Shotguns

I just recently heard that Bo Whoop is up for sale. If I could just hit the Lotto real soon, I'd buy it. Bo Whoop 2 sold for $167,000. Can't even imagine what the original will bring. Maybe someday my 870 Remington will be as famous as Nash's old gun and my kids will strike it rich.

Not likely.

I actually started off my gunning career with a Browning Superposed, Lightning Trap. It was the only extra gun that my Father had at the time. I don't really remember what he was hunting with at the time. He has a Model 12 that I think he was using when I first started hunting, but I'm not certain. From that I moved on to a Model 31 Remington. A friend of my Father's had given him the gun and it was a fine shotgun. About that time I also started hunting rabbits and quail and Dad got a Flues Model Ithaca double. 26" barrels with little or no choke, but the gun had such a crooked stock that I never shot it well. Then Dad came across a 16 gauge Model 12. 26" Modified. Great upland hunting gun. The first year he let me use it he bought four boxes of shells, #5 shot. He told me that I had to shoot straight because he couldn't reload the 16 gauge shells and we couldn't afford to buy many new shells. 3/4's of the way through the season I came in from an afternoon rabbit hunt carrying the Model 31 and Dad asked if I had shot up all the 16 gauge shells. I told him yes. We checked my little notebook where I kept track of my hunting trips and found that I had killed 94 rabbits, squirrels, quail and pheasants with the four original boxes. That night he took me to the store and bought a case of 16 gauge shells.

At the beginning of the hunting season my senior year in High School, Mom and Dad gave me my graduation present. Brand new Remington 870 Magnum, 30" Full choke. They also gave me a 26" Improved Cylinder barrel for it. I was set for life.

For 30 years I don't think I ever fired another shotgun. I still love my 870 but in the past 10 years I have fooled around a little with different guns. After a trip to Canada where I had a lot of arthritis problems in my elbows I decided to try out a Benelli M1 Super 90. I really shoot it well and it has become my primary duck gun. I don't have to worry about damaging the barrel shooting non-toxic shot because I just buy new choke tubes after I ruin one. I also have a Model 12 Heavy Duck that I shoot from time to time, but I have to use Tungsten Matrix shells so as not to damage the barrel and that is expensive. I have a V Grade Parker double that is really nice for field hunting, IC in the right barrel and Full in the left. Both these guns were gifts to my Father from old friends and he passed them on to me.

I bought each of my sons a Remington 870 Magnum on the day they were born. They both shoot them very well. My son Kevin bought my grandson Kevin an 870 when he was born, so the tradition continues.