My dad started me with a .410 single shot for dove hunting when I was ten. He always enjoyed ragging his friends that came out with us when I would get more birds than some of them using 12-gauge pumps.
It's funny, but when he allowed me to start using his Ithaca double-barrel 12-gauge, it initially made me a worse shot. Nothing like knowing you have one shot and not much of a pattern to make you focus on it.
"It's funny, but when he allowed me to start using his Ithaca double-barrel 12-gauge, it initially made me a worse shot. Nothing like knowing you have one shot and not much of a pattern to make you focus on it."
That's true. My 20 ga. side-by-side is an Ithaca Featherweight. My dad gave it to me when I was 12, and it fit me like a glove. When I got to my full height, I had to add a recoil pad to it to get the fit right again, but I love that gun. It has short chambers, and I only shoot low-base shells in it. The barrels are a bit thinnish for high-base, in my mind.
That said, I don't really hunt any more. Too much else going on, and the bird hunting in Minnesota is more duck and geese, plus pheasant and turkey in some parts of the state. I'm thinking about going after turkey with my next door neighbor next year, but the old 20 isn't getting much use any more. Maybe I'll teach my nephew to hunt and pass it along to him someday.