to 2 3/4" for me while he had it. I have been pleasantly surprised at how hard the .016" barrel hit some wild flushing, rather long quail.

I know quail and woodcock won't be the primary game for yours, and I freely admit to knowing less than nothing about grouse. If I were to be "building" a grouse gun I would feel perfectly suited to follow Frank's lead.

[Dean Romig]

Craig, in my opinion those would be too open and your shooting would suffer in the late season when leaves are down and the birds flush farther out.

I would open them to about .010” and .020” and then pattern them. You can always open them a tad more but you can’t put metal back.




.

[Cold Spring]

Craig, thanks for your vote of confidence. Here in northeast PA the days of close flushing grouse are distant. IMO hunters have culled the "dumb ones" and the current gene pool makes for wary birds that will generally flush much farther out than even one human generation ago. Then you’ve got avain and land predators galore, more so than in days past and making for spooky birds. As you know I mainly concentrate on grouse and will take woodcock and pheasants on opportunity. When opening a tightly-choked 20 bore for the uplands I'll make the chokes about .010 and .018 (Light and Improved Modified with modern plastic shot cup ammo). But if I were concentrating on woodcock with the occasional grouse I'd go for about .003 and .013. Of course these constrictions aren’t absolute; a thou or two either way won’t make that much difference in patterning and with any choke you ‘ll get some variability from use of different shells.