LOL, this is getting funny, sorry to hyjack the thread. We seem to be living parrallel lives. I too have gone through a bunch of scatterguns, autos and various Citoris. I'm semi-retired now and my play money is in retirement stuff but I still collect vintage Winchesters, 73's and 92's-they add up $$quick enough.

I did everything I could think of to keep the 20ga Monte, a real sweet gun but it just didn't fit me and my scores showed it-(not enough drop in the stock).

RE: patternmaster& buckshot; Oh yeah, it sure does work for me. When I first started working up the SBE for buckshot I went to cabelas and purchased a variety of chokes including the Patternmaster-(they take anything back). I then patterned the gun with all the available 3.5" loads and chokes on hand. I had one that was pretty good(not the patternmaster)but I wanted better so I sent the bbl out to Brileys to get the cone cut and polished. To my horror, when I got it back my good combination was now worse and I had to start over-(3.5" shells fired from the bench are painful). I retried the Patternmaster and with the forcing cone work it was astonishing, (<24" @ 60 yards, consistantly-Federal Prem 00). Not one deer has run through that gun.

We are shotgun only and I mostly used slugs. With all the housing starts around here we are hunting on smaller woodlots and I'm affraid of a slug bouncing off the frozen ground. So, I use buckshot when it gets cold. Nothing I have seen puts deer on the ground quicker than a good load of buckshot, from a gun that patterns it well and shooter who knows how to use it within it's range limitations. I'm sure you've heard things like, "why spent 1K+ on an SBE when you can get others for alot less", I know my buddies used to tease me about how much I have tied up in mine. Funny thing, two of them now have the exact same setup and their Golds and Rems are collecting dust in the safe. One of them bought a black SBE last year locally and paid 850, it works well but it been used hard and put up wet.

Doug