Single Barrel/Single Shot Shotgun

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

Something you don't see very often in our game is the single barrel/single shot shotgun.  The occasional popper target aside, they are perfectly legal in our game, and are even allowed to have ejectors.  Really, they are not all that different from how we treat the 97 as if it were a really weird action single shot.

But let that go.

I have found that these 1 bangers are quite fun to shoot, and are often interesting.   

Over the years, I have used my Greener police shotgun, made on the old Martini action, to be a nice scattergun, and I recently acquired a Hopkins and Allen gun in the "junk pile" of a local dealer who is going out of business for fifty bucks.   It's all there, works just fine, and I am eager to try it at a shoot.   I also have a Remington Rolling block 12 gauge that I want to give a try with as well.  It all adds up to a seldom seen variation.   I even have a K-Mart Special 20 gauge!  

I have also found that, when you find these things on the old, used gun market, they tend to be rather inexpensive, making them a tempting target to become a collection enhancement.

Anyone else out there have/use one of these one and done shotguns?  If so, what do you use?  

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

I use an H&R single shot shotgun in warm-up matches before I shoot a Plainsman with my Handi-rifle.  It helps me revive the "muscle memory" I need to run the Handi-rifle efficiently.  Single shot shotguns are lightweight which may help shooters with limited upper body strength.

[PaleWolf Brunelle, #2495L]

I've used this Diamond Arms 12ga. at a number of matches.

With practice, it can be loaded fast enough to take out reactive/flyer targets. 

Not bad for a $50 shotgun. 

 

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

I use one every now and then .

I'm a slow shooter anyways. 

So I like to use two Cap & Ball 44's with APP BP Sub. 

My Henry 1860 with APP and a Single shot 12g with APP.

And watch everyone choke for 40 to 58+ seconds.

And see how long they can hold their breath  🤣😂🤣😂

[Reverend P. Babcock Chase]

I thought the single barrel shotgun was developed for cowboys who can't count to "2".

 

Rev. Chase

[Griff]

30 minutes ago, Reverend P. Babcock Chase said:

I thought the single barrel shotgun was developed for farmers who can't count to "2".

 

Rev. Chase

Fixed that for ya...   Cowboys GOTTA know how to count to two so they can make steers!

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428]

I have used a 20ga New England Arms single barrel.  Before they allowed ejectors, I had converted it.  After ejectors were allowed I replaced the part so I can once again let that empty fly free!  Dont use it often, but it completes the set.  Depending on the day, I can go 10, 12, 16 or 20.  One of these days I will need to get a 97, so I have the full set of styles (single, double, hammered double, lever and pump).  I do have one of those verboten 93/97, fun to shoot but not for SASS.

[Mister Badly]

New Stevens 301. Super cheap. Synthetic stock is legal. It's an H&R Topper clone.

Edited March 17 by Mister Badly

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

I did some looking on Gunbroker today, (didn't buy anything) and was surprised to see how inexpensive some SS's are.   There was stuff for less than $100, and a lot for less than $300.

12, 16, 20, .410....

Didn't see any 10 or 8, but I don't wanna go there...

Who knows I may yet get a couple more, just for the fun of it.

 

[Three Foot Johnson]

I have several long barreled single shots, great for Cowboy Trap, but this is the one I occasionally use as a main match shotgun. It came from an abandoned storage locker over 20 years ago, and the original NEF 12g parts appeared to have been, ummm... "shortened" a little at each end, so I found a nickeled 20g H&R barrel on eBay, fit it to the NEF action, then spliced a piece of pine 2x6 onto the remains of the butt stock, shaped it, slapped a Ruger butt pad on out of the parts box, spliced another piece of wood onto the remains of the fore end, and painted the wood with Rustoleum pebble finish paint.  The barrel was $39.51, shipped, plus whatever the can of Rustoleum cost me. 

["Big Boston"]

 

They work, the leather band is a feature one one of the shotguns in the movie Long Riders.

 

 

BB

[watab kid]

i saw that one but dont remember that band but its a solution , 

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

When your in the game for just the fun of shooting all of your guns .

Go for it .

It's fun to blast away with the light little single shot .

Clang & Bang , making Smoke & making them Choke  ! 

