Originally Posted by Asphodel
Well, I was going to stay out of this one, considering that the questioner started with a 'requirement' of a semi-auto......
Well, nuts......nusse......er....hmmm.....como se dice 'nuts' en Espanol?
If one really prefers the 'feel' of a pump or semi-auto shotgun, well, thats a fair preference, but I'd personally recommend a best quality double gun for any 'sporting' use.
Yes, the mag capacity of a pump or semi-auto is important for hunting or self-defence......thats obvious enough.
A good double gun 'balances' differently, as it doesn't have all that weight/size of mechanism.
I still have my mother's old double gun, a British 'game gun' built in Edinburgh in the 1890's, and it still works as well as it did when it was new, tho it shows some wear in the finish. Unfortunately, those are considered 'too collectible to shoot' these days.
(One of my grandmothers had a 10 gauge Parker double and shot ducks and geese with it, also.....I think she gave it to one of her friends when she got to feeling too old to go out and shoot birds......I only just barely remember some of her stories about the huge flocks of birds in the early 1900's.......I should note that the old style 10 gauge rounds were only about as powerful as medium strong modern 12 gauge, nothing at all like the modern 3-1/2" 10 gauge mag rounds.....10ga then was like 12ga now, in other words)
I have a Winchester M97 and a 'skeet grade' Winchester M12 myself.....they are reliable, but they are seriously 'clumsy' when compared to a good double gun.
If I had to recommend a shotgun for sporting use, I'd say look for a genuine Belgian-made Browning Superposed........over-and-under, some say under-and-over, whatever.....there are modern copies made in the orient, which, well, are like blurred photographs, when compared to 'the real thing'......they may look pretty.......but.......well....
There are/were several good makers of side-by-side doubles, but most of the good ones were built back before the war......Parker, Lefever, L.C. Smith, Fox, etc. and, of course, the famous Winchester M21.
A good one of those will be 'not cheap' in today's market, but 'theres no free lunch'.......one will get what one is willing to pay for, and there is a lot of junk masquerading as guns being offered these days.......they may look 'pretty' on the outside, but there are 'weevils contained therein'......stamped or poorly fitted parts, general ill-fitting, lots of little details which make the difference between 'reliable' and 'fix it again, Tony'.
The choice of a gun is intensely personal.......one will 'just feel right', and its not easy to articulate why that is, it 'just is'. Considering a good light 20ga double for sporting use may be an excellent idea.......clay birds aren't 'hard to kill' like Canadian geese.
Stock fitting, to suit the individual person's physique, is the challenge.......a correctly fitted gun 'points instinctively', and recoil becomes minimal. If its possible to consult a gunsmith who can, and is willing to, do proper stock fitting, that really is a 'must do' part of purchasing a gun. Simply cutting a stock shorter and fitting a recoil pad is only part of that......bending a stock at the wrist or building-up or shaving-down the comb may be necessary to make a gun 'point instinctively when shouldered'.
Enough for now?
or should I have said
So endeth the sermon for today.
? ?
.... : ) ...... : )
cheers
Carla
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