Got a phone call yesterday from an old friend, known him for 30 years, hunted with him for 20. He now lives in TN, and called me to ask about shotguns, of course.
We were hunting together one day not long after I had acquired a little French 12 ga Game Gun, a sumptous little piece from St Etienne that weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz, had a checkered butt and all the pretties. A woodcock flight was in a covert we hunted that day, and I took all three I shot at, DRT with that little masterpiece.
He was rebuilding an older Savage 410 SXS for his 9 year old son, and wanted to ask about that checkered butt. As you may know, that's a stock w/o pad or plate, just checkered wood, Lightest stock around, but kick gets felt.No kick with a 410, so no problem there.
Buddy cited those three woodcock,and mentioned that in my long and checkered career, he never saw me shoot better. Since he's absolutely deadly in the field with his old A-5, that's praise. And then we chewed it about why I could shoot that little SXS so much better. No major insights then, but later....
I had some downtime last night at work, and got to thinking about that shotgun and why it worked so well for me.And while I was shooting a shotgun that was a gross violation of the Rule of 96, it didn't kick much. A 6lb, 5 oz shotgun shooting a 1 1/8 oz heavy trap load is supposed to let you know when it goes off. This was one soft kicker...
Let me describe that stock to you,and see if you can pick it up.
Stock length was either 14 1/4 or 14 1/8", depending on which side you measured it. It was an ergonomic stock, the butt started earlier on the left side of the weapon, more closely matching the cup one makes when shouldering the weapon.Centerline of the butt wasn't the deepest part,it lay a little to the right.Again matching the various convolutions of the human shoulder.
There was cast off, toe out, and a bit less drop than most old guns. IIRC, it had 1 1/2" drop at comb, 2 1/4 at heel, so it was a little straighter than most.Straight grip of course, so I had to concentrate on pulling the gun into my shoulder with the support hand as well as pointing it.
The gun should have been a hard kicker with those loads, but it wasn't. Even on clays, where one lacks the excitement and adrenaline surge of hunting, kick was quite mild. And the answer to why that is, is stock fit.
Duh!!
The sole surprise for me,once the smoke cleared, was that it took me so long to figure it out. IOW, the shotgun that I did best with for swing and pull shooting was a soft kicker,and the reason was the stock fit me better than others.
So after the season, I expect the bird 870 and I will head to the range for some serious patterning and stock manipulation. Will advise...
We were hunting together one day not long after I had acquired a little French 12 ga Game Gun, a sumptous little piece from St Etienne that weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz, had a checkered butt and all the pretties. A woodcock flight was in a covert we hunted that day, and I took all three I shot at, DRT with that little masterpiece.
He was rebuilding an older Savage 410 SXS for his 9 year old son, and wanted to ask about that checkered butt. As you may know, that's a stock w/o pad or plate, just checkered wood, Lightest stock around, but kick gets felt.No kick with a 410, so no problem there.
Buddy cited those three woodcock,and mentioned that in my long and checkered career, he never saw me shoot better. Since he's absolutely deadly in the field with his old A-5, that's praise. And then we chewed it about why I could shoot that little SXS so much better. No major insights then, but later....
I had some downtime last night at work, and got to thinking about that shotgun and why it worked so well for me.And while I was shooting a shotgun that was a gross violation of the Rule of 96, it didn't kick much. A 6lb, 5 oz shotgun shooting a 1 1/8 oz heavy trap load is supposed to let you know when it goes off. This was one soft kicker...
Let me describe that stock to you,and see if you can pick it up.
Stock length was either 14 1/4 or 14 1/8", depending on which side you measured it. It was an ergonomic stock, the butt started earlier on the left side of the weapon, more closely matching the cup one makes when shouldering the weapon.Centerline of the butt wasn't the deepest part,it lay a little to the right.Again matching the various convolutions of the human shoulder.
There was cast off, toe out, and a bit less drop than most old guns. IIRC, it had 1 1/2" drop at comb, 2 1/4 at heel, so it was a little straighter than most.Straight grip of course, so I had to concentrate on pulling the gun into my shoulder with the support hand as well as pointing it.
The gun should have been a hard kicker with those loads, but it wasn't. Even on clays, where one lacks the excitement and adrenaline surge of hunting, kick was quite mild. And the answer to why that is, is stock fit.
Duh!!
The sole surprise for me,once the smoke cleared, was that it took me so long to figure it out. IOW, the shotgun that I did best with for swing and pull shooting was a soft kicker,and the reason was the stock fit me better than others.
So after the season, I expect the bird 870 and I will head to the range for some serious patterning and stock manipulation. Will advise...