I love my Atkinson SXS and use it for all my "rough shooting", as we call it here. Walking around in thick woodland behind the dogs, spaniels mainly, is the ideal environment for a side by side gun. You can walk with the gun broken without the cartridges falling out. The angle the gun opens to is not as wide as an O/U, which makes it easier to carry and faster to deploy. The weight is less than a similar O/U and with the limited number of shots I'm likely to fire in a day the recoil isn't an issue. Double triggers are very handy too as you can instantly choose the choke barrel or the open barrel when snatching a shot through the trees. I also have a long barreled O/U and a semi auto for other situations, but walking the woods with the dogs, no contest.