Double guns

[93marshooter]

I am looking to get a 12 gauge double gun. How does sxs compare to over and under?

[Old Ironsights]

What do you want to do with it?

[6pt-sika]

I grew up shooting side by sides and in my late 20's I started shooting over unders for skeet and trap .

I am happy to say I can shoot both interchangabley !

And more often then not I hit what I was shooting at (with either) !

[93marshooter]

I'd use it for targets and hunting, I.e. dove and clay birds.

[Old Ironsights]

I'd use it for targets and hunting, I.e. dove and clay birds.

If you are wanting to be competitive in the Skeet/Trap game with a Double you are probably going to be happier with an O/U.

I don't see too many SxS at competitions.

If you don't care about Competition... very little feels as good in the hand as a nice SxS...

[Sixgun]

very little feels as good in the hand as a nice SxS...

Ain't that the truth! I've owned and shot them all and SxS. are all I own today-----6

[AJMD429]

If you are wanting to be competitive in the Skeet/Trap game with a Double you are probably going to be happier with an O/U.

I don't see too many SxS at competitions.

If you don't care about Competition... very little feels as good in the hand as a nice SxS...

Pretty much what I have seen as well.

It is sort of funny you don't think of some homeowner stepping out of the shadows and confronting the bad-guy, by having an over/under 12 gauge aimed at his torso, even though they'd be just as formidable as a side/side.

[Borregos]

A side by side just feels right to me

[Blaine]

I like SxS.....Back when I was shooting clays (and I was very new at it) I used the "wrong" shotgun: A Baikal 12ga SxS with short bbls and choke tubes. I sucked at the high ones, but was death on the close, fast shots...First time out I did 58, which not the lowest score for my group of experienced shooters. I would have nothing but a SxS.....

[86er]

I learned to build and fix doubles (SxS). Mechanically, they are different animals than O/U's. There are many variations of O/U mechanisms. One difference that stands out in high volume shooting is that SxS's suffer from horizontal twisting movement upon firing and vertical movement as the shot fires. Basically the right barrel wants to go right and then the gun wants to open. This is mitigated and limited by lots of additional lock-ups like Greener cross-bolts, double underlugs, third bites, side-clips, etc. Eventually in high volume shooting a SxS comes "off face", particularly older guns and guns made with softer parts. O/U's are not completely immune to coming off face but the design does much to prolong or prevent it. The O/U has to be opened much more to load or eject. Carrying the open gun is another personal preference. One will be open more than the other so they have different angles when opened. The SxS is often mis-understood in use in the US. The wood fore-end is a latch that keeps the barrels on. It is not a handle in which to hold the gun with your lead hand. Your lead hand actually belongs on the barrels just in front of the fore-end. The properly fitted SxS is also designed to be used from the low-gun position, somewhat instinctively and with both eyes open. A classic styled SxS will have two triggers. The O/U has a long, large fore-end that you do hold with your lead hand. The dimensions of the guns are such that they can be used pre-mounted and the single plane is more condusive to one-eye-closed shooting. The comparison might be similar to an inboard motor compared to an outboard or a burro compared to a quarter-horse or a belt driven belly mower compared to a pull-behind shredder. The purpose and end result is essentially the same but the way it gets the job done is quite different.

[Pete44ru]

I am looking to get a 12 gauge double gun. How does sxs compare to over and under?

IMHO, anybody aspiring to get a doublegun would be best served by at least handling an example or three of each, if not shoot a friend's (or a fellow gunclub member's).

I would suggest handling more than a single example of each, since different SxS' and different O/U's can handle differently due to their stocking & bbl length/weights.

IOW, all doubleguns are not created equal, and YMMV............

If you find a shoe that fits - wear it.


.

[Nath]

Lost count how many sxs have come and gone but three are here now....superimposed....one comes to mind in all the years shooting!

Superimposed feel like I'm using old thrown away girder forks from old motorcycles!

Sxs first then a good pump and/or auto. I would buy a single before a superimposed!


N.

