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timb99

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Everything posted by timb99

  1. Sorry Cathy, I have to disagree. I have a strong feeling about these guns. Please...do not ruin your child's shooting introduction with one of those NEF "Pardner" single shot shotguns. Potentially the worst thing you can do to a kid. Only do this if you want your kid to hate their introduction to the shooting sports. They are really light, which equals heavy recoil. Really heavy triggers, which are hard for small fingers to pull. Really heavy external hammer (external hammers are dangerous, hard for young folks to cock, and almost impossible for young thumbs to decock safely.) Get a youth 1187. Yes, they are heavy, but they're not going to be shooting 25 rounds without putting it down.
  2. Try Spike's recommendation on taking it back to the shop where you got it, but if they say, too bad, your problem, it is perfectly legal to ship firearms in the US Postal service, or UPS, or FedEx, or whatever. I just use the US Postal Service. If the gun is going back to the manufacturer, it is perfectly legal for you to mail it. Package it properly (the boxes the gun usually come packaged in are NOT good enough.) You need a HEAVY cardboard box and packing peanuts or styrofoam. The gun MUST be unloaded, which should be obvious. Do not put anything on the packaging that would imply or express that it is a gun. Should be blank, except the 'from' and 'to' addresses. Before you send it to Stoeger you need a return authorization number. You "might" also need a copy of their FFL to take with you to the post office. But I don't think so. You should tell the Post Office it is a firearm, but I don't think you are required to do so. I always do. If you get any flak from the person at the counter, ask for the manager. They should know the rules. I recommend getting insurance, too. Its not that big a deal. Good info here: http://www.losttarget.com/firearmshipping.htm
  3. I'll offer my opinion on the trap part of the question. First, there are better choices than the Condor. How old is he, and how big a boy is he? Trap is a 12 gauge game. It would be better if you could get him started with a 12 gauge with light loads. A Remington 1100 is a great choice for a starter trap gun. or a Browning BT-99 micro. If he's too small for a 12 gauge, a Remington 1187 20 gauge youth gun is a really good choice to get kids started. For trap, if you go with the 20 gauge, start him off with a modified choke, and 7/8 ounce target loads with number 7-1/2 or 8 shot. To answer your next question, at 16 yards, no, 7-1/2 or 8 does not matter. For turkey hunting, I will let folks with more experience post about that.
  4. timb99

    SD Pheasant

    Cathy, You MUST go to South Dakota. I'll write you a permission slip if you need one.
  5. timb99

