Shotgun recommendations

[BlueJuice]

Well my FAC and SGC has come through a few days ago (8 or 9 months-ish if anyones interested!) and looking at picking up a shotgun. Originally wasn't hugely interested but went co-terminus on the application anyway just in case, as it happens ive been a few times recently shooting clays and have really enjoyed it.

Nothing too fancy required, and will be going second hand, budget is probably up to £350 ish. Mirokus seem to be pretty decent for under that sort of money on the used marked form what ive seen? What else should i be looking for as a general purpose do it all 12g over and under?

 

[jall55]

Cant go wrong with a Miroku

 

[tarponhead]

This - fund one that fits you and enjoy! But don’t sell it - although you will - when you are tempted by something else. Keep it to one - beware the man with one fun etc etc. but you won’t l. I’m down to 5…

 

[enfieldspares]

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY and, yes, I am SHOUTING this advice! And if you find one that you kill 90% you raise it up to with then buy it regardless of it being a fashionable name or not as long as the price is fair for that make and model and the gun in full working order.

 

[disco_ike]

I bought an ATA SP Sporter for just over your budget (395) but it's a cracking shotgun. I see you are in Somerset so be worth going to somewhere like Barbury over in Wiltshire or Ivythorn Sporting. UK Gun Repairs are also really good and will sometimes let you test fire there.

 

[Greenmist]

One that fits

 

[Tikkat1x]

Cant go wrong with a Miroku

you can with only a budget of £350, for that money there is only one gun id buy, and thats a Lanber sporter, best budget gun by far, or a beretta 303 semi auto, but the best gun is the one thats fits you

 

[243M]

when i first was in the market for a shotgun, I was dead set on Berretta and then I tried a Browning, fit, feel and scores said buy the Browning, so I did.

take enfieldspares advice and try many different makes and models before you settle.

28 inch, 30 inch and 32 inch all swing and feel different. So try a few. Good luck

 

[jall55]

you can with only a budget of £350, for that money there is only one gun id buy, and thats a Lanber sporter, best budget gun by far, or a beretta 303 semi auto, but the best gun is the one thats fits you

You would find a decent one these days for 400 quid easy - mine for example is perhaps only worth that and i have had it for nigh on 35 years
In all that time and thousands upon thousands of shots its had a firing pin or two and this last year a bit of "tightening" back up
Mine is a grade one game gun - light fast and lovely really

 

[Scarpa]

I was the opposite of a post above. I had a Berretta 303 semi auto as a kid but then didn't shoot for about 15 years. I then tried a lot of makes and models in the shops and the one that just felt right to me and came up to the same place every time was a Berretta silver pigeon sporter with 30" barrels. I did have to save up a bit for that new though. I've shot it for almost 20 years, clays, game, rough and its still going strong, still worth pretty much what I paid for it originally. I spent a lot of time choosing my shotgun and don't regret it.

 

[Demetrius]

I bought a 12 bore in 1973...the best fit I could find in the shop was an AYA non-ejector side by side that cost me £25.
It did for a lot of rabbits and woodies over the next 3 or 4 years...

D.

 

[bulric]

Also, controversially, consider a Yildiz. You could get a much more modern gun (which is likely to be HP steel proof) for that budget.

 

[Chris Richardson]

you can with only a budget of £350, for that money there is only one gun id buy, and thats a Lanber sporter, best budget gun by far, or a beretta 303 semi auto, but the best gun is the one thats fits you

I bought a Miroku 700 for £250 three years ago cracking shotgun choked cylinder and 1/4 fits me like a glove which is obviously very important but there are bargains out there to be had

 

[Pedro]

So, if you are going to use your gun a bit, even if it’s only on clays, I’d slow down a tad. Frequent your local gun emporiums and handle as many as you can. Trying guns would be ideal and failing any opportunities with retailers, have a go with your pals when going clay shooting.

£350 will get you a fairly decent gun usually which you might well be happy with, but if you wait a month or two and your budget increases a bit then you’ll have more choice. And a year down the line you won’t be as likely to be looking for something better…

 

[Tim.243]

Well my FAC and SGC has come through a few days ago (8 or 9 months-ish if anyones interested!) and looking at picking up a shotgun. Originally wasn't hugely interested but went co-terminus on the application anyway just in case, as it happens ive been a few times recently shooting clays and have really enjoyed it.

Nothing too fancy required, and will be going second hand, budget is probably up to £350 ish. Mirokus seem to be pretty decent for under that sort of money on the used marked form what ive seen? What else should i be looking for as a general purpose do it all 12g over and under?

You have not said what you are going to wave your shotgun at!
A shot gun fit in the winter with a couple of extra layers under your coat is different to one at a clay stand in the summer.
Nothing wrong with fixed choke just so long as it is not in the 3/4-full league,
Many more chooses if you are right handed, a gunsmith I know fixed a game shooters 20b and said to the chap as he dry mounted it in his right shoulder, I thought you were left handed "why" said the chap. "well it has a left cast"

 

[Heym SR20]

Shotguns are all about fit, feel and handling. And there is huge variability even within the same make and model.

