About a month ago my wife called me after seeing the local auction house's offerings for the month. She told me I had to come to town and check out two guns. One was a Winchester 101, (which I already own for wild pigeons), and a Belgian sidelock. Long story short... I bought them both in the auction the following day.

No pictures of the 101 but it was like new, 28" mod/full 12 ga at a good price.

The Belgian sidelock is a beautiful gun. It has all the features of a best gun, with selective ejectors, articulated front trigger, complete hand engraving, and gold inlays of the number "1" as it was originally half of a matched pair for driven pheasant shooting. These pairs were often split up by brothers in an inheritance. It is on face and everything works perfectly. The stock dimensions are great for me, albeit a bit short.




I'll shoot it for woodcock and small migratory birds, and just look at it from time to time with a glass of whiskey. I sold a lot of guns like this in my store but never bought one for myself.

Also just returned from a US and Alberta visit. I shot brown ducks with my best friend in Alberta and caught some stripers and halibut on SF bay with another good friend who runs a charter boat.




Life is good. Long day and a half back involving 5 flights, but a good visit to see my friends.

Pete

I love side x sides. I doubt I'll ever own anything comparable to the one in your pics. Good for you!.... I am envious.

NICE!...….but isn't messy dressing the ducks with that orange chain saw?

Very nice, good for you!

That saw must be for the geese .... Nice scattergun.

Fantastic all the way around!

Nice looking shotgun .Do you have pheasants where you live in France ? I love pheasant hunting .But we have very few in PA anymore beyond stocked birds .Perhaps I need to have my wife spend some time with your wife . I think I can count on less than one finger the number of times she has called and said I need to check out some guns

Beautiful shotgun-looks like you had some fun!

Nice looking gun looks like you had fun with them

Classy scattergun!

Thanks for the words. I actually met my wife 35 years ago when she walked into the store where I worked looking for a used shotgun for ducks. On our first date two weeks later, we ended up buying her an old Belgian A-5. She doesn't have the thirst for four legged stuff but loves shooting ducks. I'll take that.

The ducks and geese in Alberta fell victim to a Benelli as usual. Different tools for different jobs I guess.

Pete

Super nice!

Sweet. I love those. Great buy I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Nice guns. I am going to a auction Sat. that has a Piotti 12ga that would be nice to own, I have a Win 101 also and love to hunt with it!

Beautiful piece of history there.

A very nice looking shotgun and it looks like you had great success on your hunt and fishing trip, congrats.

There’s a website called matched pairs where you can look for the mate as well as list your shotgun.

Crowheart… I only ever sold one Piotti and it was an incredible shotgun. Good luck at the auction.

tomahawwker… I looked at that site 20 years ago about a pair, but haven't checked this gun yet. Thanks for the reminder.

Pete

Nice gun. I go to a gun auction an it works good for me. Last auction came home with 17 of em. Just user/utility but if they’re going that cheap they’re coming home with me.

Were you using flounders as decoys? We have lots of duck blinds in coastal NC where you could flounder fish, dig clams and oysters, and shoot ducks all from around the blinds.