    SD Pheasant

    Congrats. I am translucent green with envy.
  6. Nevertheless, good hunting! I'd still take it to the taxidermist! Its cool! I have heard of, and even seen photos of albino pheasants, and melanistic mutant pheasants. Both very rare and cool looking.
  7. The photo is not clear, but I'm not sure what you have there is a "golden pheasant." Golden pheasants are virtually unheard of in the wild in the USA. I'm guessing what you have is a ring-necked pheasant with slightly mutated pigmentation Here's what a golden pheasant looks like.
  8. It was 8" high at what distance (BTW, that's great for an ATA trap gun)? If it patterns high, obviously you need to lower the comb. If you lowered the comb, and it still patterns high, are you are "peeking" to get a "figure 8" with the beads? If so, forget that. Are you seeing a lot of rib between the beads when you mount the gun? Also, when you look through the barrel at some light colored object, are the "rings" inside the barrel all concentric? If they are not, the barrel may be bent. If all else fails, add an "add on" rib (yeah, I know it sucks to have to mess with a new gun.) An add-on rib will raise the bead and make the gun shoot lower. Just some random thoughts.
  9. saym14 If you shoot the gun at dusk (depending on the ammo you may use), you will sometimes see a flash out the muzzle and ports. I have found ported barrels, be it shotgun or rifle, to be noticeably louder than un-ported. And everyone I know who does a lot of sport shooting (skeet, trap, sporting clays) complains about cleaning the ports. Its a common complaint.
  10. M1014 No, you are right, I am not familiar with the gun you mention. I answered the question in the context it was raised, that is, "...shooting clays, trap, skeet, throwing our own and a little dove or pheasant hunting now and then..."
  11. I have nothing to add right now. I'm in Africa. Which is killing me because I really want to be out pheasant hunting. However, next fall (which for me starts some time in March) I plan to go out and do some upland game bird hunting. They hunt pigeons, dove, a bird called the francolin (looks like a small hen pheasant without long tail feathers) and guinea fowl.
  12. Oh, and they DO make the gun louder (bad in a duck blind) and have been known to blow hot plastic wad chunks out the ports, too.
  13. Absolutely, positively, a waste of money (for shotguns, anyway.) The much ballyhooed sales propaganda of drastically reduced recoil are bogus. Well regarded ballistics calculations show porting can only reduce recoil by about 2 to 4 percent, at most. Well over 90% of shotgun recoil is due to the mass of the shot and wad, and only a little due to gas jetting out the barrel. Ports work by redirecting some of the jetting gases laterally, instead of axially along the barrel centerline. Rifles, on the other hand, have a much higher percentage of their recoil attributable to jetting gases, and this is why porting is effective for rifles. Especially large case magnum cartridges which require a lot of powder. Try shooting a .338 mag, with, and without a muzzle brake, and you'll understand. Shotgun porting, as long as the ports are on the top of the barrel, DOES reduce muzzle rise. As far as I am concerned, this is the ONLY benefit of shotgun barrel porting, and even this is kind of dubious. How often do you fail to get a second shot off due to muzzle rise? Since ported chokes have the ports all around them, they are not capable of reducing muzzle rise. Each jet cancels another jet out on the other side of the tube. And they're really not effective at recoil reduction, either. Your mileage may vary.
  14. "...a little better velocity with the same shot-load..." Although technically true, the reality is that the difference is not measurable for shotguns. Rifles, yes. Shotguns, not enough that you can measure it accurately. A friend of mine tested this with a really stupid expensive Oehler Induction Chronograph, two virtually identical barrels (one 28", one 32"), and factory shells. What he found was the standard deviation of one shell to the next in a box of shells is greater than the measurable difference between a 32" barrel and a 28" barrel. BTW, my CZ 712 semi-auto with a 26" barrel is almost exactly the same overall length as my 30" Over/Under. John, I recommend this is a perfect excuse to buy a new shotgun!
  15. A few thoughts on your post: 1. The day you think you think you really have something "figured out" is the day you have made a mistake. You'll soon learn that you don't even know yet what you don't know. This applies to everything in life, not just firearms. 2. Never sell a gun. You may not need it today. But you might later. Or it'll fall into the category of, "man, I wish I'd never sold that gun." Which tends to happen 10 or 20 years from now, and the reasons are myriad (sentimental, the value went waaaay up, now you have a need, etc.) 3. You are new to the whole firearms ownership thing. Once the "shine" wears off, you will recognize firearms for what they really are. Tools. Mechanical devices with a specific purpose. They're not magic. They're not scary. They're neither good nor bad. They're just a tool. 4. You never graduate in firearms training/experience. You just learn more. Like the old saying goes, "its a journey, not a destination." If you think you've graduated, then you might think you don't have more to learn. I've been around firearms nearly all my life. I learn something new all the time. In fact, I enjoy learning new things. 5. Practice, practice, practice. The best way to become not only proficient with your guns but safer with your guns is to use them, regularly, at the range until they become an extension of yourself when you have them in your hands. 6. Never, never, never take them for granted. Always respect the gun for what it is capable of, if misused or abused. 7. Remember, YOU are responsible for the bullet/shot until it stops, when you have control of the gun. Not the manufacturer. Not the person who got in the way. Not the safety because it malfunctioned. Not the rock because the bullet ricocheted. YOU. Never forget the rules of safe gun handling, especially the top three: Always maintain muzzle control. Treat every gun as if it was loaded, even if you are 100% sure it is not. And even if the action is open. Never point the gun at anything your don't want to shoot or kill. Welcome to the world of responsible gun owners!
  16. Funny, I have an Ithaca Model 37 in 16 gauge. Great upland gun. I bought a youth uplander for my daughter about 10 years ago (which was a mistake, but that's a different story.) It seems to be reasonably well made, although its not the prettiest gun. Really hasn't been shot much, so its hard to tell how it will stand the test of time. I have toyed with getting an uplander in 16 gauge, just to have a 16 gauge SxS. So I'm not a good source of feedback for the uplander.
  17. Unless you are an expert shot, and don't plan on taking shots on pheasants at more than about 25-30 yards, I'd go with the sweet 16 over the 28. I love the 28 gauge, especially for skeet. And no doubt, you can kill pheasants with a 28. But the 16 is a little more versatile. You can load it heavy for pheasants, or you can put light loads in it for quail. Your mileage may vary.
  18. This is absolutely, positively, a matter of personal preference. Most semi-autos are pretty reliable, though there are a few more things to go wrong when compared to a pump gun. Pump guns are very reliable, and if you practice a lot, you can squeeze off shots almost as fast as an autoloader. Whatever you get, the most important thing is GUN FIT!!! The gun has to fit you. This is critical if you want to hit what you are shooting at. Good luck.
  19. Are you using reloads or factory cartridges? If reloads, are you full-length sizing or just neck sizing? If just neck sizing, is the brass you are using from this gun, or have they been used in a different gun?
  20. Adam, I still don't believe there's any benefit, at all, to adding a mag extension on a hunting gun. I'd rethink that one. Just my opinion.
  21. Adam, You might want to check with the range you plan to shoot clay targets at. Most of them only allow one shell in the chamber, none in the magazine when shooting trap, and one in the chamber, one in the magazine only, when shooting skeet or sporting clays.
  22. timb99

