Follow-up: I decided to buy the Baikal IZH-27. It was a used shotgun which appeared to be in 95% condition and the guy was selling it for $300.
I used it to shoot a couple rounds of skeet on Sunday. It worked flawlessly. I could hit clays ok with it (misses are my problem, not the gun's). I was surprised that it actually opened and closed fairly smoothly. The trigger could use some smoothing out, but it was ok. Having to click off the safety each time was a little annoying, but I understand this can be remedied. The screw-in chokes that came with the gun screwed in/out easy enough.
The one thing that I found impractical was the method of selecting top barrel first - pushing the trigger forward. This was awkward and too difficult to fool with. The ejectors do toss the shells about 15 feet - gotta be careful there. Who knows how it will hold up over thousands of rounds, but I do feel that I got great value for $300. Maybe I'm just lucky...so far...
I used it to shoot a couple rounds of skeet on Sunday. It worked flawlessly. I could hit clays ok with it (misses are my problem, not the gun's). I was surprised that it actually opened and closed fairly smoothly. The trigger could use some smoothing out, but it was ok. Having to click off the safety each time was a little annoying, but I understand this can be remedied. The screw-in chokes that came with the gun screwed in/out easy enough.
The one thing that I found impractical was the method of selecting top barrel first - pushing the trigger forward. This was awkward and too difficult to fool with. The ejectors do toss the shells about 15 feet - gotta be careful there. Who knows how it will hold up over thousands of rounds, but I do feel that I got great value for $300. Maybe I'm just lucky...so far...