The Tao of the Shotgun
Babbin, Jed
0 f the choices a man has to make, few are as difficult—or remotely as important—as choosing a shotgun. Finding a spouse or a career just isn't in the same league. Those of us who hunt and shoot...
...Gun fitting is literally the sine qua non of good shooting...
...And that's where the simple shotgun can get mighty pricey...
...Then again, how could anyone plan to find the perfect gun...
...My Remington 870 cost $238 at the Manassas Wal-Mart...
...The stock is plastic, the grip molded to the shape of his hand...
...My beautiful Evans side-by-side "best gun" doesn't join me in the goose blind to be rained on, have goose blood dripped on it, or generally be abused...
...At some point you'll also choose the engraving and the wood that the stock will be made of...
...The traditional double-barreled shotgun—the side-by-side—was probably the most common gun on the planet before the AK-47 became a third-world fashion accessory...
...On occasion, they do a little demonstration of the best weapon for close-quarters combat...
...The important revolution took place in London...
...And one usually buys a pair...
...Hence the need for a reliable gun that was light and quick enough to shoot birds on the wing...
...And it's bright blue with a few silver sparkles, which is not quite the way Matt ordered it...
...All I see is the bird or the clay...
...Focus on their words, grasshopper...
...Hunting and clay-target shooting become a matter of quality, fit, and function...
...My favorite sport is shooting upland birds...
...Over-and-unders are a newer design and more popular for most shooting because their single-barrel configuration creates a simpler sight picture...
...BEWITCHED BY BESPOKE T he other choice for clay targets is the over/under...
...If the stock—from butt to trigger—is the right length, the comb the right height, and the stock bent that critical quarter-inch to the right or left, a good shooter can become a great one...
...An expert with a fitted gun will be handicapped [using a side-by-side] by between 5 percent and 11 percent depending on the severity of the targets...
...Beretta couldn't get the right people together in time...
...Buy the best you can afford, new or secondhand, then have it fitted properly:' Like a suit, the best gun is one tailored to fit the shooter...
...On the flight home I ruminated over that perfect gun...
...You might expect some degree of aloofness, but Purdey's was in fact the most responsive...
...If you want a home-defense weapon, search no further: buy a short-barreled Remington 870...
...After an hour or two your "fit" is determined with precision...
...According to Matt, "A perfect gun would permit a shooter to remain focused on the target without conscious thought regarding placement, mechanical interference, or lead...
...No, not that sideshow in Paris...
...When someone is spending that kind of money on a shotgun, the seller needs a really good answer to the question of how to find the perfect shotgun...
...Autoguns have a softer recoil, which means you can shoot two or three hundred rounds in a day, tailoring the gun physically to the shooter...
...There are five common types of shotgun and an almost endless list of gun makers...
...But I digress...
...About two years later your Purdey (or Purdeys, if it's a matched pair) will arrive...
...When your wife starts hyperventilating upon discovering what your side-by-side cost, do what I do: blame Joe Manton...
...In addition to Matt, my friends Nick and Duncan are masters of the game...
...The perfect gun has to match perfectly both user and use...
...Manton is gone, but its progeny—Purdey...
...All I could think of was that if I managed to damage this gun, I'd have to sell my house to fund the repairs...
...Then came the revolution...
...To make sure the gun you choose is the perfect gun for you, Purdey's makes it a very personal affair...
...It's adjustable in about twelve different directions...
...My friend Richard said, "You really don't want to shoot that, Jed...
...Wood for the stocks was chosen for grain, quality, and appearance...
...Whether it's walking up quail or Hungarian partridge, shooting doves in a cornfield or driven pheasant in Britain, my perfect gun is the one that I'd use for those hunts...
...I can't define your Tao of the Shotgun...
...But many grand masters are my friends, and I have asked them all one question: how would you search for the perfect shotgun...
...Nine pellets strike the target at the same time...
...Take my number two:' Fifteen minutes later, I stood looking for pheasant to break cover, holding in my hands the most amazing example of the gun maker's art...
...Over/unders start at about the price of an autoloader, and then go up like an F-15 on afterburners...
...As Sam Spade might have said, "She's the stuff a shotgunner's dreams are made of:' 'It...
...Having followed that theory for many years, I have eight good but imperfect shotguns residing in my safe...
...I can tell you from years on the clays course and in the field, I shoot best when I don't even look at the barrel of the gun...
...Which leads to all sorts of stupid shotgun games such as trying to break a bird on the skeet range and then pieces of the same bird until the whole mess finally hits the ground...
...Purdey's sells more and more over/unders...
...What's a guy to do...
...Evans...
...My first shot went wild...
...So within whatever price range you set, apply the quality and balance test...
