Ladies and Gentlemen:

Since pheasants are all but extinct here in Pennsylvania, and I really loved hunting them, I guess I'll have to hunt them in the midwest.

When you go on one of these South Dakota/Kansas/Nebraska pheasant hunts do you bring a spare shotgun?

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I hunt South Dakota and their season usually opens the third Saturday in October.

I do not take a spare shotgun. The daily limit is usually 3 and possession is 15 or so.

You will be doing more walking than shooting and there is a low probability of wearing out a reliable shotgun.

An over/under with full and modified chokes is what I like.

I go to S.D., Iowa and Kansas and always take a spare. You may find an alternative impossible once there. Especially if the primary is a gas op auto. They are wonderful but IMO much more tendency for unexpected and unwanted mechanical problems. There's a long list of stuff I've seen go wrong with numerous guns over several decades that left me with what amounts to a single shot, or no shot at all, or having to visit the nearest Wal-Wart to buy a gun.

For pheasants the spare is either a 12 ga Browning O/U Citori or one of two Winchester Model 12s. The Wins are either 16 ga (lightweight and perfect for pheasant) or a 12 ga. I'd try to not take anything real expensive. The primary's an 11-87.

I would if you have the extra space. I take an extra gun with when i travel 1hour to hunt geese. Could save the trip. I have seen all type of shotguns have problems.Not often but does happen.

Gentlemen:

Thank you for your advice.

I'll keep a spare Auto 5 that I was going to sell next week.

Shack: I agree, I'm not going to put my Superposed in a plane's belly with the lovely and honorable TSA checking everything.

I'm thinking along the lines of two Auto 5's, both about quarter choke, but I've only miked the muzzle, and I haven't patterned them yet. That should do it for pheasants, I think.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

You are going to shoot (at most) 15 birds and need a spare shotgun???

Dear Mr. Johnson:

Yup, the vagaries of possibly slipping, falling and cracking or breaking a stock comes to mind.

I've seen two accidents in front of my eyes with hunting buddies of exactly that scenario. For some reason after 35 years of off and on hunting, I haven't broken anything, but who knows, I'm probably due.

I'm less concerned about mechanical failure, since I've torn all of them down (the Auto 5's), replaced the bushings, springs etc. and regreased them.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

Sounds like you are going to be well prepared. Hope you have a great hunt and get some of those long tailed ones. The pheasant season is always a great time of year to be outdoors and walking around behind some good hounds.

just a note - the last 2 years iowa has had massive rains and flooding which has drowned out the nesting pheasants in large areas of the state

I take spares to the gun club, if you've got room, NOT taking one to a planned and distant hunt is kind of dumb IMO. I've shot tens, if not hundreds of thousands or rounds through Winchester 101s, and have never had a breakage that stopped my shooting but even using a 101 as a primary gun, I take two. It is unlikely you'll need a spare pheasant hunting, but poop happens, and it is so easy to cover this eventuality, why not carry a spare?

Dear Gatogordo:

I agree. I'm keeping the second Auto 5.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

I have had an A5 and know what you are concerned with.

You can easily solve your reliability problems simply by getting one o/u.

By the way, the upper midwest is not Africa. They do have Walmart's there.

Dear Mr. Johnson:

Actually, I have two over and unders. One, a 1960's vintage Savage 444 in 12 gauge made by Brescia Armi in Italy. I have hunted with that shotgun since 1977.

The other is a 1973 Browning Superposed 12 gauge that I found in of all places the Cabelas rack in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. It had never been fired.

But for a hunt where the shotguns must go into a plane's cargo hold, I don't want to see one of them disappear. I spent almost 10 years finding that Superposed, and went through a lot of shotguns. It fits just like my old Savage.

The other reasons that I want to hunt with Auto 5's are because a Sweet Sixteen was the first shotgun that I borrowed at age 12 in my first pheasant hunts, and after shooting one last spring for the first time since 1975, I am now hooked.

Lastly, after you tear an Auto 5 down, and see firsthand the genius of John Browning, its hard to want to shoot any other autoloader. And after I tuned it up with new grease, springs and bushings, it shoots as nicely as any autoloader that I have ever fired. Damn accurate, too with handloads.

By the way, the two Auto 5's where I had to replace the left hand extractor and locking block, since both were broken, were not caused by design flaws, but by imprecise machining in Belgium. I had to modify the replacement locking block on one and modify both left hand extractors to compensate for the machining errors.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

quote:

The other reasons that I want to hunt with Auto 5's are because a Sweet Sixteen was the first shotgun that I borrowed at age 12 in my first pheasant hunts, and after shooting one last spring for the first time since 1975, I am now hooked.

Yale, Good thinking. Thats a great reason to take it and I would do the same.