5 Reasons I shoot O/Us and Doubles in the Uplands

[kurt tealo]

I grab every shell

I also break open the action of any gun I have when around people, this is common safety practices.

It may be easier to grab shells from the back of the break action of crack open the break when approaching a person but a couple minutes to grab your shells and 1 little push on the pump release makes the gun unable to fire.

Very admirable and good for you!
Unfortunately a lot don't.Even myself sometimes:-(

[kurt tealo]

I have a 12 semi(Smith and Wesson 1000 for those that remember them.lol),2 12 pumps(870 and 37),16 LC Smith S by S,and one SKB 20 OU.
Love them all in different ways and they all have thier place.
Waterfowl-3 quick shots and stay on target with some recoil reduction.The auto is king.
Want to make sure it goes bang 3 times every time.Say for your deer,coyote and such.Pumpy rules.
Upland/Skeet/Carry/Bush-Side by and OU really come into thier own.I do wish the OU had double triggers though.When that pheasant pops up at 40 and so on.
3 shots-So rare.
And dont they seem a little cooler in the gentleman woods:-)LOL!
Banged a lot of small game with the pumps and auto though.....
Thats why the wives need to know that you really need 4!....Or more:-)

[welsh]

I also break open the action of any gun I have when around people, this is common safety practices.

Well, I'm glad you do and I agree this is good safety practice. Common, however, it is not.

I hunt a lot of public areas where you run into people all the time: Hullet, Fingal, etc. I could count on one hand the number of people who make pumps and semis safe when they run into you one one hand, without taking off my mittens. Unfortunate but true. And it's because the gun makes it harder.

Again, that's a smaller concern than what people do or don't do when they have to crawl through cover or hop over a downed tree or whatever.

Now, you can fairly argue this is in the hands of the user. True enough. But me, I'd rather hunt with a gun that makes it easy, which takes us back to the original point.

Don't get me wrong, I used to do all my upland hunting with a pump, and I like pumps. I'm not down on other guns and I don't care how classy I look -- I'm humble enough to know that I make any gun look classy.