Do you judge people by the shotgun they carry??

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Globe, My first gun was a handed down Mossberg .410 bolt gun with poly type choke...

My same age child buddies would scoff at my cheap little slow shooter... But far more often than not, on the occasion I missed with the first shot, I dropped winged or runnin' critters with the second.

when an old cajun guy was trying to explain why a bolt action and the .410 was a poor choice for a rabbit gun, a rabbit busted cover and took off... I leveled on the bunny and missed, stroked the bolt and dropped him cleanly.

At the tailgates for them to drink a beer and talk about the mornin' he proceeded to make me blush tellin' his fellow old timers that they had to put me with the poor shooters in the bunch so they could see a dead rabbit too.

Brent
 
I will judge by their attitude, what spouts from their mouth, and how they carry themselves.
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I've seen too many guy's break 24 or 25 with field guns and at least as many who couldn't break 15 with a 30K O/U to even think the gun makes much difference.
 
Shooting a 21 - 23 at skeet ....means you're in the 84 - 92 area .../ or an average in the mid to upper 80's ...

( and that's fine / I'm around the same area these days ...with an 88 as my goal - with no single score below a 22). Once in a while I'm a 95 or 96 ....but often I'm in the upper 80's as well ...with a number of physical and eyesight issues slowing me down and taking a toll on my consistent scores...its truly a rare occassion when I run 75 in a row anymore...

But lets be honest...among serious skeet shooters ...even at a small time club level ...let alone regional or national levels...score averages below a 96 will get you into the bottom 30% of even a local registered or club shoot..../ in 16 yard Trap singles - the score averages are even higher...

There is nothing wrong with having a goal of an 80 or an 84 ...or whatever ...especially if you're just shooting casually .....and sometimes its just fun to go out with your buddies - have some laughs - and shoot in the
80's ..../ but an average of 84 - 92 doesn't make a serious skeet shooter ( so I'm not a serious skeet shooter either at an 88 avg )....and it won't beat many serious skeet shooters when they're really trying to focus on their game - not even on a practice day ! Let alone when you go out with the big dogs to play ....where you better shoot 100 straight if you want to be in contention...
 
No, I usually have the cheapest gun, some of them guns cost as much as a good car.

Dad used a winchester 96, was old, heavy and shot straight. Its the shooter not the gun he told me often.


He had a lot of trophys won with that old hand me down shotgun. Saw him do 100 out of 100 a few times for cash.
 
Yes, I judge people by the shotguns they carry. There is a difference for me though when hunting rather than target shooting.

For target shooting, I absolutely hate seeing those multi thousand dollar giant ribbed trap guns. That tells me A. that the people shooting them have nothing better to spend their money on than a gun they shoot maybe once a week, or B. that you can't shoot good enough with a regular shotgun, or C., they just want to look like they know what they are doing. I think they forget no matter how much more their gun costs, my gun can do just as good as their's can. (Shotguns arn't rifles, you can't control where each pellet hits)

For hunting on the other hand, I absolutely hate seeing Junk guns, at least for upland/small game. I know I said before, a shotgun is a shotgun and any shotgun can kill as well as mine, but there are shotguns I can't stand seeing when hunting upland birds. Some of the guns I hate seeing while walking down a pheasant field are, New pump actions, Synthetic, Camo(especially spray paint camo), wood that looks like particle board, New Semi Auto's, synthetic, camo, ugly wood(laminated). You just don't hunt upland with with guns like that, it's just not right! I'm not a huge fan of any pump action shotgun, but a model 12, or 97 would be fine and a Remington 1100, or browning A5 would be fine.

Something else that I hate seeing when hunting upland is CAMO clothing. Again, it just doesn't look right. Especially military camo, I hate seeing that when hunting anything.

So if your ever hunting South Central Pennsylvania, and see someone small game hunting that looks like their from the early 1900's, that would be me. I'll be wearing my tan cotton duck small game jacket, matching brush pants, 16 inch Bean Boots, and a tan and blaze Winchester hat. That is what an upland bird hunter should look like. Oh yea, the gun I'll be carrying will have 2 barrels, and the stock will be made of real wood, imagine that!

Antique Shooter
 
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everyone is guilty of judging someone or something at least once in their life, when it comes to shotguns yes i do judge, if you have a pardner protector im going to think you dont know much guns, if you have a benelli super nova im going to think otherwise
 
Antique Shooter said:
Yes, I judge people by the shotguns they carry.
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I absolutely hate seeing those multi thousand dollar giant ribbed
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I absolutely hate seeing Junk guns, at least for upland/small game
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Some of the guns I hate seeing while walking down a pheasant field are,
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Something else that I hate seeing when hunting upland
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I hate seeing that when hunting anything.
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Lots of hate here. I tend to judge a person by the content of their character, rather than the gun they're carrying or the clothing they wear in the field.
 
That is what an upland bird hunter should look like.
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That is a regionally/socially subjective statement...

Had you been around the thumb of michigan in about 1980, you would have seen what I, at the time, thought an upland bird hunter should look like...

About an eleven year old boy in either a t-shirt of any color or, if cooler than that, a blue or red flannel shirt.

But This uplander thought anyone shooting anything other than a blot action .410 or 30-35# Fred Bear long bow with "kid glove" leather wrapped grip was a poor shot trying to make up for it with a gun that loaded it's own next shot... And I didn't use my field points on pheasant... I used my arrows with .5 inch rubber "dum-dum" tips... Knock them down and ring their ring neck!:D

Brent
 
I don't even really care what guns those I hunt with carry. Off the top of my head, I can only name a few of their guns. I can tell you though how many deer they let get by them. Seems like the more important piece of information to me.
 
