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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.

Back to the gun: the Dickinson is built on a true trigger-plate action, meaning all the lock parts are attached to the trigger plate, a design that allows the receiver to be rounded and slender. My test 12 gauge weighed 7 pounds even – neither heavy nor light – and it carried easily enough and shot where I wanted when the time came. If I were smart I would have requested a 16 gauge, which is built on a 20 gauge frame and is, I suspect, the liveliest of the three and the pick of a litter that consists of 12, 16 and 20 gauges.

As you see in the picture the gun has nice case colors. The walnut is hand-checkered with a fairly straight grain. Looking the gun over carefully I could only find one little slip-up in the wood to metal fit. Mostly this is a very well finished gun. Currently Cabela’s Gun Libraries are the only place you can buy the Dickinson.

There are a few single trigger versions available as well but most of the guns are double-trigger, straight stocked style, as a double gun should be. They all have 28-inch barrels and ejectors. If I wanted a double gun that looked good but could be hunted hard and didn’t have to be babied with expensive Tungsten-Polymer or Classic Doubles ammo, I would put the Dickinson on my short list.