Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/652998
A couple of columns back, I happened to mention that I could kill more birds with a double than with a repeater. I got a lot of comment following that revelation. After all, isn't it obvious that three shots are better than two? Shouldn't more birds fall if you uncork a three-shot barrage? "Twould seem so," goes the conventional wisdom, but I also learned a long time ago that "conventional wisdom" is almost always wrong. And experience trumps theory every time. "How ya gonna make a triple if you don't have three shells in your gun?" The point is well taken, and if a triple is your personal "holy Grail" then maybe you should stick with a three-shooter. If, on the other hand, you want to be a better shooter, or just kill more birds, then maybe this is one of those famous situations where less is indeed more. A few readers pointed out that I'm simply prejudiced toward two-barreled guns. That's also true. I do love the way a nice double handles and swings. In my old age, I'm even starting to warm to the ways of a nice stack-barrel. Though I've never actually timed it, I think I can track a bird easier and faster with a gun that has two barrels. And I know that I kill more birds and shoot fewer shells to do it, with a double because I once kept records on such things and the numbers revealed a clear advantage for the double. Here's where the repeater shooters g e t e v e n w i t h m e , t h o u g h . T h e difference really narrowed when I used a repeater that only held two shells! And it didn't matter whether it was a semiauto or a pump! I first discovered this when hunting Shooting a double or loading two shells into your repeater will help you slow down and take one or two good shots instead of three hurried tries. Robert Matthews h o t g u n s S S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 5 2 with an old friend who absolutely loved Browning's long-defunct Double Automatic. He was so fond of the things that he had three of 'em and never shot anything else. As the story goes, the Double Auto was developed for live pigeon matches. That's a two-shot game, so it only needed to feed two shells—reliably. I was beginning one of my repeater phases at the time and was using one of Browning's glorious Sweet Sixteens. We were mainly quail hunters and I'd occasionally swap guns with him just to try something new. After a couple of years it became evident that I killed significantly more birds with Alex's gun than I did with my own. I noticed that the quail seemed to slow down noticeably. I had plenty of time, and often doubled on a pair of easy birds when using his gun instead of mine. For a long time I thought it was just the gun, but then one day I was trying to load the 16 quickly and only pushed in two shells. The next covey rise was much more placid than I expected, and I dropped a nice double, which wasn't all that common for me in those days. And a little light bulb came on in my head. I only loaded two shells for the next rise. And the next, and the next. And to my amazement, all of the rises were slower and easier to handle. Most importantly, I saw the birds more clearly and got on them more easily. I killed more birds and consistently made more doubles on covey rises. Eventually, I went back to shooting doubles whenever I have a choice. Because the job requires it, I shoot a lot of repeaters, but to this day I rarely load more than two shells. One of my favorite quail guns is a Browning Model 42, a nifty reiteration of Winchester's Model 42 pump-action .410. As long as I only load two shells, the little cornshucker is deadly on covey rises. When I load three, I don't do as well. I honestly can't say why this phenomenon occurs, but I know enough Covey buRst – bobwhite quail by lynn bogue hunt / courtesy paul vartanian