[Pony Express]

Hello everybody,
I am on what seems like a never ending quest to find an affordable over under for general use. I'm no big fan of fancy engravings and I dont exactly have the budget to buy a Browning Cynergy or Citori. Im looking at a savage 512 on gunbroker right now and it rather tickles my fancy. does anybody have firsthand experience about the quality/longevity of these guns? or any guns in a comparable price range? (except stoeger, I had a bad experience with a stoeger once, but thats a story for a rainy day)

[DaleCooper51]

I don't have any experience with the Steven's 512, but I worry about low cost new guns. A few friends have purchased inexpensive O/U and have had problems. One friend bought a Stoeger Condor in .410 to rehab after a shoulder surgery. The barrels were not well regulated. The top barrel was fine, but the bottom barrel patterned about a foot low at 20 yards. The other friend picked up a mossberg silver reserve and it broke a firing pin in the first 200 rounds through the gun.

When I was looking for an inexpensive gun as my first O/U, I found a used Ithaca 500 made by SKB. It was about $550 after shipping and FFL fees. It is a great gun and since then I purchased another SKB. They are a good quality gun that can be found used at reasonable prices. Other used guns that IMO would be worth a look would be a Miroku (or an older Charles Daly badged gun), Winchester 101, or a Weatherby badged SKB. There are others out there also.

Another gun which I don't have any experience with is the Lanber, but what I have read has been mostly postive about them. CDNN has a few different models available ranging from $500 - $650. You might want to download the catalog and see whats available.

http://www.cdnninvestments.com/dowournewcat.html