Ordering New Shotgun

[cimmaronkid]

I am going to blame Jfowl for this purchase! His post on the Laurona got me off high center and looking for a Wobble/Pit/Z-Bird/Live Bird gun and after a couple of days talking with Spanish and Italian gunmakers, I settled on a Turkish manufacturer of all things.

Sarsilmaz has been making firearms for around 130 years and has one of the most up-to-date factories in the world for firearms manufacture and actually makes some guns for Bernadelli and Verona, two very respected names in Italian shotguns. Their line is a basic knockoff of the Perazzi action and are built hell for stout. I couldn't get custom stock dimensions, but got a fully adjustable comb(up/down/left/right) and they are adding an adjustable butt plate(same movement range). Gun will be tubed for Briley external chokes and will have no porting as I don't think it works well enough on a shotgun. Pictures of wood are coming next week so I can select a blank. Here is a file photo from their catalog showing the gun and their International Trap(Pit)/Skeet range both of which are a lot harder than the games we play. This is a fairly lenghty process as it will take about 60 days to build and probably 6 months to get the damn gun into the country and into my hands.
These guys also make firearms for Colt and Armalite as well so they are highly respected, not just well known.

[cetme]

looks nice. I haven't seen any nice shotties like that since my college trap team days.

[LostInTexas]

That's a nice looking scattergun! You'll enjoy busting lots of birds with that one!

[wonderwolf]

I miss having the "Grand" just 40 minutes down the road from where I live. It was fun to go see the Italian guys build HUGE dollar shotguns from nothing. It was so nice. Enjoy that O/U I'm impressed you get to pick out the wood blank. now thats classy :rainbow:

[Sky Buster]

Cim since you have been around longer than me. I have been debating on getting a new scatter gun. Itsgonna be nothing fancy or great. I just want a "new" old toy for field days. I am not sure if I want a SXS or a over under. and make on it. just want somethin to shoot dove crow quail pheasant bunnys squirl with. Just somethin that if I dropped it and brok the stock I would just say damn that was a waste of $100. Just a good old junker. So when I go hunting and hopefully I out shoot the next person I can go damn man how much you pay for that gun( $1000 ) and go damn I bet you wish you coul kill somethin with it. just somethin to that extentyou know what I mean. I kinda think it would be cool to have a old SXS with bunny ears.

[cimmaronkid]

Sky, the choice of SxS or O/U is a personal preference. I prefer a nice SxS for the field and their are a lot of choices. I would also shoot a SxS on skeet and trap if somebody made one today as I like the way the eye centers on the rib and the barrels guide you to the front bead and the target. Only problem here is that the last trap gun built in a SxS was the Mdl. 21 Winchester and they are worth a small fortune now. So we are faced with shooting O/U guns because that is what is out there.

My recommendation for an all around gun would be one with choke tubes, 28" barrels, and a single trigger unless you grew up like I did shooting a twin trigger gun which I feel is an advantage as it gives you immediate choice of chokes. Most of the lower end guns will have extractors but you might get lucky and find one with ejectors.

As a rule, Italian makers are better than Spanish makers unless you get into the Spanish mid-range guns which are every bit as good as the Italian. Don't even consider a Chinese made gun! One or two decent makers in South America. Most of the lower end guns were built to hit a price when they were imported so they cut some corners. The sleepers today are the Turkish shotguns as these are really decent guns, and even their high end guns are exceptionally nice but I just don't like their stock dimensions as most don't fit me well except for the Sarsilmaz wich has the same dimensions as most of the Italian and Spanish competition guns. Several big name Italian firms are having guns made in Turkey and have their names put on them.

Here are some makers to keep an eye open for: Lanber, Laurona, Felix Sarsaquetta, Valmet, Tikka, Savage(made by Valmet), Gamba(you might get lucky), Marocchi, A. Zoli, Aya(one of my favorite and highly underappreciated), Verona, Rizzini, Armsport, and I. Moreno(middle of road gun made by Felix Sarsaquetta)

Here is a shotgun on gunbroker that is well worth the money and has been listed for the 2nd time. I would bid, but I already bought 5 guns this week my wife knows nothing about.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=69581337

If you ever find something you aren't sure about, just PM me and I can probably tell you about it if it is a shotgun.

[cimmaronkid]

WW, I have been to the Grand 4 times and am going to try and go this year with a friend and spend about 3 weeks total on the road and the shoot. I am looking forward to shooting at the new facility. Dayton was stupid in not keeping this shoot at the airport as they lost about $15,000,000 in income for the local economy which came in under 2 weeks of time for the locals. Because of the political climate, they probably should have moved it to Vegas, but there was just such a great following of folks that liked that area it stayed close by.

[tomoshenko]

Cim since you have been around longer than me. I have been debating on getting a new scatter gun. Itsgonna be nothing fancy or great. I just want a "new" old toy for field days. I am not sure if I want a SXS or a over under. and make on it. just want somethin to shoot dove crow quail pheasant bunnys squirl with. Just somethin that if I dropped it and brok the stock I would just say damn that was a waste of $100. Just a good old junker. So when I go hunting and hopefully I out shoot the next person I can go damn man how much you pay for that gun( $1000 ) and go damn I bet you wish you coul kill somethin with it. just somethin to that extentyou know what I mean. I kinda think it would be cool to have a old SXS with bunny ears.
If you are truly looking for something in the $100 dollar range you will probably
have to settle for something like a used mossberg pump. I have one in 20 ga and it works and shoots just fine and is a totally utilitarian field gun.
For sporting clays I have a Browning 425 Golden Clays. It shoots oh so nicely for targets but I would never want to drag it around in the field hunting.