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…
“Late season birds are tougher to kill because of their thicker feathers and heavier layers of fat and down.” How many times have you heard that? I’m sorry, but it’s not true.
As fall wears on into winter, wild waterfowl and upland birds have progressively LESS access to food. This is due principally to snow cover. So fat layers and muscles of wild game birds do not get thicker or heavier as fall hunting seasons transcend into winter.
Highland Hills Ranch is a sensuous indulgence for upland hunters.
The contours of Oregon’s high-desert rolling hills summon womanly curves shamelessly gorgeous beneath sun-infused blue. After a day of stalking valley quail, chukars, pheasants and huns over dogs, Chef Keith Potter seduces you with a perfume of homemade bakery and dinners fragrant of Western, Latin and Pacific Rim influences as the provincial pinot noirs comfort body and soul. Come dessert, you’re spent and benevolent. The vaulted log great room is aglow with amber lamplight. You plop into a supple leather couch for single malts, bourbon and camaraderie, savoring the warmth of a stone hearth blaze.
Last month in Part 1 of this two-part series on shot quality, I discussed parameters and standards for shot size designations and pellet sphericity. I spent extra language discussing lead shot because it is still by far the most common shot type used worldwide.
A concerted effort that spanned Italy and the U.S. has produced a magnificent 20-gauge over/under from the workshops of Luciano Bosis and master engraver Stefano Pedretti to help fund research into the preservation of Southeastern bobwhite quail habitat by the Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy.
The high-desert expanse of Highland Hills Ranch served as our proving grounds for evaluating the forthcoming 20-gauge version of Beretta’s 486 Parallelo side by side.
When we think of Orvis for shotgun cases, materials that come to mind are leather, fleece and canvas. With the beginning of the 2013 bird-hunting season, though, Orvis added plastic and suddenly that new green shotgun case vaulted to “The Best 5 Upland Products.”
To judge lead shot quality objectively there are five areas of concern: shot size designation, shot diameter uniformity, roundness or sphericity, hardness, and plating or lack thereof. In Part 1 here we’ll look at size designation, diameter uniformity, and sphericity.
Perazzi’s MXS Sporting 12 gauge lets you tap into a long vein of Olympic trap and skeet victories at the same price of mass-produced shotguns from manufacturers with competitive aspirations and also-ran engineering.
During the ICTSF World English Clay Shooting Championship held August 3rd and 4th at Galt Sportsman Club in Ontario, Canada I had the opportunity to shoot Beretta’s new 486 Parallelo side by side in 12 gauge.
The 486 Parallelo is Beretta’s first round action side by side. The model made available to me featured stunning, hand-rubbed oil Turkish walnut for a shotgun in this price range (around $5,300) on its straight English grip. The Beretta 486 Parallelo sported matching selected wood for the stock, forend and checkered butt plate. Beretta ensures that the balance point on each Beretta 486 Parallelo is the same regardless of wood density. In addition to the English grip with splinter forend, the shotgun can be configured with a pistol grip and beavertail forend.
All shotshell manufacturers now have them: high velocity steel loads. You probably already know that most steel loads have higher instrumental velocities than most lead loads. Well, each company now offers even faster steel loads.
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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
Publisher
Shotgun Life
PO Box 6423
Thomasville, GA 31758
Phone: 229-236-1632
