There are two challenges to finding a great shotgun — fit and suitability.
The shotguns section of Shotgun Life is dedicated to helping you recognize the perfect shotgun (that you’ll want to keep for the rest of your life, and then hand down to your family for generations to come.)
For some people, finding a great shotgun is simply love at first sight. For others, a great shotgun grows on them — and they find themselves down in the basement cleaning it for absolutely no other reason than just to be in its company.
But for every shotgun owner who falls in love with their pride-and-joy, there are teams of engineers and craftsmen toiling away behind the scenes to bring your gun to fruition.
As you’ll see, shotguns are generally designed for a particular sport. Some shotguns have composite stocks and fore-ends to withstand the travails of duck hunting. Then there are single-shot trap guns with high ribs that help you intercept rising targets. And skeet shooters find that their beavertail fore-end is particularly adept at bringing about a smooth, quick swing.
So let the search begin. Here is what you’ll find in our shotgun section…
Thunderheads gathered in the low country of Northern Florida, the sky transforming into that eerie, green phosphorescence from lightning electrons stockpiling polarity. Meteorologists predicted the 48-hour deluge, but the looming monstrosity of the storm amazed and alarmed.
The Franchi Aspire is going to be particularly favored by the upland bird hunting community.
Franchi’s Aspire is a great looking sub-gauge over/under that, with a suggested retail price of $2,299, won’t scare your plastic credit card into melt-down mode (let’s call it a mid-priced shotgun). While over/under birds guns in that price range are usually coming out of Turkey, the Franchi Aspire is Italian made, in close proximity to many of the other great Italian shotgun names – yes the legendary town of Brescia.
I learned of the CZ Sporter shotgun improbably. I was at the last station in a registered shoot at the Colorado Clays Sporting Club in Brighton, Colorado, a thirty-minute drive from downtown Denver. The station had five true pair of overhead tower shots coming from behind like F-16s. I was shooting my favorite Italian over/under masterpiece but I wasn’t hitting the targets solidly and even missed a few. The joy of shooting felt like a week-old soufflé.
If you’re still shooting that beloved Browning over/under you’ve owned since college, be prepared to have your socks knocked off with the company’s new 20-Gauge 725 Sporting.
Although still a member of the fabled Citori family introduced in 1973, the 20-gauge 725 Sporting marks a departure from classic Browning over/unders characterized by broad beaver tail forends, bulky receivers and labored handling. To paraphrase that Oldsmobile meme, the 20-gauge 725 is “not your father’s Browning.”
Entering the new gunsmith workshop of Rich Cole, I immediately recalled my days as a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire when we lived in the picturesque, riverfront town of Portsmouth.
Once the press conference is over in Tuscany, Italy and the pretty girl has held up the shotgun while everyone clamors around with a camera, there’s a much more defining moment. It’s the moment when the gun is in your hands, and the arm of the trap is cocked and loaded with the first clay you’ll shoot with it.
I don’t think anyone could say that U.S. shotgunners suffer these days from a lack of factory shotshell loads. There are now no less than six major shotshell ammunition plants in the U.S. plus a specialty one. As recently as ten years ago there were only three, with no specialty load manufacturers. Additionally, there is at least one company involved full-time in importing and shipping direct to U.S. shooters an Italian-made line of shotshell ammunition. Lastly, there are currently at least three or four shooter groups – mainly in Texas – importing container loads of still more lines of Italian and Spanish-made shotshell ammunition which they then sell direct.
In the James Bond movie “Skyfall,” Agent 007 (Daniel Craig) uses a .500 Nitro Express Double Rifle to kill dangerous game of the two-legged variety from the little-known London gunmaker, Anderson Wheeler.
Whenever shotgun barrels suffer internal damage, the gun’s owner almost immediately leaps to the conclusion that there was something faulty about the ammunition. It is true that certain forms of barrel damage can indeed be caused by faulty ammunition (see this column January and February 2014). However, as we examined in last month’s Part 1 of this series, certain forms of barrel damage can occur from shoddy barrel modifications through no fault of the ammunition whatsoever. Part 1 covered faulty chamber and forcing cone lengthening. In Part 2 here we’ll examine damage that can occur from faulty backboring, porting, and screw-in choke installation.
Whenever shotgun barrels suffer internal damage, the gun’s owner almost immediately leaps to the conclusion that there was something faulty about the ammunition. It is true that certain forms of barrel damage can indeed be caused by faulty ammunition (see this column January and February 2014). However, as we examined in last month’s Part 1 of this series, certain forms of barrel damage can occur from shoddy barrel modifications through no fault of the ammunition whatsoever. Part 1 covered faulty chamber and forcing cone lengthening. In Part 2 here we’ll examine damage that can occur from faulty backboring, porting, and screw-in choke installation.
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Shotgun Life is the first online magazine devoted to the great people who participate in the shotgun sports.
Our goal is to provide you with the best coverage in wing and clays shooting. That includes places to shoot, ways to improve your shooting and the latest new products. Everything you need to know about the shotgun sports is a mouse-click away.
Irwin Greenstein
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Shotgun Life
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