Shot Sporting Clays...

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Storz

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Fuquay Varina, NC
for the first time yesterday and am totally hooked! What a riot!

I was using my 18.5" HD shotgun which you can imagine is not ideal at all, I did manage to hit quite a few though :)

What would you guys recommend for an inexpensive (<300) shotgun to use for sporting clays? I know that's not much to work with, but there have to be some good used guns out there.

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Sporting Clays is a lot of fun. With that budget I'd just get a longer barrel for your existing gun that has screw in chokes.
 
For just a touch over your budget, a semi would be much better for sporting, or any other game where you have pairs.......a used Beretta, or the 3901 from wally world/cabela's runs about $500 and will last you forever...........something to think about...........
 
For your budget you may want to look at picking up an 870 express. If you keep with sporting clays, five stand, trap, or skeet you can always upgrade later. If you don't then you'll have a good spare gun for hunting or what ever else you want to do with it.
 
$300 is six rounds of sporting clays. Get used to being broke. :D

I shot a few rounds of pasture clays with my nephew Josh and his friend tonight. We had a ball. Took a whole bunch of pressure off of the rest of the day's events.
 
I grew up on a a Sportsman 58. Still have it. Also brought home an 870 a few years ago. My $.02 is that your score will improve faster and you'll have more fun with the semi for 3 reasons:
1. Shucking shells wasn't 2nd nature to me. That alone extends the learning curve and detracts from focus on other clay shooting skills.
2. Softer recoil will help with any shooting sport. Gas guns do that for me.
3. After 100 rds, no shucking and less recoil put the fatigue factor in favor of the semi.

Also FWIW, swinging a 30-inch barrel around a sporting clay course or a skeet range is no picnic. Keep the $50 and shoot your 18.5" until you can get the right stuff.
 
Also FWIW, swinging a 30-inch barrel around a sporting clay course or a skeet range is no picnic. Keep the $50 and shoot your 18.5" until you can get the right stuff.
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That's YOUR opinion, and you are entitled to it, but I find that to be very wrong - I shoot 32" barrels on my 8.5# O/U and can easily break skeet targets before the stake or swing quickly enough on fast sporting crossers.

The LAST thing the OP needs if he is shooting clays with pairs is a pump gun - any semi, O/U, or SxS of QUALITY construction will handle the [airs much better than a pump
 
I have been shooting clays in just about every form for a number of years now, and every seasoned shooter has his or her own prefrences for guns. Nothing is wrong with the opinions of others, but the one bit of advice that rang true for me and friends when we got started was "shoot your gun, what ever it is, and shoot it as often as possible". The first two years that I shot I used an old Ithaca 37 with a 30" barrel and a full choke, and I used it for everything. After I purchased a trap/skeet combo, my scores suffered for a few months. Don't worry about what your shooting, worry about how you are shooting, the basics don't change with the gun.
 
Mossberg makes a field barrel in 26" (I think) for the 500 with interchangable chokes that you can probably find for <$150. Not a perfect setup, but I've shot a few rounds of clays with it with my 20ga 500 and didn't do too bad.

Edit - I stand corrected - the 20ga barrel is available up to 26", the 12ga can be had in 28":
http://www.mossberg.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=90130
 
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Welcome, Storz. There's paths you can take here, but what I'd do in your shoes is......


Buy a second Mossberg 500 with a long barrel set up for choke tubes. Shoot it frequently.

Practice with one 500 is practice with the other. After smashing oodles of fast pairs, you'll find hitting larger, closer, slower things much easier.

Even if they're dangerous.

Once you are deadly with both Mossbergs, you may want to get something a little better for SC, Trap and Skeet. I really like my Beretta White Onyx, and it does well for most clay games.

HTH....
 
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