Inexpensive O/U

357smallbore

357smallbore

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Joined
Feb 14, 2015
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Location
Leavenworth KS
Looking to buy my 1st O/U 12ga. I am wanting a bbl length of 28in and an inexpensive one at that. Plan to shoot trap twice a month with it.
Any ideas as to what to get? Want wood not plastic as well
 
American Tactical 12ga OU.
I bought my daughter a NOS for $400.
It's light and has pretty stout recoil, but I put a limbsaver pad on it for her and that helped tremendously.
 
CZ Drake is the only new one in that price range I can recommend. A good solid used Citori 28" should be in the same price range, and a better gun. While the Valmet 412 is a good gun, parts are problematic. Midwest Gun Works is Browning's Warranty Service Center, and will support that Citori.

That American Tactical will last approximately 1500 rounds. Such guns are designed to such standards. 24 (twice a month)x25(one one box per session) =600. That's 2 1/2 years. A used Citori will need new firing pins about every 8000 rounds, @$200 every 30 years. The rest of the gun will last long enough for your kids to hand down to theirs at that rate of use.

Inexpensive, durable, O/U; Pick two. Three will only happen with used quality guns picked up a good prices.
 
Some real world examples bought in the last two years.
Browning Superposed, 30", i.M and Full. $800.
Remington 3200'Trao, 30", same chokes, $1000.
Beretta 686 Essential (plain but with tubes, selective trigger, ejectors. $750.
Stay away from several Turk guns like the $500-600 Huglu and Yildiz. There are some pretty good ones but they start around $2K.
A couple of my HS trap team kids are shooting CZ made by Huglu bottom end models and after two seasons the triggers are getting mushy.
My two cents. BTW, I bought those guns listed at those prices.
Add in a BT99 for $650 and an 870 TB Remington for $350.
All in very good to excellent condition. Keep your eyes open and cash in your wallet.
 
It has been long enough that prices paid are not relevant, but my first real trap gun was - still is - a Remington 1100TA. I also still have the Broadway I traded a seldom shot Superposed 20 for. It was well used and after a few seasons of doubles, I sent it to Arnold MO to be tightened up.
A Citori Trap was a good solid gun that did not fit me; the guy I sold it to wore it out with untold thousands of targets and bought another.
Perazzis were not as much higher priced as they are now, I wish I had kept my MT6 for the occasional outing. But I was glad to get my money back when I sold it, not realizing they had about doubled in price.
 
This is the politest & most helpful discussion of budget O/U’s I have seen over several forums. The general advice is to avoid them.

Please note the discussion of longevity. The price of the gun is the cheapest part. To date, over several shotgun forums, no one has posted a round count for any budget shotgun that reasonably represents what shooters do, except one person claimed to have 50,000 rounds through a CZ. Just one. I have issuing this challenge for at least 3 years.

My son shoots a Citori. He replaces firing pins every 10,000 rounds. I am about 12,000 rounds into an 1100 I bought for $500 before Covid
 
I don't know much about O/U and SXS shotguns anymore. I used to keep up with them and I've tried some of the moderately priced ones with disappointing results. There was a time when I wanted a double, but I finally decided I'd much rather have a quality semi-auto than a cheap double.

Anymore a new 870 is $500 with walnut and matte finished metal. A decent semi-auto with a plastic stock is $800-$1300. I'm not aware of anything with polished metal and real walnut under $2000. Be aware that most budget guns with wood isn't real walnut but a cheap wood stained to look like walnut. I can't imagine any new $800 O/U holding up for very long. There might be something out there that is well used close to that price.
 
Around here everyone has at least one stoeger. Mostly 20g OU. Being a different kind of cat I bought a SxS. Why no mention. Steger has been a steady supplier of fun and different to shoot OU and SxS of various guages. Am I missing something
 
Yes. Different levels of involvement with shotgunning will produce different choices of shotguns.
I shoot Trap, 5 stand, Sporting Clays, and Skeet year round. (Mostly Trap) I'd have to have 5 Stoegers to keep in rotation back and forth for warranty repairs to keep up the amount of shooting I do. They aren't designed for that kind of round count.
Most Stoeger O/U owners shoot a round or two of one of the clays games a year, and a hunt or two. Most Stoeger SxS owners (short barrel) load em up with buckshot and stash them somewhere handy, a range trip or two, maybe some grouse hunting.
And there's nothing wrong with that. But when a parent buys a Condor ot a Tri Star Setter for their kid in High School Trap and it doesn't last the season, it is an expensive teaching moment. So those of us who have experience with this try to make sure people understand the difference and get a shotgun that will fill their needs.
 
entropy said:
Yes. Different levels of involvement with shotgunning will produce different choices of shotguns.
I shoot Trap, 5 stand, Sporting Clays, and Skeet year round. (Mostly Trap) I'd have to have 5 Stoegers to keep in rotation back and forth for warranty repairs to keep up the amount of shooting I do. They aren't designed for that kind of round count.
Most Stoeger O/U owners shoot a round or two of one of the clays games a year, and a hunt or two. Most Stoeger SxS owners (short barrel) load em up with buckshot and stash them somewhere handy, a range trip or two, maybe some grouse hunting.
And there's nothing wrong with that. But when a parent buys a Condor ot a Tri Star Setter for their kid in High School Trap and it doesn't last the season, it is an expensive teaching moment. So those of us who have experience with this try to make sure people understand the difference and get a shotgun that will fill their needs.
Click to expand...
How on earth did you try to turn this conversation into competition of any kind. That's not what the fella asked.
Nice to know who to turn to if competition becomes a question.
" inexpensive OU " !!
 
Wingshooting is IMHO reflexive.
Some stuff just works better ( in general ).

Utilitarian guns dont cut it.

If a guy likes popping 2 or 3 doves out of a box of shells I guess it doesnt matter.
 
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