Questions about Shotguns

J

Jack45

Moderator
First up, I'm not that knowledgeable about shotguns. ****, after being into shooting for 4 years, I never even fired one. I'm trying to research on my own.

1.) The first shotgun I would get would be an over-and-under shotgun(12 gauge preferably) for skeet shooting(sounds like fun). I'm not looking for one that is top of the line, just any decent one that sells at a reasonable price.

2.) Is there any type of buckshot that is ok to fire through a rifled shotgun barrel?

3.) What are the ballistics of slug rounds? Muzzle velocity/energy, effective range, and accuracy through rifled and smooth barrels.

Thanks.
 
Depending on your interest level in skeet, target-grade guns that won't break and will be reliable tend to not be inexpensive by most folks' standards that post/read here. Used guns in the decent category - Browning, Beretta, SKB, will tend to run 1500 and up.

You MIGHT want to consider a nicely used semi from Beretta or Remington for skeet. They can be had for 500 and up, and will last you a long time performing very reliably

Your other inquiries I will leave to others as I do not use slugs or buckshot
 
Your #1 requirement is also unobtainable (unless you are willing to take an older used gun). Good, Over/Under, and reasonably priced don't go together in the same sentence. You get two out of the three - you pick which two.
 
Unless you are going deer hunting and want to use sabot slugs you do not need a rifled barrel. Slugs will be as accurate out of your smoothbore as the rifled barrel in my experience and you do not want to shoot any shot out of a rifled barrel unless you purposely want to shoot donut shaped groups where your target is in the safe zone of the shot spread.

Get yourself to a skeet club and ask what the shooters there are using and why. You will get a better idea of what is available and discover a whole new world of shooters who will be happy to have a new guy to hear their stories. Along the way you might get a nice lead on a good but used shotgun from somebody who has upgraded and doesn't particularly want a gun he doesn't shoot around the house.
 
Agree with oneounceloads suggestion to take a good look at a good used Beretta or Remington semi auto. For example you can find a nice Remington 1100 for a reaonable price and with choke tubes it gives you lots of flexibility.
 
If a skeet grade O/U is beyond you intro gun budget, may I suggest a Beretta Model 303 Special Skeet, the gun that put the skeet model R-1100 out of business. Since its introduction, the Beretta 303 SS was an almost overnight success with stick gun skeet shooters. The model 303 is no longer in production, being replaced by models 390 and 391. But, the 303 is still preferred by many comp shooters. If you can find one, a used Beretta 303 Special Skeet is in the neighborhood of $500-$600.
 
I'm seeing more and more / very good used shotguns around these days - guys looking to get a few bucks for guns they don't shoot anymore, etc ...

A good semi-auto is a better 1st gun choice than an inexpensive O/U that you'll probably regret buying ...and replace pretty quickly.

The other thing is fit / shotguns don't come in one size fits all. Your eye is the rear sight / and how that gun fits you ( drop at comb, and drop at heel ) affects where the point of impact is on that gun for you. You may look at a spot / but gun hits 6" low at 25 yards because the drop at comb and heel are not what you need ...

While you are figuring all this out / make a trip out to a gun club ...see what's going on / see if there are any guns there you can try / sign up for a lesson ...and determine what dimensions on a gun "fit" you. As an example - Beretta's don't fit me at all / but Brownings with parallel combs do / but Brownings like the 625 series don't fit me because they have too much drop. It doesn't mean Beretta or the Browning 625 are bad guns / they're both $ 3,000 guns for the most part - well made, etc .....but I can't shoot them. So I go to a gun like a Browning Citori XS Skeet or XS Special, or an XT model .....but that's me.... you have to figure out what stock dimensions fit you ...
 
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BigJimP said:
I'm seeing more and more / very good used shotguns around these days - guys looking to get a few bucks for guns they don't shoot anymore, etc …
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Jim, you haunt your area gun shops enough to have a pretty good idea of what's what with the local gun market. You said there are more good used guns available theses days. Is this because shooters made poor selections and are trading their guns in for ones that are better suited to their needs, the Obama economy forcing them to liquidate some assets, or… ?
 
I think some of the used guns I see - are older shooters - deciding to sell some guns, put them on consignment because the expense of shooting is going up all the time ( cost of shells, targets, ammo on handguns, etc ) that some of them, especially on fixed incomes or in bad health, are giving up on the shooting sports - which is kind of sad.

I also think shooters with kids, grandkids - aren't really passing on their guns to members of the family - because the kids don't have much interest in the shooting sports. Young guys in my family are really busy with jobs, family etc - and don't have the spare time ( a lot of young families are struggling financially ) both adults working, etc ........and families aren't raised in the woods or fields - hunting and fishing these days ..so kids aren't exposed to hunting like we were in the 50's...

The saddest thing I see - is young guys coming into sell their dads or grandpa's gun - because they need the money ...and they don't appreciate what they have .... Or they don't want the old model 12 pumps, or evening a Browning BPS pump with nice wooden stocks ....they want an 870 Tacti-Cool ... or cammo something ....or a Glock or Springfield XD ....

Gun clubs in some areas are disappearing / so less places to shoot Trap, Skeet, Sporting Clays - let alone to hunt --- and driving 30 min, or maybe up to an hour each way, with gas prices what they are - are discouraging shooting as well....

But I also see more higher end guns on consignment too - Perazzi, Krieghoff, higher end Beretta's and Brownings too / where guys are just shooting one gun now / and giving up their extra guns .... mostly because they see the prices on new guns going up all the time/so they know they can make a few bucks and offset the cost of their own shooting.

So I guess its a little bit of everything in my area at least / which is really a big city environment these days ....but my hunch is, its different in rural areas.

When we travel - gun shops, antique stores, etc are on our browsing list - and I do see more big game rifles in states like Montana and Wyoming, and more "working man's or utilitarian models" in hunting communities / where in the cities, I see a broader mix of higher end guns ....

I don't know what the future of the shooting sports are / the last big registered Skeet up here ....only had 18 registered shooters .../sporting clays shoots still bring out about 75 - 90 shooters up here - but we live in a greater population of over a Million .....Trap isn't much better but a little higher prize money brings out the "money shooters". Handgun tournaments are about the same ........

The good side of this / lots of stuff around for shooters and collectors to pick from: the pawn shop I frequent has about 200 handguns, about 100 rifles. and about 100 shotguns ......on the shotgun side, he has a new Browning 625 12ga for $3,000 - an older Diana grade for about $4K, a Perazzi MX?? for about $5K, a Krieghoff K-80 but 26"barrels and full set of tubes for about $ 8K .... some Purdy's, etc / probably 20 semi-autos Benelli, Rem, etc / maybe 30 tactical shotguns ...and he'll order whatever you want for 10 - 20% over wholesale, depends on how good a customer you are .... and he's been telling me for 6 months he has an estate sale coming in, with about 50 S&W and colt revolvers alledgedly in it ( I've already spoken for any model 27's and 29's S&W's that show up ) ...

But that's what I think and see up here ....
 
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