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Here in Scandinavia we had the warmest January
since 1798 or something like that. Lack of snow allowed the deer to stay in
their hides in deep forest and hence keep out of the reach of my gun. The deer
season was finished Jan. 31. August 16 will be the next date....
Some of you may remember the discussion about 12
gauge vs. 20 g. we had many years ago. Since I got this heart disease and during
recovery I have had time to shoot clay almost as much as I have wanted. In
addition to her 20g Miroku Maud bought a heavy 12 gauge range gun, a heavy
Browning Ultra XS some times last spring. Since training ammo for the 12g is
less expensive than for the 20 g I have also used her gun a lot, and almost
exclusively the last months. During the last 18 months we have been shooting at
least once a week, often twice, on our own ground with 3 clay launchers throwing
clays in all angles, heights and speeds. In the beginning we shot only with the
20 gauge guns, (mine is a Browning 525 lightweight, before that I had a 20 gauge
Benelli auto but it was too picky with fodder) but since last
march more and more with the heavy 12 g.
This rather long and intensive experience of clay
shooting has given me a new look at the 20 gauge. Last weekend, after having
shot 12 gauge only for a longer period, we decided to test the 20 gauge again,
just to see if there was any difference in hit rate. To my fascination I found
that I did actually hit slightly more with the 20 gauge than with the heavy 12
gauge that usually is much more easy to shoot with. The thing was that the
faster handling 20 allowed me to hit more of the fast, close up clays than the
12. This was not the case 18 months ago! Even if the 20 was faster even then, it
also felt much more unsteady due to the light weight and I missed because the
gun was staggering too much.
My conclusion is that for the average shooter,
someone who does not train much, a barrel-heavy and more forgiving gun is
better. Once you train often enough it is apparent that your over-all
gunhandling skill gets so much better so that even the disadvantage of the
staggering light 20 gauge will turn into an advantage. Just like a rally-car can
feel staggering for the ordinary driver, the skilled race
driver can turn it into an advantage and handle the car faster than any ordinary
car can be handled.
This was quite an interesting discovery,
particularly when I have, for more than the decade I have shot with 20 gauge,
had to defend my choice of this small, good-looking and handy gun
( just like the Swedish version of the ES) to some folks who consider it a
"lady-gun". Now I can say: "The one who can't shoot particularly well should
choose a heavy 12 gauge. The one who really can shoot, can
shoot just as well with any gauge!" I know a couple of friends to tell it
to  ))
This fascinating discovery was only possible for me
due to all the time I got when being on the sick list. I have learned a lot
about other things also, that would not have been possible otherwise, so all in
all this time has not been wasted at all but a good,
valuable experience.
Torsti
Borta Med Vindens Kennel "Ask not what your dog can do for you. Ask
what you can do for your dog." www.rospigan.net |