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Old January 23, 2018, 04:27 PM   #26
dgludwig
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[QUOTE] Gun will be used for turkey, dove, quail, and ducks.

That's a lot to ask from one shotgun. My grouse/quail/woodcock shotgun is a lot different from my pheasant gun and way different from my turkey/waterfowl gun in terms of weight, gauge, choke, barrel length, etc. But if I had to keep only one of the many shotguns I own for use on everything, from timber doodles to Canadian honkers, it would be my Benelli "Super Black Eagle II", 12 gauge, inertia-operated, semi-auto shotgun, having a 3 1/2" chamber and interchangeable chokes with a 28" long barrel.
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Old January 23, 2018, 04:43 PM   #27
BobWalters
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Originally Posted by BigJimP View Post
A couple of points...to me Hunting shotguns and Sporting Clays shotguns( and Skeet and 5 Stand shotguns ) to me have very similar characteristics....( but all of the big shotgun companies are "marketing" Skeet guns, Sporting Clays guns, Hunting guns --- and Trap guns...so it gets very confusing.

In my view ...Skeet,Sporting Clays, 5 stand ...all have birds that fly quickly left to right - similar to Quail as an example .../ so I tend to want an 8.5 lb Over Under ( like a Browning Citori XS Skeet model, 12ga, 30" barrels and screw in chokes). If I go to a semi-auto, if I wanted a gas gun, I would go with one of the Beretta or Browning/Winchester models. If I want an Inertia gun, I will go with the Benelli Super Sport, 12ga, 30" barrel @ 7.2 lbs its very light - but longer barrel helps smooth out my swing so I don't "slap" at a bird.

Clay Target fields for the last 30 yrs ...have been dominated by Over Unders partly because you have 2 chokes you can change / partly because if you can get a shell, even a distorted one, into the chamber and close the gun it will probably fire. Semi-Autos back in the 50's and 60's when I was a kid -- were Jam O Matics...they didn't run very well ( Auto 5's, etc )...lots of guys, cops, etc said the same thing about semi-auto handguns, even 1911's, and cops in my family carried S&W revolvers in .357 Mag.

It was probably about 20 yrs ago...when sporting clays got real popular / that Beretta had a new gas semi auto on market...and they sold like hotcakes to guys that wanted a gun that would run reliably, they didn't want to clean them much, throw them away around 3 seasons or about 60,000 shells and buy another one. They were the right weight, had some adjustabiliy, were priced right, etc.... Beretta has continued to evolve in their gas gun lineup. Beretta eclipsed Remington, Browning and others in the semi auto market.

Benelli came along about the same time..in waterfowl market...and really caught fire with the Inertia guns. They built a great reputation in that field.

Probably 15 yrs ago...Browning was bought by FN, they later bought Winchester...and Browning/Winchester started to develop some gas guns, Gold, etc to compete with Beretta. Browning/Winchester have continued to evolve...with Browning taking the lead in shotgun market for FN, with Winchester now at a lower price point than the similar Browning models..but sharing their new gas system, chokes, barrels, etc../ and Browning - Win are making some solid semi-autos again...with some new models.

( and everybody else in semi-auto market is out there now...Remington, etc..but they are still playing catchup ...trying to hit some price points where they can compete in my view).

There are more semi-autos on the market now ...for Hunting and Clays because of it ...from $800 - $2,000 or so ...
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Over Under market ...in clays and Hunting has been long dominated by Beretta and Browning.../ Browning developed some of the first screw in choke systems in their Citori line / sure there are other high end O/U's out there too ( Perazzi, Krieghoff, etc and some new ones, Blazer, etc )..and as Browning & Beretta continued to fight over market...they developed more and more models...to the point now where Browning probably makes over 25 models in Citori line and another 25 in Cynergy line...and Beretta has at least 25 in their line of guns. ( Browning doesn't make anything ...their shotguns are made by Miroku ...)...they're a marketing company.

Some other players in O/U's are other there too ...at cheaper price points / Mossberg, Remington, Ruger, etc...but most of them are maybe 50,000 shell life guns.../ where most of the Brownings I own, even the older basic Citori field grade guns are all over 500,000 shells with no issues.
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Semi auto gas guns...and Benelli Inertia guns...are just plain solid guns in my view...hard to go wrong / but you have to figure out what you need to "Fit" you.

In the Citori / Cynergy line of guns, I own about a dozen of them now, there are only 4 or 5 models that "Fit" me....( Citori XS Skeet is now out of catalog / replaced by one of the 725 models I think ) but its my O/U of choice for Skeet, Sporting, 5 stand and upland bird hunting. I have individual guns in a 12ga, 20ga, 28ga and a .410 ...( 20, 28 and .410 are all built by Browning ( MIroku actually) on the 20ga receiver ). They are all in 30" barrels...
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Trap is a very different game than other clay games. Less left to right movement..more restricted flight ( kind of like Pheasant ).

So for Trap, I prefer a 10 lb gun in an O/U ....Browning Citori XT Trap, 12ga, 32" barrels. If I want to just shoot singles, I can shoot the XT....but I also have one of the single barrel, break open Brownings a BT-100 in a 32" barrel...and some guys go to a 34" barrel on a BT 100 or a BT 99 single barrel break open. Heavier gun, with longer barrels, for Trap ...helps keep swing smooth ..with targets flying in more restricted angles than Skeet. A heavy Trap gun, like the XT Trap, really does feel like a big old Sewer Pipe...on a Skeet or Sporting Clays field.

Anyway .....that's how I view this stuff evolving over the last 50 yrs or so.
( first time I saw a regulation Skeet field was about 1972 --- and it became real obvious, real quick, while I had killed a lot of Quail, Pheasant and Grouse...with pump guns, a bolt action gun, an old Browning O/U, even an Auto 5...I had no clue how to compete with those guys ). It took a lot of practice, some understanding of Fit, a good coach to help me out.../ it wasn't until the mid 90's or so when Sporting Clays came around...that I got interested again in Skeet -- and it really helped me improve my field shooting and my sporting clays --- and then I really understood "Fit" when I started hanging out with some serious Skeet shooters.
In your eyes from a reliability well made long lasting easy cycling no finicky stuff that I would be safe purchasing whichever fits me best between a V3, A300, M2, or Vinci?
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Old January 23, 2018, 05:39 PM   #28
BigJimP
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In terms of reliability ...I'm not sold on the Remington...but yes on the others .
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Old January 23, 2018, 06:14 PM   #29
BobWalters
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In terms of reliability ...I'm not sold on the Remington...but yes on the others .
Thank you for your help! Plan to go in the next few weeks and spend some solid time in the store shouldering them
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Old January 23, 2018, 06:20 PM   #30
BigJimP
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You are welcome...good luck with the process !
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Old January 23, 2018, 06:20 PM   #31
Rangerrich99
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This might cover all your bases. And everyone else within a half a mile . . .

https://youtu.be/n7FeeamC4qk
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