Donor gun is in the house !!! Pic added !!

[Yoder409]

Picked up an H&R Topper 162 a week or so back as a donor gun for a new lightweight gobbler smasher project.

I looked for quite a while to find this one.  It's a 20 ga. with a 25 1/2" barrel.  What I really was looking for, though, was the straight-wristed (English style) laminated stock & matching forend.  My kiddos have NWTF youth models in that configuration, only with shorter barrels.  I had never actually seen one in adult dimensions.  But, at least in the case of the kids' guns, they are crazy light, shoot like little monsters and just carry and handle like a dream.

For the past 20-some years I've been carrying a BPS-10 or a SX2 or an SX3 and crushing noggins.  Then up came the kids and I started roaming the woods and hills with them and carrying their single 20's around for them.  It began to occur to me, watching my kiddos stomp gobblers "out there" that I may be somewhat of a doofus for carrying an 8 or 9 lb. gun around when hunting for myself.

Time to start pimping this thing out !!!! 

[albrubacker]

Look forward to seeing pics!

[FXDWG]

Yoder, did you have to thread the barrels for your children's 20 gauge youth guns, or did they shoot well with the fixed modified chokes? I just found one for my son (NWTF Jake's) topper classic. I figured it'll need to be threaded and set up with a turkey choke.

[Yoder409]

Yoder, did you have to thread the barrels for your children's 20 gauge youth guns, or did they shoot well with the fixed modified chokes? I just found one for my son (NWTF Jake's) topper classic. I figured it'll need to be threaded and set up with a turkey choke.

Reviving a dead horse........but I had Wright's run RemChoke threads in them and use Comp-N-Choke tubes.

[Yoder409]

Actually reviving the dead horse because after (for various reasons) two years, the H&R 20ga barrel from my original post is tubed and ready for a Brown ride to SumToy Customs tomorrow.

Looking forward to getting it back and playing with some paper !!!!

[surehuntsalot]

good luck with the project

[Yoder409]

Thanks !!

REALLY looking forward to playing with this gun on paper and gobbler noggins !!!

[Yoder409]

This has been the looooongest running gun project I have ever undertaken.......   

The gun went to Sumtoy just as they were having a rough stretch of luck and had to move their operation.  So the barrel did get a Weaver rail installed,  the muzzle threaded and a .562-5 tube installed.  It was gone for a while.  I got the barrel back just almost exactly a week before our spring season opened.  So I threw a Burris 135 red dot on top and went to work with some low brass to get things in the general neighborhood.  That's when I discovered that the action was not locking up upon closing..........  Soooooo................ off to my local smith.  There's no way I was going to expect him to fix the gun in a day or two.  So I told him just whenever..........  Well, "whenever" was last week.

So, now the 20 gauge project is COMPLETE........... except for a sight in.  I expect to accomplish that a week from today.  Our fall season closed yesterday.  But it comes back in for 3 more days, Thanksgiving day, Friday and Saturday.  I may get a chance to take the gun for its inaugural run then..........

[paboxcall]

This has been the looooongest running gun project I have ever undertaken.......   

The gun went to Sumtoy just as they were having a rough stretch of luck and had to move their operation.  So the barrel did get a Weaver rail installed,  the muzzle threaded and a .562-5 tube installed.  It was gone for a while.  I got the barrel back just almost exactly a week before our spring season opened.  So I threw a Burris 135 red dot on top and went to work with some low brass to get things in the general neighborhood.  That's when I discovered that the action was not locking up upon closing..........  Soooooo................ off to my local smith.  There's no way I was going to expect him to fix the gun in a day or two.  So I told him just whenever..........  Well, "whenever" was last week.

So, now the 20 gauge project is COMPLETE........... except for a sight in.  I expect to accomplish that a week from today.  Our fall season closed yesterday.  But it comes back in for 3 more days, Thanksgiving day, Friday and Saturday.  I may get a chance to take the gun for its inaugural run then..........

Good deal - my short barrel 1300 sits on the gun rack and my NEF 12 ga. single in original Bottomland goes along on the hunt.  I love the light weight and ease of carrying that little gun - my only wish is it was chambered for 20 like yours, instead of 12.

Good luck on the new thunderstick.  Keep me posted.

[Yoder409]

Well, here's what I ended up with.  Plain, simple.............just what I was after.

[boatpaddle]

This has been the looooongest running gun project I have ever undertaken.......   

The gun went to Sumtoy just as they were having a rough stretch of luck and had to move their operation.  So the barrel did get a Weaver rail installed,  the muzzle threaded and a .562-5 tube installed.  It was gone for a while.  I got the barrel back just almost exactly a week before our spring season opened.  So I threw a Burris 135 red dot on top and went to work with some low brass to get things in the general neighborhood.  That's when I discovered that the action was not locking up upon closing..........  Soooooo................ off to my local smith.  There's no way I was going to expect him to fix the gun in a day or two.  So I told him just whenever..........  Well, "whenever" was last week.

So, now the 20 gauge project is COMPLETE........... except for a sight in.  I expect to accomplish that a week from today.  Our fall season closed yesterday.  But it comes back in for 3 more days, Thanksgiving day, Friday and Saturday.  I may get a chance to take the gun for its inaugural run then..........

Good luck with the new 20ga.....

[paboxcall]

Well, here's what I ended up with.  Plain, simple.............just what I was after.

Sweet - love the laminate wood. 

[joeturkey]

here's a 20 ga H&R I gave too a young turkey hunter in Florida

[joeturkey]

here's a 20 ga H&R I gave too a young turkey hunter in Florida

[Yoder409]

Well...................... I just did a redneck sight-in on the newly finished 20.

Almost ashamed of what I did.  Usually I get out the 30" paper and rangefinder  and 10" disc and calculator....................  It's sloppy wet out and I ain't in the mood.  So I put a Green Giant green bean can (a whisker bigger than a standard soup can) out at 30 yards and shot it standing, offhand.  Annihilated it.  So back to 40 yards.  Crushed it.  Then to 50 yards.  Blew it off the log.  Then to 60 yards.  Blew it off the log.  So it's hitting well enough to go hunting.................

Oh.  By the way..................... all of those test shots were with 7/8 oz. low brass Winchester  #7 1/2's !!!!  The ones you get in Walmart for $24/100 pack.............  Pretty sure the 3" Federal heavy 7's will be sufficient to 40 yards..............

Rest assured.................... I will do this the proper way on a nicer day.