The best single shot shotgun is...

[deepvalley]

Thanks guys, I took your advise into consideration and am now looking for either an H&R or a Winchester 37. I appreciate your help and will follow up with my choice and, if I can get my camera to work, pics of my future BOOM-STICK!!!

[nate45]

Either one will serve you well.

A word of advise/caution: Single shot shotguns recoil forcefully. As in they kick the daylights out of you. Start with 2 3/4in shells and make a conscious effort to pull it in tight to your shoulder. I've seen large men in pain after firing 3 in shells in an old Topper I once had. Do I feel bad about shooting a low base in it and then handing it to them with a 3 in magnum? No

[LilHog]

I recently purchase a new H&R topper jr 20ga, it's a very fine shotgun. My wife and I have shot it several time at the range and we both love it. it shoots a very nice tight pattern and the recoil is very managable with a slip on limbsaver. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great single shot.

[BigJimP]

and noone mentioned either .....
the Browning BT-100 or
the Krieghoff KX-5 ....

you guys are way off base .../ I'm offended ....

[oneounceload]

Jim, you mentioned good ones, I mentioned Ljutic and Seitz...........it seems these folks equate single shot with some cheap beginner gun.....oh well.............we try

[BigJimP]

and we will keep trying my friend ...

[LynnTX]

I have a Winchester 37A. It is not as nice as the mod. 37, but it is still a nice gun and is light weight. Worth a look in case you see one listed. Mine is in 12 ga. but there are others ga.'s available. Good luck.

[DRT300]

h&r for the money
TC encore best if money don't matter. IMO

[jaguarxk120]

The h&r the sks of shotguns

[Mike Armstrong]

Whatever you get, if it's bigger than a 20, budget some $$$ (not many) for a slip-on recoil pad. Single shot shotguns KICK, especially with magnum or slug loads. And hang on tight; any movement during recoil is liable to ding you. (I speak as one with a small silver scar in the thumb/index finger web of my right hand from the opening lever of a Stevens 94 12 guage that I was just in too much of a hurry to take hold of correctly).

If you are hunting in heavy cover, you'll find that most shotguns become single shots--you only get one shot per flushed bird or scampering cottontail. So why not just use a single shot: light, cheap, reliable. Did I mention light? Cheap?

My favorite single is the Savage 220 hammerless; next is the Win 37. Unless you need one NOW, shop around. The older guns are much better finished than guns made now at anything like a comparable price.

[oneounceload]

Single shot shotguns KICK,

That only holds true for the cheap H&R types that never seem to fit anyone

This one:

http://www.ljuticgun.com/adj_mono.htm, as seen here, does not

[Jim Watson]

I always though it would be fun to go after a second hand single barrelled trap gun with cutting tools and get the weight down three or four pounds for hunting.

From an old Gun Digest
Author: "Wouldn't it be nice to have a light hammerless single with a vent rib and a little engraving?"
Gun manufacturer: "Yes, and I might be able to sell 50 of them total."

[BigJimP]

Yes OneOunce,

but you can't use that Ljutic as a "boat paddle" either ...or at least I wouldn't ...

The Ljutic mono gun is a fine gun / although I do not own one ...and I'd rather have the Krieghoff KX-5 ....than the Ljutic ....but my old Browning BT-100 suits me very well .../when I want to shoot a single barrel.

Attachment 65974
Attachment 65975
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not as impressive as a KX-5 or the Ljutic Mono gun ...but I'd have to practice more if I was carrying that Ljutic or a Krieghoff around ..and dress better ...and lose weight ....

[jaguarxk120]

OneOunce will the Ithaca 4E fit in with the better single shot shotguns?

[Mike Armstrong]

Jim Watson, if you REALLY want to have a light hammerless gun with a ventilated rib and a little engraving, I know where there is a decent Savage 220 12 guage that you could start on. Add a Simmons rib and find a decent engraver and you're in business. Of course all that fancying up will make the factory walnut look a little shabby, so she'll need a new stock. And choke tubes....and a high polish blue job. HMMM. Maybe that Ljutic isn't so far out after all!

[oneounceload]

OneOunce will the Ithaca 4E fit in with the better single shot shotguns?

You bet, even those made by Perazzi for them will work nicely.......

[Jim Watson]

Yes, Mike, I know about the Savage 220.
What I REALLY admired was the 219/220 combo with rifle and shot barrels.
But I am not a hunter to really appreciate nice light guns.

[dgludwig]

If it were me, I'd be shopping for a used Iver Johnson "Champion" in good shape. Of course, if you were me you'd understand that I still have sentimental feelings for the first shotgun I ever fired as a boy, sixty years or so ago.

[kismet]

My own, personal, Customized Upland Bird Gun…made to my specifications.


Hah. I should just leave the story at that, sounding like a six-figure Holland and Holland collector's gun, doesn't it?

However, in the interests of full disclosure, the shotgun started life quite a few years ago as a Winchester Model 370, 12 gauge, full choke, 30 inch-barreled single-shot. The 370 is a lower grade version of the Model 37, I believe.