What's Not Fun About That .

[Three Foot Johnson]

On 3/17/2025 at 4:45 PM, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

Didn't see any 10 or 8, but I don't wanna go there...

 

I came across an H&R 176 10g about five years back in a pawn shop for $295, ANIB, 36" bbl, 3 1/2" chamber. Holy crap, what a beast!

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

I use my grand-dad's model 37 single shot shotgun, in 16 gauge.  Over 80 years old. and she is still going strong. 

[Flint N. Steele]

When I was introduced to the game, I only had one shotgun, an H&R Topper in 16 gauge. It worked fine until I got something else. 
It’s good manners to let the TO know that you have ejectors. 

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

I just realized that even though others have done so., I have not posted pics of the guns I mentioned in the first post.   So...

Here's my Greener built on a Martini action

 

And here's my recently acquired Hopkins & Allen.  

 

 

Not bad for 50 bucks!

[evil dogooder]

I run a h&r 12 from time to time.  It's fun and I enjoy the challenge. We do get poppers and it isn't that hard to still get them. 

[Todd Hayseed]

I wish there was some provision like "a double barrel with ejectors is allowed but with an automatic 5 second penalty"  I have double made in 1893 with Ejectors and I can't use it.

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

1 hour ago, Todd Hayseed said:

I wish there was some provision like "a double barrel with ejectors is allowed but with an automatic 5 second penalty"  I have double made in 1893 with Ejectors and I can't use it.

Take it to a cowboy clays match.  Per page 4 of the Cowboy Clays Handbook, ejectors are legal in cowboy clays side matches.  That vintage 1893 double deserves to be taken to a clays range and shot.  Many of your fellow shooters will want to know what you are shooting.  After all, CAS is a celebration of 19th century firearms.

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

Personally, I don't know why ejectors are not allowed on doubles.   There is no logical reason that they are that I can fathom.  This is a rule that should changed.  Now, my Parkers, and Fox Sterlingworth don't have them, but I do have an Ithaca 16 gauge that does.

Oh well.

 

But seriously, why is this rule a rule?  I know it's not gonna change, and that's fine, I am just intrigued to know why.

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

HKU, I shoot a Browning SxS with ejectors in cowboy clays.  When I open the action empty hulls coming flying out.  I never have to pluck a stuck hull out and never have to jerk the shotgun backwards or tip it downward to clear the chambers.  The shotgun clears itself and ejects hulls even more reliably than my '97s.  Ejectors have a clear advantage over extractors.  If you tried one the advantage would be obvious.  

[Chancy Shot, SASS #67163]

I shoot with at cowboy that is not interested in time. He shoots duelist. gunfighter, cap and ball, pale rider, whatever suits his mood that day.  He has on occasion, used an H&R single shotgun with ejector.  I have been his TO more than once.  I think he has eyes on the back of his head that tell him where I am when he ejects.  Gotta think fast when you are the TO

 

Chancy

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

1 hour ago, Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971 said:

HKU, I shoot a Browning SxS with ejectors in cowboy clays.  When I open the action empty hulls coming flying out.  I never have to pluck a stuck hull out and never have to jerk the shotgun backwards or tip it downward to clear the chambers.  The shotgun clears itself and ejects hulls even more reliably than my '97s.  Ejectors have a clear advantage over extractors.  If you tried one the advantage would be obvious.  

 

See, that's exactly why I don't get it.  Our game is full of things that give one gun an advantage, or a disadvantage, over another one.   Single Shots, 97s 87s all have auto ejectors, (so to speak) but doubles can't, even though they were a real thing.   (Okay, that's a bad point, there are plenty of things that existed back in the day that are not allowed.)  The argument that something gives an advantage just seems like a weak one to me.   I'm actually more inclined to accept a "because that's the rule" reason.   We've got plenty of those.  I mean, does not using a S&W have a real advantage over a Colt if there is a pistol reload?  Especially a full one?   Some rifles are easier to do a single round reload than others.  Etc.  

Heck, even in single shot rifles where ejectors are not allowed, Trapdoor Springfields can have them cuz that's how they were made.   That is an in game precedent, sort of.

I am not disagreeing with you Ed, just saying that I don't "get it."

