By Phil Bourjaily

Seeing the Chiappa Triple Crown at SHOT made me think about multiple-barreled shotguns. Besides the hunting model which I really want to try for waterfowl, the Chiappa also comes in a cut down home defense version because, well, that’s where the money is these days. There is no denying the intimidation factor of looking down three shotgun barrels if you are an intruder. Of course, three barrels wouldn’t be anywhere near as scary as eight, which brings us to Robert Hillberg’s Colt Defender shotgun, of which prototype versions were produced in the 60s.

By Phil Bourjaily

"The Blue Book of Gun Values" is the bible on used gun prices; the standard reference on what a gun in any condition is worth. It contains information and pricing on countless guns to the point that the current edition runs 2,342 pages and weighs almost four pounds. It gets to be a burden to lug a copy around a gun show.

As a remedy, Blue Book Publications took all the Colt entries last year and published them in a handy pocket guide, which is now in a second edition. There are now similar treatments for Browning/FN and Winchester guns. These pocket-sized, slim volumes run 144 pages each. They are very handy, containing everything from both companies—from the beginning to their latest 2013 offerings.

By Phil Bourjaily

Just before SHOT Show I killed my last pheasants of the year with a Dickinson double from Cabela’s. It’s a nice Turkish-made classic side by side and for the money you pay ($1599), it is a better looking gun than anything you will find in its price range. Moreover, it has chrome-lined bores, five choke tubes, and a 3-inch chamber which render it completely steel-friendly, meaning this is a traditional gun suited to the hard non-toxic realities of 21st century upland hunting. In fact, I shot Winchester Blind Side steel pheasant loads on this hunt, but that’s another blog post.