[gamekeeper]

I don't mind either S/S or O/U as long as it has double triggers, single triggers on a double barreled shotgun are just a complicated breakage waiting to happen.
I know some single triggers never give trouble but I've seen too many of the other kind to trust 'em.

[Nath]

I don't mind either S/S or O/U as long as it has double triggers, single triggers on a double barreled shotgun are just a complicated breakage waiting to happen.
I know some single triggers never give trouble but I've seen too many of the other kind to trust 'em.

Absolutely, double triggers are as natural as picking yer nose

N

[Marlin32]

I shoot both, don't matter to me, just something about pheasant and prairie chicken hunting with a sxs. I shoot doves with Parker 16ga sxs and Ruger Gold label sxs. Works real well. But so do all the various o/u's I have.

A good sxs might be harder to come by.

[Blaine]

Superimposed feel like I'm using old thrown away girder forks from old motorcycles!

Over/Under??

[Lastmohecken]

Oh yes, the Side by Side, my favorite shotgun in it's better examples. When shooting clay targets, I shoot the over and under pretty good, but under actual hunting condition I have never shot the over and under as well as I shoot my side by sides.

Under hunting conditions my eye picks up the barrels of a side by side faster then a single barrel shotgun. I do aim a shotgun because my master eye is on the wrong side and the added mass of the side by side barrels in my view, just seems to aim faster for me.

I own several side by sides, with my favorite being a hunter grade L.C. Smith, but I also own a fine J. P. Sauer, and a couple of Winchester 23's. I have found the old L.C. Smith to be one of the best and most trouble free side by sides, I have ever used, if you are thinking about buying a old American Best Type Shotgun.

I prefer double trigger side by sides, But my Winchester 23's are single trigger and seem to work fine. Be careful of a lot of the new manufactured side by sides, because the quality is just not there, on most of the reasonably priced ones and they break down more often, in my experience. The old Elsey will hold up to a lot of shooting and my 23's have held up good to a high volume of shooting. My J.P. Sauer has also held up good, but when shooting a lot of rounds in a short time frame it will heat up and get hard to open, not a problem when hunting, but on a hot afternoon, of high volume clay shooting it will sometimes lock up. It must suffer from expansion when hot, but it's still one heck of a pheasant gun.

[Hagler]

I think SUPERPOSED is the correct term:

su·per·pose (spr-pz)
tr.v. su·per·posed, su·per·thing·ing, su·per·thing·es
1. To set or place (one thing) over or above something else.
2. Mathematics To place (one geometric figure) over another so that all like parts coincide.

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[Probably French superposer, back-formation from superposition, superposition, from Late Latin superpositi, superpositin-, from Latin superpositus, past participle of superpnere, to place over : super-, super- + pnere, to place; see position.]

Shawn

[Nath]

I think SUPERPOSED is the correct term:

su·per·pose (spr-pz)
tr.v. su·per·posed, su·per·thing·ing, su·per·thing·es
1. To set or place (one thing) over or above something else.
2. Mathematics To place (one geometric figure) over another so that all like parts coincide.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Probably French superposer, back-formation from superposition, superposition, from Late Latin superpositi, superpositin-, from Latin superpositus, past participle of superpnere, to place over : super-, super- + pnere, to place; see position.]

yes thankyou...superposed .

N.

Shawn

[piller]

First shotgun I ever bought was a cheap F.I.E. SxS and I still have it. My Dad has an old Ranger brand 12 gauge SxS with 32 inch full choke barrels on both sides, 2 triggers, and I have only seen that gun miss one time ever. I watched my brother hit a pheasant with it one time where the bird was over 100 yards away as paced off by my Dad and brother. I was 13 and it was 133 of my paces counting each left foot as a number. That old shotgun has fired thousands of shells and still will not lock up if a piece of notebook paper is inserted between the barrels and the breech face. It is tight and shuts with a "snick" sound that I associate with perfectly cut and polished steel matching up into position. I have never fired one of those Gawd Awful Ugly over and under abominations.