But I am weird. 

 

[LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L]

We do a "Single Barrell Challenge" most every year.  Black powder is encouraged, but anyone with a single shot shotgun can participate.  I give a bottle of Jack Daniels Single Barrel Select away as first prize for the match.  Graywolf Tate has a sawed off 10 gauge that cause the T/O to step back every time he shoots.  My own gun is a H&R Topper that someone painted the stocks with an automotive green paint.  I joke that it's my "Greener" because it's greener than any other gun I own.

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

HKU, ejectors are allowed in single shot rifles in the Plainsman side match.  They are shot in the modern category.  Single shot rifles compete in the traditional category.  I shoot both categories.  My match times in Modern are shorter than my Traditional category times.

 

Regarding the history of ejectors in SxS shotguns, I don't know.  I was probably watching Roy Rodgers on a black and white TV with my cousins when those rules were written.

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

28 minutes ago, Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971 said:

HKU, ejectors are allowed in single shot rifles in the Plainsman side match.  They are shot in the modern category.  Single shot rifles compete in the traditional category.  I shoot both categories.  My match times in Modern are shorter than my Traditional category times.

 

Regarding the history of ejectors in SxS shotguns, I don't know.  I was probably watching Roy Rodgers on a black and white TV with my cousins when those rules were written.

Heh heh.  Fair enough.   Thanks for clarifying the rifle rules.  

I used to watch Roy on a color set, but the movies were still in black and white. 

 

[Griff]

On 7/5/2025 at 8:07 PM, Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971 said:

Regarding the (Cowboy Action Shooting)* history of ejectors in SxS shotguns, I don't know.  I was probably watching Roy Rodgers on a black and white TV with my cousins when those rules were written.

When I first started cowboy action shooting the rule prohibiting ejectors in tilt-action shotguns was in place.  Everyone I saw shooting a mdl '97 for the first couple of years grabbed two, dopped one in the ejection port, slid the slide forward and stuffed the second in the bottom.  The first person I saw loading both shells thru the port was Tequila... I think around 1988.  And that quickly progressed to grab 3 or 4.  The second person was Evil Roy in 1990 or '91.  The side-x-side was pretty much the quicker option unless one mastered the 3 or 4 grab and slam fired the '97..  Ejectors would have just made it so one-sided as to be laughable.  

 

Certainly those shows were in their way into their 2nd or 3rd release by that time!

 

 

* added for clarifying what history I'll discuss.

Edited July 8 by Griff

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

40 minutes ago, Griff said:

When I first started cowboy action shooting the rule prohibiting ejectors in tilt-action shotguns was in place.  Everyone I saw shooting a mdl '97 for the first couple of years grabbed two, dopped on in the ejection port, slid the slide forward and stuffed the second in the bottom.  The first person I saw loading both shells thru the port was Tequila... I think around 1988.  And that quickly progressed to grab 3 or 4.  The second person was Evil Roy in 1990 or '91.  The side-x-side was pretty much the quicker option unless one mastered the 3 or 4 grab and slam fired the '97..  Ejectors would have just made it so one-sided as to be laughable.  

 

Certainly those shows were in their way into their 2nd or 3rd release by that time!

 

 

* added for clarifying what history I'll discuss.

 

Well, I still think 97s should be staged hammer down on an empty chamber, magazine loaded on the clock, and run away with. 87s should start open and empty, be loaded and taken to town.

But it'll never happen.  

 

 

[Griff]

On 7/6/2025 at 2:46 PM, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

Well, I still think 97s should be staged hammer down on an empty chamber, magazine loaded on the clock, and run away with. 87s should start open and empty, be loaded and taken to town.

But it'll never happen.  

That would handicap most '97 shooters.  Only very few would be able to keep pace with a double shooter.

[Creeker, SASS #43022]

On 7/6/2025 at 12:46 PM, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

 

Well, I still think 97s should be staged hammer down on an empty chamber, magazine loaded on the clock, and run away with. 87s should start open and empty, be loaded and taken to town.

But it'll never happen.  

 

 

It will never happen because it's too slow.

Even if allowed or encouraged - a "fair" 97 shooter (never mind a good one) loading/ firing singly will smoke a shooter loading the tube and then shooting.

