Crow Busters Forum

Well I used a Remington 870 Express up until 2 years ago... I upgraded to a SBE II.

I just picked up a Savage Milano 28gauge O/U that I'm dying to take out and pop off.

Then of course my Remington field master .22 pump... shoots everything but mags.

Model 12 Winchesters, 12 and 16 gauge, Browning Double Auto 12 gauge, Browning A5 Lightweight with 28 inch modified barrell for those odd days when crows are swarming.

Ted

In 20 gauge my favorite was the 20 gauge Model 12 Winchester, the balance was supurb on those old corn shellers. The 870 Remington gave me years of very good servive but didn't have the balance the Model 12 did. The 870 didn't need the up keep the Model 12 did if you shot them a lot.

In 12 gauge I am very partial to the Beretta Model 391 Urika, I like the fast handling quality of this firearm, the balance is pretty good, not great but pretty good. What I like about this auto is that you don't have to clean it until you've shot up 1,000 to 1,500 rounds. Now to be fair thats in a short window within anywhere from a few days to a weeks time. It's harder to clean them when you let them sit for weeks, it's better to clean them real well before putting them up for any length of time.

Bob A.

Nice gun, you have any close-ups of the action?

Kev
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nhcrowshooter wrote:

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Go to gun for Geese, Ducks and Crows, Parker Bros NH 10ga (2 7/8") from 1893. Points beautiful, hits like Thor's hammer, not everybody has one, and I have to make my own shells by trimming down 3.5 inch hulls. Had the checkering freshened up in January, hope to get the barrels refinished after the spring season is over.

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My Remington 870 Super Mag. Very, very cheaply made. Not extremely reliable..........

BUT, it fits me perfect, feels great in my hands and I can hit well with it. As much as I like it, I plan on replacing it this summer.

I'm thinking of the Browning BPS.

Kev
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Mainehunt wrote:

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Nice gun, you have any close-ups of the action?

Kev
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Hey Kevin, I will have to take some but there is not a lot of engraving on a Grade 1 Parker (NH/PH), just some scroll work on the borders essentially.

However I just got this gun in the last month  and I am looking very forward to shooting some crows with it.  It is a Remington model 1894 Grade B 10 gauge (2 7/8").  It is more rare than the Parker and has bit more engraving. This gun was built in 1900 and is pretty high original condition.

Big Honkers wrote:

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Mainehunt,

What is not reliable about the 870 supermag?

Shell sticking in the chamber after being fired?


BH

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Yep, 99% of the time it is only the cheapo Winchesters that do it.

I had the chamber reamed to maximum dimensions and then I polished it to a mirror finish. (The inside of the chamber) Then I used Militec 1 lubrication and baked 12 coats of it into the metal.

This has drastically reduced the amout of sticking, but in the back of my mind, I still don't trust it 100%.

Kev
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Big Honkers wrote:

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I have a supermag too. It does the same thing with certain shells. I polished and lubed the chamber also but still was not thrilled with the results. I just buy shells that I know will run fine in the gun and that seems to be the only way to "solve" the problem. With good shells, if the gun misfires its my fault.

Ive never had a problem with Federal waterfowl loads or STS hulls(even reloaded ones). The el cheapo stuff can be problematic as you mentioned...the remington game loads are ok for me.

I have never ran Rem gun clubs thru that gun. Have you and if so how'd they do?

BH

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All Remingtons, including the gun club shels work fine for me, maybe a couple jams out of hundreds of shots. The cheapo Federals I have fired probably 3-4 hundred of have all worked fine but maybe 5 or 6 jams.

It's the cheapo Winchesters that come 100 shells to a box from WalMart that give me fits. Sometimes I can fire 30 or 40 straight without trouble, then one will jam. (or 6-8 in a row)

To be clear, they all fire, they all pattern well, but sometimes they WILL NOT eextract from the chamber. Many times I get pissed off and hold the pump handle and I slam the butt of the stock against the ground. Most of the time, this extracts the empty. A few times it doesn't, instead the extracting claw just rips a chunk from the rim of the shell leaving the empty in the chamber. When this happens, I have to find a tough, slim treebranch to ram down the barrel to pop the empty out.

In my mind, NO shotgun should ever have this happen. I have a Mossberg 500 that will extract ANYTHING. I used to think the Mossbergs were the worst made pump, not anymore.

Kev
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nhcrowshooter wrote:

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Mainehunt wrote:

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Nice gun, you have any close-ups of the action?

Kev
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Hey Kevin, I will have to take some but there is not a lot of engraving on a Grade 1 Parker (NH/PH), just some scroll work on the borders essentially.

However I just got this gun in the last month and I am looking very forward to shooting some crows with it.  It is a Remington model 1894 Grade B 10 gauge (2 7/8").  It is more rare than the Parker and has bit more engraving. This gun was built in 1900 and is pretty high original condition.

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VERY nice. Do you have to reload with Black Powder with those Damascus barrels?

Kev
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Nhcrowshooter, I love prince of whales grips. If I could have a upland gun built for me it would be a 16 ga. benelli montefeltro or a citori ultra lite on a 16 ga frame with a prince of whales grip. Man there just so easy to carry and come to the shoulder easily. They look classy too. Nice shootin iron you got there. By the way how long are those barrels? 36"?