Of course I judge people by their appearance. It's part of our tribal survival instinct. Political correctness aside, mankind has survived because of our ability to quickly identify a strange and determine if he is one of us or one of them.

I remember an occasion when we were taking a break between rounds at the local Trap and Skeet club. My buddy looked over my shoulder and said, "Let's move, NOW!" and we did. He'd noticed a goofy-looking father and son team had just taken a soft gun case out to their car and set it on a near-by bench pointed directly at us. The son then proceeded to take a bargain basement pump gun out of the case, wave it around and then pump out 5 shells. The rangemaster was immediately all over them. I was glad that my buddy had immediately recognized these guys as being half a bubble off of level.
 
I'm sure I've been judged, and sometimes it turns out in my favor. I remember a day plinking with my friend's .50 cal. (Yes, it can be done.) We had some old empty camp propane bottles, some plastic bottles, etc. We were at a huge open pit mine, so there was no fire danger from the propane. Anyway, he and his friend shot at that thing with the big .50 4 or 5 times, but couldn't seem to get it. I asked if I could try with my NEF .45-70. At about 175 yards, with open sights, it was bowled over with a 350 grain bullet. A friend of mine said, simply, "Don't [mess] with Ben and his $175 rifle." It's fun to shoot cheap guns well and prove that it's not the gun, but the shooter. It's the same reaction I got when I used to beat people at IDPA with a Glock 26, and they couldn't seem to get their Kimbers and Wilsons to shoot fast enough for them.

I absolutely hate it when people seem to think a certain legal arm shouldn't be used for hunting, based on vintage, composition, price, or finish. :D
 
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Come on guys .... / this jusgement - based on equipment - seems to go both ways....

the question is ...whether we judge or not ...yes, we do / but most of us try not to.../ and judge people by the way they act ...

but I see a lot more guys with tactical shotguns ---that can't hit 15 out of 25clay targets ...than I do guys with $ 5,000 shotguns, that can't shoot them ....( and a lot more guys with Glocks - that can't triple tap an 18" circle consistently at 30 feet out of a holster / than I do guys with guns from Wilson Combat that can't shoot ...) ...

spending money on a gun is relative .. it depends on how much money you have and what else is going on in your life ! If I want to spend $ 100 or
$ 50K on a birthday present for my wife ...it doesn't make me a bad guy - or a good guy ... / anymore than whether I choose to take a $ 5,000 O/U out in the field to shoot Quail .../ and while my $5,000 O/U may be a way better gun ( to me ) what the heck should it matter to anyone else ....what I choose to hunt with ...or shoot clay targets with ...

Stereotypes .....its about how we deal with them...! / and its a valid question ------( not everyone over 6'4" and 275 lbs is a stupid ex-football player ) ...some of us are / but big guys have feelings too :cool:....and we own and shoot nice shotguns ...and we buy our wives nice birthday presents ...) .....because we can / and we want to ...!!
 
I keep reading on the Internet about all these guys with cheap guns who are regularly kicking the butts of guys with high dollar guns. Yet I rarely see it happen in real life. ;)

There is no virtue in having a cheap gun. There is no virtue in having an expensive gun. Targets whether clay or feathered are very disrespectful. They have no idea how much your gun cost only whether the pellets hit the mark. Anything else doesn't matter.
 
I learned a LONG time ago not to bet against the guy in overalls with a Model 12 in 20 gauge with no blue nor bead.....

I've outshot guys with high dollar shotguns using varied 870s,and also had them eat my lunch. I've run across jerks with K-80s and with JC Higgins pumps.

As long as other shooters are SAFE and ETHICAL and not jerks, I care not a whit what they are using.
 
if cooler than that, a blue or red flannel shirt
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Ahh yes, a real old fashioned bird hunter. Good for you!!!!!
I wear either a red check or green check flannel shirt underneath my jacket.

I used my arrows with .5 inch rubber "dum-dum" tips
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dum-dum tips or blunts work great on pheasants, they make them now with little points on the end!!

Antique Shooter
 
What forced me to improve my accuracy with the bow was my disdain for huntin' lost arrows in the "headlands", fence rows and cut corn fields...:o

Brent
 
the gun I'll be carrying will have 2 barrels, and the stock will be made of real wood, imagine that!
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Lol I got a cousin just like you. We hunt a lot tho, he carries very old doubles and is very good with them. One time in the rain he took a pump, couldnt hit a barn door with it.

We came out of a field, my dog was on point next to the truck in the ditch, he goes to the dog a pheas flushes, he shoots it, goes to step down into the ditch and fell flat on his face gun under him. Didnt hurt it, we laff about it to this day.

I prefer a 1100 or my 11 87 light contour with real wood stock :) imagine that :)

Doubles just are not as popular in the mid west, I hardly ever see one.
 
Judge? no but I do study material choices people make. From cars, tires, knives, guns, ect. A person can gleen some insight about peoples personalities and finances and life styles by their purchases. When it comes to guns, many people hold them in high reguard, yet so many that do hold them in such reguard think only of accuracy, and allowing quality to be wanting. I myself would easily surfice quite a bit of accuracy in exchange for quality hand built guns.
 
I know of 3 people on this post that have judged me and and have given me **** because I shoot skeet with a Saiga 12 and can and have hit 23 out of 25 clays in 1 game of skeet. And when I get the high scores the people I shoot with give me praise for doing so well with that gun.

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