Logging with shotguns

Steven's double barrel twelve gauge

Back somewhere in my early years in high school, after managing to not shoot my eye out with assorted bb guns, and 22 rifles, I was finally allowed to take over the shotgun, and what a shotgun it was!

It was a Stevens double barrel side by side 12 gauge. After what I HAD been shooting, this glorious weapon was truly awe inspiring. The barrels looked like they were three feet long, and the bore was large enough to fire civil way cannonballs. And TWO triggers! Reloading was fun, too. The ejector made a little "poing!" noise as it launched the empties out of their chambers. How cool is THAT!

One Fall afternoon I was out walking through the woods, purportedly deer hunting, but in reality, just looking for things to shoot with that marvelous Stevens. I had already learned that if you shoot a deer, then you've got a whole lot of work ahead of you, and like most teenagers, work was something to be avoided whenever possible.

As I rounded a bend in the old logging road, I saw Vic, a high school buddy coming the other way, carrying a rifle. I suspect Vic was on the same mission I was, looking for stuff to shoot at. "Look what I got!", he says, holding up his rifle for me to see. "It's one of those British .303's, just got it!". (Was it an Enfield? I can't remember). Vic showed me all the details, pointing out this thing here, and that piece there.

"Watch this!", he says, chest filled with pride over his new rifle. Taking aim at an alder tree, maybe four or five inches in diameter, Vic fires, and the back half of the tree is splintered out and mostly gone. Pretty impressive!

The Stevens was loaded with double ought buck. I had no idea what it could do, but I figured I better give 'er a try, if for no reason other than to save face.

I took careful aim a bit below where Vic had shot, and pulled both triggers at the same time. BA-WOOOM!! Roughly a ten inch section of the tree was just gone! For an instant the upper portion of the tree just sorta hung there in space above this frayed out stump to which it used to be attached, then, in slow motion fell to the ground.

"Timberrrrrr!!" I hollered, enjoying the moment to it's fullest. Vic, of course, wasn't enjoying it nearly as much.

I tried my best to cheer him up a bit, saying that I had shot twice, to his single shot, and his .303 had a lot better range that my shotgun, but it didn't cheer him much.

Thinking back on it, I feel kinda badly about it. Not REAL badly, however, but a little bit.

If logging was done with double barreled shotguns, instead of axes and chain saws, I probably would have been a logger...........