Get some lessons first, shoot your friends guns and start building up an understanding of what works for you. I would stick to a double. They are much simpler to use than a semi.

Then keep trying guns till you find something that speaks to you.

Everyone talks about “fit“. Simplest way to check. Make sure gun is empty. Look at the top corner of a room or if outside an object in a tree. Close your eyes, mount the gun, open your eyes and if it fits it should point at where you are looking.

Then take a mirror - look at your face in mirror, mount the gun, your shooting eye should be directly above the rib with bottom of the eye touching the rib. If you don’t have a mirror, use a shooting instructor.

 

[enfieldspares]

There's been a lot of talk about fit, feel, drop and cast that may, or may not, confuse our seeker of their first gun. I may well be teaching granny to suck eggs but here it is anyway.

The fundamental difference between a standard shotgun (be it side by side, over and under or single barrel of any typ) and a rifle is this. A rifle has a backsight and a frontsight. A shotgun has no backsight and for a frontsight it has a small round bead that may be metal or coloured plastic.

So in a shotgun it is your eye that performs the role of the backsight. Thus the purpose of correct fit, feel, drop and cast is to have the stock of the shotgun of such dimensions that when you bring it to the shoulder your eye is positioned where it will be centred and aligned with the barrels.

That your eye is looking straight down the barrels parallel to the bore left and right and perpendicular to it up and down. So that distant where you eye looks directly at is the same distant point the shot will arrive when you fire the gun.

Too much cast (the parallel) and you eye will be looking to a point right or too little looking to a point right of where your shot will arrive when you fire the gun. Drop is like the two hands of a clock. Too much and the gun will shoot low of where your eye is looking. Too little and it will shoot high of where you are looking.

So how do you check? There's the old advice of looking at a fixed point and closing your eye as you bring the gun to your shoulder and then opening it when the gun comes to the shoulder. Or the other old advice of doing it to a mirror and seeing where your eye is in the reflection in the mirror.

To my mind BOTH the above work for a gun that already in fit, feel, drop and cast is correct for you. But that in one that isn't you'll subconsciously correct yourself and then apply a physical adjustment to your "aim" that you then take as being a sign that all is correct. But you are fooling yourself.

So thus the only real test is indeed to try before you buy and an easy to hit straight going away and a straight incoming target. Then an easy left to right and right to left crossing bird.

So yes handle the gun dry (the fixed object or the mirror) to discount any that have clearly totally the wrong fit, feel, drop and cast. Put them back in the rack and leave them there. And of those that however do seem to be right (for you)? Do then try them on actual birds be that clay or feather.

 

[Subsistence]

Agree with the Lanber recommendation above. Picked one up for my first shotgun. Was old but had seen little use, and was in great condition. Has been flawless for the couple of years I've been using it and cost less than your budget

 

[Storcky]

Another one for a Lanber Sporter, good honest shotgun and does exactly what it should do without the expense of buying into the latest fad.

 

[Heym SR20]

There's been a lot of talk about fit, feel, drop and cast that may, or may not, confuse our seeker of their first gun. I may well be teaching granny to suck eggs but here it is anyway.

The fundamental difference between a standard shotgun (be it side by side, over and under or single barrel of any typ) and a rifle is this. A rifle has a backsight and a frontsight. A shotgun has no backsight and for a frontsight it has a small round bead that may be metal or coloured plastic.

So in a shotgun it is your eye that performs the role of the backsight. Thus the purpose of correct fit, feel, drop and cast is to have the stock of the shotgun of such dimensions that when you bring it to the shoulder your eye is positioned where it will be centred and aligned with the barrels.

That your eye is looking straight down the barrels parallel to the bore left and right and perpendicular to it up and down. So that distant where you eye looks directly at is the same distant point the shot will arrive when you fire the gun.

Too much cast (the parallel) and you eye will be looking to a point right or too little looking to a point right of where your shot will arrive when you fire the gun. Drop is like the two hands of a clock. Too much and the gun will shoot low of where your eye is looking. Too little and it will shoot high of where you are looking.

So how do you check? There's the old advice of looking at a fixed point and closing your eye as you bring the gun to your shoulder and then opening it when the gun comes to the shoulder. Or the other old advice of doing it to a mirror and seeing where your eye is in the reflection in the mirror.

To my mind BOTH the above work for a gun that already in fit, feel, drop and cast is correct for you. But that in one that isn't you'll subconsciously correct yourself and then apply a physical adjustment to your "aim" that you then take as being a sign that all is correct. But you are fooling yourself.

So thus the only real test is indeed to try before you buy and an easy to hit straight going away and a straight incoming target. Then an easy left to right and right to left crossing bird.

So yes handle the gun dry (the fixed object or the mirror) to discount any that have clearly totally the wrong fit, feel, drop and cast. Put them back in the rack and leave them there. And of those that however do seem to be right (for you)? Do then try them on actual birds be that clay or feather.

Very eloquently put and very good advice, especially the bit on actual birds and feathers.

Over the years have tried and bought guns that look just right. But turned out to be bunny boilers beloved by the ducks as I couldn’t hit a thing with him.

Like life, shotguns are life partners, and once you have found your gun stick with it and grow old disgracefully together.