Single barrel shotguns, anybody still use 'em?

[GF]

Well... besides me.

Some call them single shot shotguns but we always called 'em single barrels. Where I grew up everybody had a long Tom 12, an H&R or a Winchester 37 behind the door of every farm house.

I took a walk in the woods other day and brought my single action Ruger & H&R 12 ga along.

I've carried guns like those for 40 years (the Ruger I pack is usually a rimfire) and I still feel like there's a place for a single shot and a shell belt with a good selection of different size shot.

AND I could do a whole 'nother thread on single shot 22 rifles too!

Simple doesn't go outta' date, IMHO.

GF

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I still have my Sears 20 ga. Winchester built, I think.
It's the first gun that I ever bought.
As I have posted before, don't know why I didn't buy a 12.
My bro and I took turns with a 12 double hammer gun.
And we borrowed other guns, all 12s.
And shells available and shot size was always a consideration.
Adding a different gauge just confused things.

 

[jonny13sb]

In 1988 I inherited my dad's Iver Johnson 20 ga. Champion single barrel shotgun that he inherited from his father. Still goes bang after all these years and although it's outdated by today's standards I still enjoy shooting it. Like most people in their late fifties I have an undying appreciation for firearms that are made from steel and wood.

 

[ACP230]

There's an Ithaca M66 "Super Single" 20 gauge here.
It's been a while since I shot it but when I want to introduce someone
to shotgun shooting it usually comes out.

Also an ACME 12 gauge single that my grandfather used to have.
It's too tired to actually shoot any more but still worth having around,
I think.

 

[Frank46]

I have an old H&R crack barrel in .410 shoots great with just about any .410 load. Keep it for snakes. Frank

 

[2152hq]

I had an Iver Johnson Champion 12ga single that I bought at a garage sale in the mid 60's for $5. It had already been cut to 22".
I used that shotgun more than any other for hunting till the time I quit hunting in the 80's.
I sold it after that as I had no use for it,,you tend to do that when you're younger..

I now have a Meriden 12ga hammerless that I restored from a basket case. Pretty sleek looking shotgun for it's time , I think about 1915/16 time period. Meriden was gone by 1918 anyway.
The 32" bbl draws some looks as does the twist steel pattern bbl.,,OMG it's going to blow up!
I shoot it w/low pressure smokeless handloads. The extra tight Full choke still does the job reaching out there.
I'll post a pic if I can figure out the new computer program..

 

[yeti]

I shoot 3-8rds of trap every week with my trusty Beretta single.
Does that count?

 

[petepeterson]

I have a 16-gauge H&R that was owned by a friend that passed (much too young). Don't really have a use for it, but I hope to give it to his grandson when he gets a little older.

We always kept the 12-gauge H&R with 5 slugs at deer camp when I was younger. Somebody always ended up knocking their scope outta whack or having a problem with their fancy deer-getter. It kicked like a mule, but it kept you in the game for a day.

 

[Mushki]

Every year for the opener for Pheasent season i break out my trusty old Stevens shotgun. It was my first shotgun and it's still fun to take out.

 

[DWalt]

One great advantage for us older folks is its light weight. Those hills keep getting steeper. I started off with an ancient H&R 12 gauge SS when I was a kid, and don't remember an instance when one shot wasn't enough. I just sold a very nice H&R Greenwing in 20 ga which belonged to my son, and had a surprisingly difficult job in finding a buyer. One of these days, guns like that may be the only ones we are legally allowed to have.

 

[GatorFarmer]

I purchased one new in box this year. My reason was their adaptable nature.

For a very reasonable price I obtained a Rossi that was both a single shot 12 gauge and came with an iron sighted .308 barrel to swap out.

The purchase of additional chamber inserts allows me to use whatever ammuntion I have left over or laying around.