-- Edited by Troy Seal on Wednesday 2nd of March 2011 09:27:32 PM

Thanks Jerry.

Troy, thanks,  the barrels on both my 10's are 32".  The angle on this prince of whales grip or round knob is such that the gun feels like a stright grip when I mount it.

Kev, it can certainly be safe to shoot nitro powder loads in damascus and twist steel barrel guns and that is what I use. The first criteria is a sound gun with barrel wall thickness of .090 and greater ahead the chamber and no thinner than .025 towards the end of the barrels. Single base nitro powders were around about 20 years before that Remington 10ga pictured was built. I am loading a load developed by Sherman Bell for this style of gun. Fed Hull, 32gr of SR7625 (a single base powder), SP10 Wad, 1/4" or so 16ga fiber filler wad and 1 1/4 ounce of lead shot. Velocity is advertised to be 1170 and pressure 6700 psi. This pressure and velocity is consistent with nitro powder loads of that era and blackpowder.  In the early 1920's Winchester-Western introduced it's Super-X loads using double base nitro powders and heavier shot charges.  This increased chamber pressures which cause the warnings of not using smokeless powder shells not for use in damascus.

Additionally, Sherman Bell did a test and attempted to blow up 15 damascus junkers by using a Remington proof load near 19,000 psi.  None blew up or were damaged.  He then went on to see what it would take to blow one up and kept increasing pressure and firing two guns until they blew. One a fluid steel Parker and the other damascus Parker,  both guns blew a barrel at about the same pressure, 32,000 psi.
Articles in the Doublegun journal reported his work.

Solid/sound damascus and twist guns can be safely shot using nitro loads appropriate to the period the gun was built (< 7000-7500 psi).

PS. Shot 8 crows with it this afternoon over there in your state



-- Edited by nhcrowshooter on Thursday 3rd of March 2011 12:11:31 AM

Have any of y'all had problems with the 20 ga in the 870's? Or is this a 12 ga. thing with the cheapo's with the steel bases?

Thanks, I think all we have shot in the kids gun is AA's but was just checking.

I have an 870 in 20 & while I haven't shot it in awhile it always fired & cycled flawlessly.

Welcome hedgehoghunter!

That's a pretty shootin' stick you got there.

Thanks for the welcome I just had this gun totally rebuilt since that picture .I do shoot it but 99% of the time it's on the clay field and it stays in the safe most of the time . I took gun to K International and told them to make like new and to bring gun to new specs . It's fun shooting a 50 year old K32 that is brand new. She's had all the 32's and K80's updates. These guns were made to shoot.

 Update ::::

 We were out hunting 2 weeks ago this coming Monday hunting partner shot at a crow and started hollaring . He was shooting Remington 870 12 gauge with FACTORY SHELLS and the gun came apart. He made the commect did it sound funny to you  which i had back turned and i cant hear anyway. This guns was ruined blew out from the bottom . Partner took to gunsmith yesterday out of 40 years smithing he commented he had never seen such. No barrel blockage only thing we can think is shell went off before it was chambered but no broken firing pin or spring to indicate .

-- Edited by hedgehoghunter on Friday 4th of March 2011 03:10:07 PM

Mr Browning would proud!!

I almost bought a 28 gauge model 12 a few weeks ago the orginial owner had changed a piece on the reciever he was a gunsmith and the gun had different wood on it heres a picture of the reciever and wood. i believe it was a p
igeon grade
-- Edited by hedgehoghunter on Friday 4th of March 2011 06:40:47 PM

-- Edited by hedgehoghunter on Friday 4th of March 2011 06:43:02 PM

Ted/Shane:

Gadget Bob often remarks that he can hear me working that clacker across the field from him.

I had a pristine 30-inch full specimen and finally had to sell it to make room for guns I use - Don't have the facilities or budget for museum pieces - but I miss it.

I enjoy the unmistakeable design elements, especially the shorter receiver (no need to have the receiver long enough to accomodate full extraction of a fired and opened case - throw that bolt out the back, shouldn't be any body part of the shooter back there!) - pure JMB genius.  

I guess I should reveal that I have a metro barrel extension for this gun too.  And, to push the envelope of 'best field gun' a bit further, any of you guys have a ninety-four year old, 17' bayonet to stick on the end our your piece when the pigs get too close?

 Nice choice of tunes.  I love desturbed.  Im a wierdo my wife says. I will be jamming some machine head and kick it out and slip in a third day cd.  Im a church drummer and my choice of tunes is quite broad. I played in a metal band for 13 years and 3 years after I graduated high school I played all over the north east before I got sick of sleeping in motels driving for hours at a time and eating crappy food.  Nowadays all I want to do is shoot birds and catch fish. Besides I get tired if I try to play like I once did LOL!  To old and chubby! 

Benelli M2-----12 and 20 ga.

The 28 is a blast to shoot low recoil hits more like a 20 why besides cost this gauge hasnt taken off more here USA besides in the skeet game i have no idea . I know guys that use this gauge from Pheasant hunting , Dove shooting to quail hunting with great success. A 28 will always be in my collection.

currently my fav shotgun is my new maxus. I have only shot it twice due to the fine weather we have been enjoying. but i still have an 870 for backup

870 Wingmaster 28 inch Mod. bought it 37 years ago... It get's to hunt crows!!!