...The exception—the Remington pump—was for a tactical shotgun course I took from Al and Dale (more on them later...
...Holland & Holland is now owned by the French...
...If the gun fits you well, and you don't have to think about it, you can get your mind out of the game...
...Next is the pump gun, a repeater that holds five shots (when not plugged up to comply with hunting regulations or fitted with an extended magazine for tactical use...
...Point made...
...The evolutionary scale range begins with the lowly single-barrel shotgun...
...It is a Purdey and my unrequited love...
...What it's all about, said Andrews, is confidence...
...You can paddle your canoe with your 870, and it'll still work...
...For everything other than self-defense, the quest is vastly more complicated...
...They spend an enormous amount of time shooting live game and clay birds in Britain, America, and other corners of the globe...
...Matt takes a lot of ribbing about his customized Beretta...
...And I could have sworn I was talking to Nick and Duncan...
...then big springs throw the bolt forward again, pushing a new cartridge into the chamber...
...the top of the stock, where your cheek rests while firing—called the comb—floats freely, attached to the shock absorber...
...THE PERFECT GUN Which brings me back to standing in that field two years ago with my friend Richard's "number two" gun...
...The last stage in shotgun evolution is the double-barreled gun, which comes in two flavors, with barrels that are either stacked (the "over/under") or side-by-side...
...NO NINJA NONSENSE A 1 Clark and Dale McClellan head up a company called Special Tactical Services...
...THE ZEN OF MATT matt Keegan is a master of the clay target and a student of kendo, a Japanese sword-fighting discipline...
...Mine—with a quick barrel change and a magazine plug—doubles as my goose gun...
...Joseph Manton set up shop in London in 1793 to build a new style of "fowling piece...
...For hundreds of years it would have been a breach of etiquette to show up to a traditional British driven shoot with anything but a side-byside...
...I've always suspected it was a subsidiary of Universal Export...
...At some point in the seventeenth century, Europeans decided that shooting birds by the flock while they sat on the ground wasn't much of a challenge...
...We start with home defense...
...But this Ilsa may come back to me, for another November day...
...Pump guns—which get their name from the way you reload by pumping the forearm back and forth—are probably the most common shotgun in America...
...I have so far found only one perfect shotgun...
...The self-opening feature makes it much easier to get into a comfortable rhythm in shooting driven birds, which come in waves of hundreds...
...Purdey's makes side-by-sides (the company's historic product) and over/unders...
...For each use of the shotgun, the masters have spoken...
...But that prejudice is now history, and more people are conceding that the advantages of the over/under are significant enough to force an evolution of tradition...
...The recoil and/or some of the exhaust gases power the bolt backward, ejecting the spent round...
...I always drive the return trip because he falls asleep in the car, often in midsentence...
...His last point is the most important: "As in other things in life, size, weight, and length, although important, mean absolutely nothing without total confidence in your weapon...
...If you feel confident in your shotgun, you may go for that bird that's just a bit higher or farther, and you'll make the shot...
...and Wilkes—remain today among the best in the world...
...James Purdey & Sons makes only high-end bespoke guns...
...My Beretta 682 over/under doesn't get carried for hours across the cornfields of South Dakota because it's too damned heavy...
...They taught me speed loading and how to shoot the pump gun faster than an automatic can cycle...
...While shooting, he reaches what I can only call a meditative state, then suffers an enormous adrenaline drop...
...The American companies didn't bother to respond...
...Just give me something that goes `bang' when I pull the trigger...
...There are only two ingredients to the perfect shotgun," says Nick, "quality and balance...
...They tell a class member to step up to the firing line and put nine bullets in the target with his submachine gun as fast as he can...
...With the advent of the breechloader and modern ammunition, those makers evolved into Britain's "best gun" trade...
...Man-ton's actions and barrels were produced to the most exacting standards the technology of the day allowed...
...The beeper sounds again, and Al speed-loads one round ofbuckshot into his Remington 870, aims the gun, and pulls the trigger...
...Duncan—a quick, smooth, and instinctive shot—adds a few other points...
...I've only managed the bird and two pieces...
...It has a hydraulic shock absorber fitted inside the butt...
...I asked Beretta, Winchester, Remington, Holland & Holland, and Purdey for interviews, hoping to get their views on choosing and fitting the perfect shotgun...
...To translate a quality shotgun into a good shot, add another two elements: fitting and the pratt on the end:' This from a gentleman who may miss one or two on the clays range, but—in three trips to Britain and about five shoots with him here—I have yet to see him miss a live bird...
...And my father's old Ansley H. Fox doesn't get used much at all because it was made in 1906 and has a lot of miles on it...
