Locked in international tournament combat with Krieghoff and Perazzi, the Beretta DT10 has taken more medals in competitions than any other shotgun. In fact, since 1956 Beretta shotguns have dominated the Olympics.
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…
Locked in international tournament combat with Krieghoff and Perazzi, the Beretta DT10 has taken more medals in competitions than any other shotgun. In fact, since 1956 Beretta shotguns have dominated the Olympics.
Bespoke shotguns manufactured by Luciano Bosis are coveted for their brilliance, elegance and breathtaking engraving. From his modest workshop at 32 Via G. Marconi in the fabled Brescia region of Italy, Mr. Bosis produces approximately 30 hand-made guns per year whose names Michelangelo, Laura, Wild and Queen cast a reverie over sportsmen and collectors.
Until the Piotti Monaco, I never thought of bespoke shotguns as “cool.”
We often praise custom-made over/unders more in the vernacular of classical beauty than hip transcendence.
It’s Las Vegas, January 17- 20, and the sprawling Shot Show once again served as a venue for new shotgun introductions in our universe of wing and clays shooting. While Benelli’s Franchi and Stoeger units took the cake for the most number of new model roll outs at the Sands Convention Center, all eyes were on FABARM’s forthcoming semi-auto as it pointed the way for what we can expect from the company’s merger last year with Caesar Guerini of Cambridge, Maryland.
The Baserri Chronicles Part V: New shotgun companies are a rarity these days, and so when one comes along we’re eager to track its progress. That’s the idea behind our series, the Baserri Chronicles. In this fifth installment, we write about the advent of Baserri’s new dealer program called Premier Shooting & Retail Centers, where you can try before you buy.
Krieghoff International is ready to introduce a sub-gauge, high-rib sporter that combines the emerging principles and technology of upright shooting for pursuits such as sporting clays with the liveliness of a premium upland shotgun.
How about firing over 25,000 12-gauge shotgun shells as the testing grounds for two new shotguns? I have heard about gun companies that fire huge piles of shells as the introductory testing of new shotgun models, but I’m pretty sure such testing takes place in a figurative laboratory, i.e. the company’s testing facilities. But I was part of a five-shooter party that fired all those thousands of shells in a genuine hunting situation.
Long before Blaser started importing their groundbreaking F3 shotgun into the U.S. in 2004, the German manufacturer founded in 1957 by Horst Blaser was renown for its dangerous-game rifles. The Blaser S-2 Express Double Rifle in either .470 or .500 Nitro Express was a go-to gun for traditionalists looking to bring down a Cape Buffalo or Elephant in Africa. Likewise, a big-bore Blaser R-93 was engineered with a silky smooth bolt action if you needed to squeeze off that critical second shot at a charging rhino. Then in 2010, when Blaser introduced its next-generation bolt-action rifle, the R8, its revolutionary design immediately made it the darling of the big-game set.
At the expense of incurring the wrath of all the shotgun manufactures I test guns for – this is written in stone – a new gun price depreciates significantly the moment you sign on the dotted line for the sale. Walk out the showroom door with a new smoothbore, try to sell it the next day, the next week or the next month and you are going to see that the new gun is worth considerably less than what you paid for it. This isn’t a completely bad thing for there’s a lot that can be considered rewarding to buying and shooting a new gun.
The 12th Annual Southern Side by Side Championship & Exhibition Spring Classic provided an extraordinary opportunity to shoot a round robin of highly coveted shotguns, of which Michael McIntosh’s AYA Nº 2 was certainly the most prominent.
Conceivably the best writer about fine shotguns of his generation, Mr. McIntosh forged a path of elegant and insightful books and magazine articles that made his readers gush with pride as fellow shotgun owners.
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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.
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Shotgun Life
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