I also had a Steven 311 12ga, when I was a teenager. Traded it off for an AL-2(still got it, don't shoot it though). About ten years ago I got started in the cowboy action shooting game and got back into SxSs. Then I started hunting with them some. I now have nine SxS only two have steel barrels. The damascus and twist barrels just have much great eye appeal than plain old blued steel. Also I get to buy guns with engraving that I could not afford if I had to buy the new stuff.

It's fun to take any of them out to shoot clays of any kind and have the other shooters ask what is that old gun?

Besides any good SxS, is nicer to look at than the plastic stocked, cammo painted Bubba guns that are so prevalent in the market today.

Hog Killer

Well...................well......well.
I am surprised and very pleased to find out all the other people that like the SxS for its balance and fast handling qualities, its looks and I guess history and style. I believed until I read all the answers in this thread that I lived in an universe of pumps and autos with a sprinkling of over and unders.
To me the SxS is like an extension of my left pointing finger and eye all wrapped into one.( Figger that one).
I too noticed that many beautifull SxS guns are dumped on the market by their owners because they do not shoot steel. Good for us since we then get the bargains now, and which we could not afford when lead was still legal for all feathered game and those bargains now used to cost an arm and leg. Witness the beautifull Beretta pictured on this thread for $475 US.

FLA3006,
Congrats with that gorgeous Beretta of yours. What Bargain for $475. Be a bargain for triple that. Yes, once a while you can get lucky like that.

Shrike, it was one of those opportunities that doesn't come along very often. The pawnbroker didn't know what he had and obviously didn't have much invested in it. I love just about all SxS's, started out as a kid with an L.C. Smith field grade. I like the Remington M-31 pump and the Browning A5 if I'm shooting a repeater.

Picked up a 1886 Boss & Co. twelve bore side-lever back-action sidelock a few years ago from a small gunstore near London. A friend happened to be in the store when it was brought in for sale by the original owner's family. Got it for a song. In great shape and shoots just as well. Don't shoot it much, only once this year but it won class at a local vintage shotgun match. Thinking of using it on opening day of dove season. Not really the grouse it was made to shoot but about as good as we can do in Texas.