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The Norseman
01-01-2006, 01:25 PM
Everyone have a good New Year's,

New Year’s Eve 2005, got a chance to go Pheasant hunt’n, before the weather turned for the worst again.
New Year’s Day forecasted freezing rain, so the family and I left Mom’s Farm late afternoon.

Two nights ago we had battled freezing rain and snow drifts for 100 miles. The last 30 miles being the worst with wet snow, and at least 6” snow drafts. If, we had gone in the ditch, it would probably be hours before anyone found us. It is pretty desolate on the way to the Farm. That was stupid.

Anyway, I really like my Ruger Gold Label Side by Side Model KSXSS 12ga Shotgun. It is such a great handling shotgun for me. The RGL weight of 6.25 lbs was a dream to carry through the wet snow, which was sometimes knee high in the CRP grass.

On this Pheasant hunt I used Remington Game Loads 12ga 2-3/4”, 1oz, 6 shot, muzzle vel. 1290fps
(Green/Tan box) bought at Wal-Mart. Shells are colored black with a dull gray metallic low base.
In comparison to the Winchester, the Remington’s are quite dirtier in the shotgun bores.

The Ruger Gold Label SxS came up to the shoulder nice and pointed where I looked. I just put the bead (barely any barrel showing) on the flying Pheasant, and down he went.

Again muzzle report from the RGL was pretty decent on the ears. When shooting at Pheasants recoil was not notable.

The Pheasant’s were really burrowed in the snow and sitting tight. We almost had to step on them to get them to fly. The Rooster I shot, I happened to look down, there was his tail sticking out of the snow. I walked up to him and motioned for Mom to come and look. The Rooster finally decided to fly up just as Mom got there that’s when I got him. My son joined us later. I only got one out of the twenty we chased around for a couple of hours.

The Ruger Gold Label SxS Model KSXSS 12ga Shotgun worked flawlessly as intended. Handling is fast and natural. Safety/barrel select is great, trigger crisp, recoil descent for being 6-1/2 pounds. Spent shells ejected with authority, unfired shells just lift up, break open lever was helped to closed position after each reload, lockup tight/opening action easy. Screw-in chokes intact, no cracked stock, or forearm rattles.
I think I’ll clean it tomorrow.

Thanks for reading my Field Report.