I've had the gun a few years and, since it duplicates my Hercules single 12 gauge, I kept on looking at it as a possible candidate for a pheasant gun I've always wanted. Since I had some very good pointing dogs...Button and then Young Bert, the not-right dog, I usually had a chance to get closer to the bird before it flushed. With a full choke, especially, and even with a modified one, I would have to wait a bit for many birds to get up and away before shooting. If I'd hit them with a tight pattern closer, I would have done too much damage, and really, I'm pretty much a meat hunter. It would defeat the whole purpose of being there.

Also, as the years go by, I've found I most often hit the bird with my first shot, and when I'm shooting a second barrel, it is frequently an exercise in futility--not always, but often. As much as I love my side-by-side AYA 20 gauge ( improved cylinder and modified barrels,) even that gets heavier as the days (and years) pass. Later in the season, I usually carry a single shot for weight, and figuring if I don't hit with one shot, well...that's fair. I had my chance. When jump-shooting ducks, often more than one bird goes up at a time, so then the double barrel makes sense to me, but with pheasants, less so.

OK, with that preamble out of the way, I took the 370 to a legendary gunsmith. He's a local guy who has Parker collectible shotguns shipped to him from across the continental U.S. for rehabbing, such is his skill level. He's an older man, a congenial guy, and with skills on many levels: fabricating parts, sculpting stocks, checkering, and general arms knowledge.

I wanted the 370 single cut down to 25 inches and threaded to take different chokes. I brought an improved cylinder choke with me. Mossberg, Winchester, and some other manufacturers use the same thread pattern for their screw-in chokes. I later got a modified choke for it, which I keep in the stock under the recoil pad. I've never had a shotgun with changeable chokes; mine are all older, more traditional hunting guns. I was seeking a light, fast-handling, more open choked single shot for my remaining pheasant years. Of course, the gun was worth less than the modest cost of the modifications, but this was an itch I'd wanted to scratch for quite a few years.

The result was wonderful. The gun isn't prettier, even with the home-refinishing I did to the much-abused wood, but it comes up fast, tracks well, and opens its pattern nicely to cover my misjudgments in selecting the exact flight track of the birds.

Of the twelve birds I got last year, eight of them were with the Model 370. I'm shooting 2 ¾ inch, number 5 shot shells. With the wider pattern and somewhat heavier shot than I formerly used, if even a few pellets hit the bird, it will come down. If I am spot-on, there is less pattern density to ruin meat.

The biggest problem I've had this year is that Wisconsin only allows a hunter to have four birds in possession--in total, including at home in the freezer, so I've been giving birds away--a new problem for me. I wish that processed and frozen birds could be exempt from that quota, since I would store and consume pheasants well into the Spring. I think the two-a-day limit is fine, but wish a hunter could be allowed to preserve his game into the future.

A customized shot gun need not be expensive, and can be a delight.


I’m loving it. It might be a worthy consideration for you, don’t you think?

(Recoil pad is from a cracked plastic rifle stock. With a single, hunting, recoil is really a non-issue. It is only repeated shooting that it comes into play.)

[51.50]

I like the Ithaca lever action single in 20 gauge.

[bamaranger]

Another vote for a Win 37. When Winchesters were Winchesters. Semi-hammerless, made right here from US steel and homegrown walnut, an icon.

[g.willikers]

The solution to the heavy recoil of a typically light weight single shot 12 gauge is learning to shoot it from the hip.
No kidding.
One of the regulars at our local range usually brings a cheapie Chinese version to play with.
It's surprisingly reliable and accurate, but nasty as can be.
But it didn't take long for most of us to be able to hit hand thrown clays with it, shooting from the hip.
As long as the birds didn't get too far away.
Great fun, too.
Try it sometime.

[Gunplummer]

I still have 2 single shots. An H&R 12 Gage and a Stevens 20 Gage. It is all I need. When I was younger I could not wait until I could buy a pump. A few hunts in the thick stuff and I was done with it and back to my single shot. No matter how much you shorten the barrel, you can not shorten the receiver. I consider singles the best in close cover. The H&R was made in the 30's. It was given to me and had a broken stock. A couple of winter nights in the old mans garage and I made an oak stock from a piece of split firewood. The stock is still on it. I used to take it along on the trapline during deer season and carried some slugs with me. If I caught something I pulled the barrel and used the chamber end as a club. I am serious. The older H&Rs had thicker barrels. Years later I cut it down and silver soldered a scope base right on the barrel (Try that with a new barrel). I shot quite a few deer with it when I lived in a shotgun area for a while. I planned on doing the same with the 20 Gage, but never had the time. As for the photo of the single with the vented rib, where would I go with it? Bruce Jenner has not invited me to and clay shoots lately.

[eastbank]

i bought H&R deluxe 12ga mag with a walnut checkered stock, vent rib and choke tubes at a close out for 129.00 out the door. its very light and kicks like hell with 3" mags, with standard 2-2/4" field loads its not bad and a joy to carry. eastbank.

[B.L.E.]

Single shot shotguns KICK,

That has nothing to do with being a single shot and everything to do with being too light and being poorly fitted.

I can shoot 200 trap birds with my 8.3 pound Browning BT99 trap gun without a bruised shoulder or cheek.

If you plan to do any form of clay bird shooting, where you shoot the gun 100+ times in a row, weigh the gun you plan to buy, it it weighs less than 7.5 to 8 pounds, put it back on the rack and buy something else.

Those 5-6 pound guns are good for hunting, where you carry the gun all day but only get off a couple of shots.