[watab kid]

On 3/30/2025 at 2:35 PM, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

I just realized that even though others have done so., I have not posted pics of the guns I mentioned in the first post.   So...

Here's my Greener built on a Martini action

 

And here's my recently acquired Hopkins & Allen.  

 

 

Not bad for 50 bucks!

now that youve shown yours here is mine 

 

 

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

Very nice!

I find the Martini action to be most fascinating.  Lotsa interesting gun were built on it.  In addition to my shotgun, I've got a carbine in .303 British.  I'd like to get a .22 and one of those cadet rifles, preferably one converted to .32-20 to keep things simple.

The most interesting things I ever saw on this action was a pair of "Dueling Pistols" chambered in .455 Webley.   There was nothing fancy about them, but they were nice looking guns.  The price for the pair was very reasonable.   However, the seller could not say for sure if they were built as pistol, or had been converted from rifles, so I passed on them, not wanting to go down that road.   Too bad, cuz I thought they were pretty cool.   Never seen anything else like them, ever.

Oh how I wish the Short Act would be enacted!

[Captain Bill Burt]

On 7/6/2025 at 3:03 PM, Griff said:

When I first started cowboy action shooting the rule prohibiting ejectors in tilt-action shotguns was in place.  Everyone I saw shooting a mdl '97 for the first couple of years grabbed two, dopped on in the ejection port, slid the slide forward and stuffed the second in the bottom.  The first person I saw loading both shells thru the port was Tequila... I think around 1988.  And that quickly progressed to grab 3 or 4.  The second person was Evil Roy in 1990 or '91.  The side-x-side was pretty much the quicker option unless one mastered the 3 or 4 grab and slam fired the '97..  Ejectors would have just made it so one-sided as to be laughable.  

 

Certainly those shows were in their way into their 2nd or 3rd release by that time!

 

 

* added for clarifying what history I'll discuss.

H.K. I suspect this is the answer to your question.  If ejectors were allowed most double shooters would reach parity with each other (in terms of equipment) about as quickly as they could get ejectors put back into their guns.  97 shooters would not have that option.

On 7/6/2025 at 3:46 PM, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

 

Well, I still think 97s should be staged hammer down on an empty chamber, magazine loaded on the clock, and run away with. 87s should start open and empty, be loaded and taken to town.

But it'll never happen.  

 

 

To be fair, and definitely no criticism implied, you're not a typical CAS shooter and the performance oriented rules are written for the majority, or should be, not for the minority.  They also take into consideration the amount of money many competitive shooters have in their current guns.

 

If your suggestion were followed I suspect you would quickly see the number of shooters using 97s and 87 drop dramatically in favor of doubles and hammered doubles.  You would also see a lot of unhappy shooters who would be faced with a disadvantage using their current guns, or the need to spend more money to regain competitiveness. 

[H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619]

14 minutes ago, Captain Bill Burt said:

To be fair, and definitely no criticism implied, you're not a typical CAS shooter

 

Criticism?  What's that?  Not typical?  Well, I suppose not, depending on how you define typical, but I am fairly sure I know what you mean by the term, and I will agree with you.  And, let me correct one thing.  The more I think about it, the method I mentioned for 97s and 87s should be 100% optional.  Those who wanna do it, can, those who don't, don't have too.  Mostly for the very sensible reasons already stated.  I was too general, and not specific enough in my comments.   As far as ejectors go, well, obviously it's a lot of more complicated than I understand it to be, and that's fair.

Never think that I don't know I'm something of an oddity.   I feel there is never any harm in mentioning potential variations, even if I know that it is unlikely they will never be tried.  I'm just trying to have fun.   And, for what it's worth, maybe someday I'll have an idea that's actually a good one that people wanna try.  (I tend to doubt it, but you never know. )  

The only thing typical about the way I shoot is a desire to have fun.  And fun is different for everyone.

Tell you what, Bill, I promise that if ever we get a chance to shoot together, I will show up like this (but in a more proper costume of course) and even though I won't be able to shoot them in the match, we'll find an empty bay and I'll let you put a few shots in the dirt.  I think that'll be enjoyable.