...Once you select the type of gun, action, and bore ("gauge" in America, equal to the number of lead balls of the specified diameter that add up to a pound in weight...
...And, of course, we take it to a wonderfully American excess...
...We Yanks usually don't bring our own guns across the pond because of the absurd complexity of British gun laws...
...Newer challengers such as McKay Brown and Asprey & Garard make guns that are every bit as good...
...Al told me, "The reason I don't want any super-ninjafied nonsense on my gun is because I don't want to trust my life to a battery or something else that's likely to break...
...Boss...
...No side-byside shoots as well as an over-and-under because of the sight picture...
...Last year when I shot Richard's Purdey for the second time, I made many, more good shots than I had any right to make...
...Once I got a grip on myself—and loosened the death grip I had on the gun—there were not many pheasant that got past me...
...Is civilization, as we know it, ending...
...Those of us who hunt and shoot clay targets have myriad needs, and no one gun can meet them all...
...They all sit in the safe with a plastic-stocked Remington 870 pump gun, a Browning over/under, two more Berettas, and a Webley & Scott side-byside I allegedly bought for my wife...
...I am only a traveling storyteller, not a grand master...
...Millions have been sold by Remington, Winchester, Mossberg, and many others...
...Navy SEALs, they teach tactical shooting to military and police experts who want to sharpen their skills...
...Ian Andrews did...
...The Italians' Beretta, at five hundred years and counting, is the oldest continuously operated company on earth...
...I'd found it entirely by accident...
...I asked them the same question, and they all gave me the same answer...
...Duncan favors heavier guns for clays and barrels never shorter than twenty-eight inches...
...Well, not quite...
...Quality and finish on flintlocks of that era were, to say the least, highly variable...
...Former U.S...
...At the gun room, you can see many examples of each and decide what you want...
...After a few years, several of Manton's apprentices had their own shops...
...a twelve bore is thus larger than a twenty-eight bore), you're off to the West London Shooting School to shoot the "try gun:' A try gun is a plumber's nightmare that shoots...
...Purdey's guns start at about £46,500—about $77,000 at current exchange rates...
...Purdey's guns are all "self-openers:' Instead of having to push down on the barrels of a side-by-side to open it, a Purdey falls open of its own accord when you push a lever on top to the right...
...I spoke with Ian Andrews, one of the salesmen at Purdey's London gun room...
...Which often means the builtto-order "bespoke" gun...
...They care, apparently more than the competition does...
...For Matt, like many of the best clay shooters, following that philosophy means a custom-stocked automatic...
...But that's after breaking 90 percent or more of the targets...
...All but one were acquired for sport...
...Holland & Holland...
...Usually light and slim, it kicks like a mule...
...My pal Matt has the record: he broke one bird and then three pieces of the same one...
...Manton's guns quickly became the world standard...
...At the other end of the scale, there are a lot of guns that sell for the price of a nice home...
...Al and Dale disdain gadget guns, laser sights, and such...
...Your typical autoloader is about a thousand dollars, and you can spend that much again to customize it...
...It's quite a sight...
...It's the American version of the British science of gun fitting...
...Matt's philosophy applies to all guns and gun sports...
...From there evolution takes you to the "automatic"—really a semi-automatic that fires a single shot each time you pull the trigger...
...As you shoot different clay targets, they adjust the gun...
...When people kid him about the "Harley-Davidson" look, he smiles and says, "Before you make fun of my gun, beat my score To my knowledge that hasn't happened yet...
...Each serves a different function...
...The Scots, the Americans, Spanish, Belgians, and Japanese all make superb guns...
...It would fit the shooter as a natural extension, leaving the shooter to focus on the target, and only the target, without conscious thought...
...When I gave the gun back at the end of the day, I felt the way Rick in Casablanca must have when he put Ilsa on the plane with Victor Laszlo...
...And you can spend as much or as little as you'd like...
...When the target is all I see, I hit it every time...
...When my turn came, all that was left was an enormous cannon which I took, broke open (always carry a gun with the action open for safety's sake), and started walking toward the cars...
...The gun is where it's supposed to be without any conscious reference to it...
...Manton's guns were slim, fast, and light for wingshooters who wanted a gun that handled—and looked—exceedingly well...
...A Beretta "Renasciamento" (Renaissance) five-gun set sold a few years ago for just shy of a million dollars...
...But choosing the right over/under or side-by-side is no trivial exercise...
...The gent assumes the position and when the beeper sounds, he grabs a mag, shoves it into his MP-5, or whatever, and puts three bursts of three shots into the target...
...Simple: buy more shotguns...
...At a shoot two Novembers ago, I politely hung back when guns were being handed out to guests...
Vol. 36 • August 2003 • No. 4
