I've been hunting with my father's old Sweet Sixteen that I dearly love. It's a '51 Belgian made model with the Poly choke on the end and have used it for doves, quail, and rabbit since I was a teen. The last couple of years those she seems to be showing her age by not ejecting spent shells correctly. I've taken her to 2 different smiths and they both have gone through her, cleaned her thoroughly and then shot a box of shells through her and said she worked fine. I get her out in the field and it's the same thing all over again. I did discover that low brass shells seemed to be more problematic than high brass.
I finally decided that at 54 years old, I could justify (at least in my mind) a new shotgun. I looked at a bunch of used ones but just didn't see anything that I was comfortable with buying and being secure that I wouldn't have some kind of problem out of them soon down the road. On the new side, I was leaning towards a Benelli but didn't feel right on spending that kind of money. Then there's my 13 year old son too. We've been borrowing guns for him since he was about 10 and started dove hunting with me and I really wanted to move him up in gun as well.
I finally decided to get a Beretta 3901 for me and the H&R Excell Auto for him. I considered getting us both the H&R since they were so inexpensive, but I decided that I wanted to get 2 different guns to compare them against each other.
Both are 12ga with 28" barrels. The H&R weighs 7 lbs and the Beretta weighs 7.19 lbs so weight is pretty comparable. The H&R came with 4 chokes (F, M, IM,& IC) and the Beretta came with 3 (F, M, & IC). The H&R came with a nice soft rubber butt plate while the Beretta came with a hard plastic one. Both have black synthetic stocks and forearms.
We went shooting yesterday afternoon at a friend's farm outside of Sardis, MS. I had also picked up a Trius 1 Step clay thrower.
My son shot his gun first. It took him most of a box of shells to zero in on the clays and he's usually a lot quicker than that. The gun worked real well, I think he had 1 ejection problem in the 1st box and 1 in the second box. Once he started hitting them though he was pretty consistent. The 3rd box of shells gave him no problems and I think it was probably just break in issues on the first 2 boxes.
I shot next and my gun had about 4 ejection issues in the first box and one in the 2nd. The 3rd box ran through clean though with no problems. It took me about 6 throws to get a handle on my gun before I hit my first clay and after that I was better, but not quite as consistent as my son. Neither one of us are great shots, we have a wide variety of interests and just don't get out to shoot all that often. I was expecting to really feel the kick of the Beretta especially since I'm used to a lighter gauge gun, but it was not bad at all even with the hard butt plate. I did shoot a couple of rounds with my son's gun and the kick on it was a lot sharper than with mine. I was actually surprised at the difference but I attribute that to the lighter weight of the H&R.
One thing I did notice that I thought was interesting: After we shot a box of clays, I went around and picked up some that we’d missed but didn’t break when they hit the ground. I set them up on end and stepped back about 20 yards and shot at them. With the Beretta, you put the bead on one of them, pull the trigger and it dusts it. You put the bead of the H&R on the clay and it hits about 2’ in front of it. You cover the clay up with the barrel and it hits it dead on. I’m curious about why the H&R shoots like that. Seems to be pointless to have the bead on the barrel in that case. I guess just so long as you know how to aim it you’ll be OK though...
All in all, we're both very happy with what we got. My son likes his gun better than mine and I like mine better than his. It'll be interesting to see how we do on the doves.
I finally decided that at 54 years old, I could justify (at least in my mind) a new shotgun. I looked at a bunch of used ones but just didn't see anything that I was comfortable with buying and being secure that I wouldn't have some kind of problem out of them soon down the road. On the new side, I was leaning towards a Benelli but didn't feel right on spending that kind of money. Then there's my 13 year old son too. We've been borrowing guns for him since he was about 10 and started dove hunting with me and I really wanted to move him up in gun as well.
I finally decided to get a Beretta 3901 for me and the H&R Excell Auto for him. I considered getting us both the H&R since they were so inexpensive, but I decided that I wanted to get 2 different guns to compare them against each other.
Both are 12ga with 28" barrels. The H&R weighs 7 lbs and the Beretta weighs 7.19 lbs so weight is pretty comparable. The H&R came with 4 chokes (F, M, IM,& IC) and the Beretta came with 3 (F, M, & IC). The H&R came with a nice soft rubber butt plate while the Beretta came with a hard plastic one. Both have black synthetic stocks and forearms.
We went shooting yesterday afternoon at a friend's farm outside of Sardis, MS. I had also picked up a Trius 1 Step clay thrower.
My son shot his gun first. It took him most of a box of shells to zero in on the clays and he's usually a lot quicker than that. The gun worked real well, I think he had 1 ejection problem in the 1st box and 1 in the second box. Once he started hitting them though he was pretty consistent. The 3rd box of shells gave him no problems and I think it was probably just break in issues on the first 2 boxes.
I shot next and my gun had about 4 ejection issues in the first box and one in the 2nd. The 3rd box ran through clean though with no problems. It took me about 6 throws to get a handle on my gun before I hit my first clay and after that I was better, but not quite as consistent as my son. Neither one of us are great shots, we have a wide variety of interests and just don't get out to shoot all that often. I was expecting to really feel the kick of the Beretta especially since I'm used to a lighter gauge gun, but it was not bad at all even with the hard butt plate. I did shoot a couple of rounds with my son's gun and the kick on it was a lot sharper than with mine. I was actually surprised at the difference but I attribute that to the lighter weight of the H&R.
One thing I did notice that I thought was interesting: After we shot a box of clays, I went around and picked up some that we’d missed but didn’t break when they hit the ground. I set them up on end and stepped back about 20 yards and shot at them. With the Beretta, you put the bead on one of them, pull the trigger and it dusts it. You put the bead of the H&R on the clay and it hits about 2’ in front of it. You cover the clay up with the barrel and it hits it dead on. I’m curious about why the H&R shoots like that. Seems to be pointless to have the bead on the barrel in that case. I guess just so long as you know how to aim it you’ll be OK though...
All in all, we're both very happy with what we got. My son likes his gun better than mine and I like mine better than his. It'll be interesting to see how we do on the doves.