 

[Watchdog]

Although I don't really use it any more, my old Stevens 940A 12-gauge (complete with the Irish Setter engraved on the side) is leaning right here next to my desk. My dad gave it to me in 1964, I think he bought it at Sears. And yes, it's loaded.

 

[fyimo]

I have one a 12 GA. in the gun safe as both of my sons learned to bird hunt with it. Their only complaint was it kicked like a mule.

 

[loc n load]

Single barrels

The OP and I are from around the same area....we called them single barrels also....still do for old times sake......I grew up on a farm near the Eel river and we always had a 16 ga. single barrel Winchester or a JC Higgins 16 ga. single barrel on hand, always had one hanging in the gun rack along with a bolt action single shot rifle 22 rifle - had a box of WW super X in the glove box with half a dozen shot shells.....it was the norm in the 50's,60's & 70's.....still have those guns and still use them on occasion when the need arises or I feel the urge to reconnect to past times and folk's. Can't begin to imagine how many deer, rabbits, squirrels, ground hogs, skunks, foxes , quail and raccoons those old guns accounted for over a span of 7 plus decades.
I have a newer H&R 20 ga. single bl that I have taught my grand kids how to shoot.....perfect gun to teach gun safety, proper handling, etc.

 

[bulldog06]

I used a Winchester 370 20 guage when hunting rabbits with my dad and his beagles. It was more about the chase than harvesting rabbits. Dad and the dogs are gone and I haven't used it in some years but I suspect that 370 will be with me for a good long time.

 

[Cal44]

I always thought of a single shot shotgun as being pretty useless for home defense.

Maybe I was wrong. Checkout this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D08sUXRBUHs

I bet that guy can get the 8 rounds on his sling plus the five on the butt downrange just as fast as someone with a slide action shotgun when you count doing a reload.

 

[skeezix]

I have two single barrel guns.

This one was found in my wife's grandmother's storage shed about 40 years ago. Wood has been refinished, the butt-stock cracked (and repaired) at the wrist, pitting on the barrel, and lots of "patina". We know her grandfather used it and suspect it may have been passed down from her great-grandfather. No serial number and no way to get a definitive date for it, but it probably goes back to the 1920s or before. And, yes, it still shoots.

I bought this one for my father-in-law in 1975 as a motorhome defense gun. He returned it to me about 20 years ago. I refinished the wood. I still have the box of ammo I bought with the gun. I don't think it's ever been fired.

 

[holo]

I have a H&R .20 gauge rifled shotgun that I use on the whitetail every year, and at camp when we check are sights I out shoot everyone.

 

[Frizzman]

The first gun I bought with my own money was a Ithaca M66. I worked for a fishing guide cleaning customers' fish at a nickel a pound one summer when I was twelve. I saved my earnings and at the end of the summer, my father took me to the Navy Exchange and we bought the shotgun and a box of Remington shells. I stunk of fish for quite a while and I couldn't stand eating fish for years but that gun was mighty pretty and those cool, green shells were beautiful...I used it to hunt rabbits and squirrels, shoot "stuff" and clay birds that my friends and I threw with a hand thrower...I still have and shoot it once in a while.

When my daughter was around that age, she said she wanted to go deer hunting with me. I bought her a H&R Pardner Youth Model in 20ga. We went hunting once but she asked me not to actually hurt any animals. She fired one shell at a can and that was it...It's been in the safe waiting for a grandchild to come along someday...But, I took it to the range one day and it proved to be a nice, light and handy little gun for woods bumming so I use it for that to shoot rabbit, squirrel and "stuff".

 

[USAF385]

I always thought of a single shot shotgun as being pretty useless for home defense.

Maybe I was wrong. Checkout this video:



I bet that guy can get the 8 rounds on his sling plus the five on the butt downrange just as fast as someone with a slide action shotgun when you count doing a reload.

Actually, this guy is a tad slow. I remember my grandfather walking around with one round chambered and two in between his fingers in his left hand. He could shoot off those thee rounds as fast as a pump.