Soupy - you and I are about the same age . . . when I was a kid, we did a lot of pheasant and duck hunting as well. I started out with a .410 but soon graduated to an old N.R. Davis double 16 - it brought down a lot of pheasants and ducks as well as rabbits.
When hunting with the neighbor one time (they had an excellent English Setter that was a great "bird dog") . . . the father of the neighbor kids let me use his double 12 gauge. (I can't remember the make but a fairly plain model). I was walking along the edge of a corn field we were driving for birds when one went up and flew across my path - away from the field where the others were. I pulled that 12 gauge up and let 'er fly - I wasn't used to the triggers though and ended up setting both of them off. It didn't knock me down but it was close and I felt like I was on the end of a 75mm cannon. I got a clean kill on the pheasant - by why wouldn't I? After all, there was twice as much lead shot flying at it! My shoulder was sore for a week but I had learned a valuable lesson in regards to double barrels! :roll eyes:
What's nice is that you not only have the shotgun . . . but the memories as well. You just can't put a price on those things . . . .
