Fulton Hunter Arms SxS 12 Gauge for Christmas

[bruce drake]

Spending the week in Indiana with the In-Laws and we celebrated Christmas this morning after all the family made it in from Georgia, Kansas and Northern Indiana.

One present for me out from the tree was a Fulton-Hunter Arms 12gauge Double Barrel shotgun with 28" barrels. :drinks: from my Father-In-Law. She's a little dusty from the previous owner (not my FIL) storing it in a closet for about 30 years but I am looking forward to running some shells through the old girl sometime in the next week :)

Photos to come once I can get her cleaned up and presentable. It needs a replacement buttplate at the moment as well. FIL states it was used regularly by the previous owner for birds and rabbits here in Indiana in the past so I look forward to using it as well for the same purposes.

Bruce

[eck0313]

My father had a 12 ga. Fulton with which I learned to hunt squirrels. I patterned extremely tight with #4 shot - I killed my first squirrel at 43 paces. It was choked too tightly for birds, and even rabbits unless you gave them some run time. His didn't seem to pattern well with #6 shot. I blew a lot of squirrels out of trees to have them hit the ground running. Never had that problem with a 20 gauge, or 410 using #6 shot.

Enjoy your "Poor Man's LC Smith" as they were known.

[bruce drake]

I reload mostly #8s for the few times I shoot trap and go squirrel hunting so I'll be interested in how it patterns.

Bruce

[DIRT Farmer]

Dang Bruce somebody likes you. I had hopes for a sweet twenty but ended up buying a Ithaca twenty for my self.

[bruce drake]

I am his best (and only) son-in-law... I try to do my best for the man since he raised my wife to be the sweet woman that she is. The shotgun present was totally unexpected and now I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the model. I think the front trigger goes to the left barrel and the rear trigger goes to the right barrel but I may be completely wrong on that until I can fire it on the range or find a manual somewhere.

Bruce

[Bren R.]

Can always test your theory by cutting a shell back to the rim, removing the shot, powder and wad, soak the primer in oil and look for a dimple.

That is... put it in the left barrel, pull the front trigger, then open... if it's dimpled the primer, you know you have the correct trigger.

I'd still do this outside in case the oil didn't kill the primer.

Bren R.

[John Boy]

Here's a bit of history about the Hunter Arms Company ...
http://www.simonds.cc/company/history11.php?menu=../mnu/mnuCompanyHistory

[DIRT Farmer]

Bruce it should be front trigger right barrel, at least that is the normal I have found.

I learned something about army wives this fall. My daughter in law called wanting to know if I could help her check the sights on her shot gun and my sons M/L. He was at school house and was getting back late Friday night and she wanted everything set so they could go deer hunting Saturday morning. AND she wanted to clean both guns herself.

[bruce drake]

Wife and kids like to shoot but always disappear around cleaning time...I ordered a replacement buttplate from Numrich and it should be back up and running very soon. I need to break it down and give it a good scrubbing though to replace the old oil with some new oil.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Been a double gunnner near all my life... well until I got my first Fox.
All mine have been front trigger = right barrel which is usually the more open choke for those under 30 yard targets. Most my hunting in the last 20 years is on crows so do not over loook those noisy pests. Took out another 2, defeathered 2 and flat missed 3 Friday morning. Nothing like a long string of crows flying into the wind on a foggy low cloud morning.
Mike in ILL

[StrawHat]

Bruce, an easier way to determine which trigger for which barrel is drop a length of half inch wooden dowel down the barrel (or one in each) point the barrels skyward and pull one trigger. The dowel that moves is the one connected to the trigger.

[bruce drake]

With the 28" barrels, that's a long barrel ;) But a good idea!

I might be able to go out and dust some clays tomorrow if the weather is good here in Indiana.

[bruce drake]

Holy Shoot! Do I love this gun! Went to the Trap Range today with the oldest boy and his friend to shoot a few rounds. As the friends here mentioned in their posts, Front trigger - Right barrel. Its also the barrel for the close shots while the left is definitely for the farther shots.

After a few shots to get the idea of the clay leads for the machine, I succeeded in dusting 18 of 25 birds on the first round and then 21 of 25 on the second round. Considering I normally go between 12-16 with my Stevens 350 (Ithaca 37 clone) in my previous trips to the Trap Range, this is a great improvement. The shotgun just points so nicely and the two barrels make for a smooth plane to track the bird through its flight!

I used my own reloads of Winchester (first string) and Federal (2nd string) Hulls over 18gr of Red Dot with Claybuster 12SO wads and 1oz of #8 shot with an overshot card of cardboard (punched out from a Fat Tire Beer bottle 12 pack)

I think I lost my Stevens 350 to my oldest son as he loves the pump over his old break-action single shot NEF, but with the way this Fulton shoots, I say, "what Stevens..."

Bruce

[LUBEDUDE]

Hey BD, Congrats on your new Shotgun, sure sounds like a winner and fit right ya.

[StrawHat]

Glad it worked out for you!

[DIRT Farmer]

Bruce I have been using the 7/8 Clay Buster wad in my 12 ga loads, makes the shot and powder go futher. Then I found the 3/4 oz wads for 20 ga. All around a good deal, less recoil, componets go futher and I break as many clays.

[bruce drake]

Thanks for the hint on the lesser shot load. I've just recently started reloading for my shotguns and I went with a common load and components until I learned the tricks of the trade so to speak. I use a 7/8 load in my 20 but probably could drop it as well. I can easily adjust the weight of the shot by adding spacers to the top of the shotcup to keep the crimp set.

Bruce

[DIRT Farmer]

Bruce card wads in the next size smaller work well placed under the shot colum. Placing the card over the shot may open the pattern slightly, but that has it's place also.

As I shoot muzzle loading shotgun, I convenitatly have several of the common size wads.

[bruce drake]

Overshot Wads open the patterns....That probably explains why I did so well with my 12Ga. reloads last weekend!!! I use a 20 gauge overshot card on top of the pellets with the Claybuster wad to ensure I get good crimp with my LEE Loadall. At this point I think I might keep the load the way it is for now until I can get it to a patterning board to see what it does at the further ranges.

Bruce