    ST3000

    Stoeger makes a Condor Combo in both regular grade and supreme grade that come with a 12 gauge barrel set and a 20 gauge barrel set. However, you must buy the combo to get the barrels. If you have a 12 gauge, they will not sell you the 20 gauge barrel set aftermarket. At least, that's what others have said when they contacted Stoeger to ask this questions. Never hurts to give them a call (I don't recommend e-mailing them) but I suspect the answer will be no.
  23. Super, It was kind of tongue-in-cheek, as I agree with you in that generalization. But in this case, he's one smart guy. Serves on the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code committee that makes the rules for designing high pressure pipe. I put more faith in his guesses than in most people's facts.
  24. I would NEVER have a gun barrel ported. NEVER. Its an absolute waste of money. Reasons: 1. It cannot appreciably help recoil, despite what the advertisements all say. 2. In a duck blind, your fellow duck hunting mates won't appreciate the extra noise, and the occasional hot pieces of wad that come flying out of the ports. What bigkuntry72 said is true. Except its not a Wisconsin law, its a Federal law. Migratory birds, no more than one in the chamber, and two in the mag, and it has to be plugged, so you physically cannot put more than two in the mag. No accounting for the honor system. Mag tube does you no good here. Another reason not to add that mag extension is weight. If you load up 6 or 8 shells in your mag, your nice, light Nova just became a heavy lump you have to carry out in the field. And really, how often do you think you're going to need more than 2 or 3 shots? For hunting, 2 or 3 shots is all you're likely to need anyway. You'll be much better off getting acquainted with your gun by learning to shoot it, than any of those modifications will do for you. Spend your money on shooting clay targets, and taking a wing-shooting lesson from a reputable instructor, someone with an NSCA certification.
  25. To Snap Cap, or Not??? (this is a copy and paste from a post I made a while back.) I asked my buddy to weigh in on this subject a while back. He has a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in machine design and strength of materials. Alas, I have only a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering, so obviously, he's smarter than me. His answer? It depends. It depends on the material and the level of stress seen in the sprung (cocked position) and the unsprung (hammer down) position. Metals used for springs DO INDEED take a set, that is, if kept in a stressed condition for long periods of time, the metal will actually "creep" (and yes, that really is an engineering term.) Which is why your hammer springs get shorter over time, because regardless of whether the hammer is cocked or uncocked, the hammer spring is under stress. Its just under higher stress when its cocked. However, cycles (each time you take a shot) will fatigue a spring as well. And in the case of someone who shoots 5,000 targets a year, spring fatigue due to cycles may indeed be the governing cause of spring weakening, and not creep due to storing it in a stressed position. So, for guns used occasionally, like hunting guns, snap caps may indeed extend the life of the hammer spring. On the other hand, for guns that are used regularly, like competitive trap guns, chances are that using a snap cap may be of limited benefit. Will a snap cap harm anything? Oh, probably not. Do you NEED them? Oh, probably not. I use my snap caps for practicing mounting my gun and improving my swing to the target in my basement. As with all things...your mileage may vary. Probably the right answer is, if you shoot A LOT with your guns, you should replace your hammer springs periodically. If you DO use snap caps before you store your guns, make doggone sure its really a snap cap and not a live round!
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