Savage 555 Over-Under

[WoodchuckAssassin]

I was looking at a stoeger condor as an affordable, entry level over-under...then I saw this.

Any experience with this gun? I've been impressed with savage rifles and have never shot/owned one of their shotguns, but I'd heard mixed reviews on their Goldwing series. How would this new gun stackup against its competitors (stoeger and CZ)?

 

[oneounceload]

The issue with cheap over unders is their build quality and reliability. It takes a lot of hand labor to make a good one, so guns that are too cheap have had corners cut in those departments. For light use hunting, they might work fine, but for a lot of use, they do not tend to hold up. Savage does not make this gun, it is made for them.

The receiver is aluminum to save weight and it comes with extractors, not ejectors

 

[WoodchuckAssassin]

Does the aluminum receiver sacrifice any reliability?

Also, what do you consider "a lot" of use? I probably only put 400 rounds a year through my shotguns.

 

[MCgunner]

Aluminum in a double gun receiver is soft and over time, I'd expect it'd stretch more than a steel receiver will. I don't find aluminum in a gun like my Winchester auto to be a problem since it isn't under stress like a fixed breach gun. The auto has locking lugs on the head of the bolt like a rifle that rotate and lock the steel action directly into the steel barrel. A double gun/OU or SxS, has a pin on which the barrels rotate and depend on during firing for strength. I can see this pin stretching the action over time.

400 rounds a year, I don't think you're even needing to worry about an aluminum receiver. Oneounce is a trap and skeet fanatic and shoots something like a billion rounds a month or something. I know I couldn't even afford his ammo bill, let alone his idea of an adequate gun. ROFL! If you're like me, you bird hunt, shoot occasionally at clays in the front yard off a cheap trap, shoot the occasional squirrel or rabbit out back when walking the woods, that gun will last you the rest of your life. Heck, I split my shooting between my Spartan SxS and my 12 gauge repeaters (my duck guns). My SxS is a 20 and a superb dove gun. It was a whoppin' 300 bucks plus tax when I bought it about 6 years ago or so. It's been through every dove season since and shoots at least as much as you're talkin'. My 12s have been idle due to circumstances keeping me out of the marsh last couple of years, but they take up the rest of my shotgunning. I don't expect to outlive ANY of my shotguns and none of 'em were expensive.

 

[WoodchuckAssassin]

McGunner - you're habits seem to mirror mine. Thanks for the info.

For 50 bucks more, I was looking at a CZ canvasback. The CZ seems like a more solid-built gun. Any experience with this shotgun?

 

[MCgunner]

For 50 bucks more, I was looking at a CZ canvasback. The CZ seems like a more solid-built gun. Any experience with this shotgun?

No experience with it, but I believe it to be Turkish built.

The one Turkish gun that's affordable, too, btw, that I've considered is the Yildiz sold through Academy stores. They seem well built and Briley in Katy (just down I10 about 70 miles from me) does all the warranty work for them. I haven't tried their SxSs. I have handled the O/U and I didn't like the fit, too little drop. I had to crawl the stock to get a good view down the bead, not good. If the gun had fit, I'd likely be shooting one.

 

[oneounceload]

Oneounce is a trap and skeet fanatic and shoots something like a billion rounds a month or something. I know I couldn't even afford his ammo bill, let alone his idea of an adequate gun. ROFL!

My shoulder and my wife sure wouldn't like to shoot that amount!.......Actually I shoot sporting clays, about 300-500 rounds per week, so in actuality maybe 12,000-15,000 a year. PSSST - It isn't the ammo costs, it the costs of the target tournaments that momma gives me the evil eye about. In either case, the cost of the $3000 target gun is quickly dwarfed by the ammo/target costs.

Adequate guns can start as low as $800 or so - if you go with a semi.

I placed my Browning O/U in the safe for the least year, opting instead for a Beretta A400 gas gun. These run about $1400 new, used a few hundred less. Other good choices would be any of the previous Beretta gas guns as well as Remington, Browning, older Winchester semis too.

Heavy target use O/U guns that will last and function flawlessly will tend to start with the Beretta/Browning/SKB models.
Field guns tend to make poor target guns as they are built to be carried a lot and shot not so much. The reverse tends to also be true - that target guns make lousy field guns as they tend to be too heavy for all day use.

So it really comes down to what the OP's main intended use is - a few hundred rounds or trying to make the US Olympic Team

 

[WoodchuckAssassin]

Olympic team? You read my mind! Haha. I just want something that will be a solid, reliable gun 30 years down the road. Hell, I might not put 15,000 rounds through it in a lifetime.

 

[MCgunner]

I'd just worry about getting something that I couldn't even find parts at numrich arms for 20 years down the road. I'd just LOVE to replace the beat up stocks on my Sarasqueta, but I'd have to have them hand built to do that. I totally neglected that poor shotgun hunting ducks and geese with it in the 70s. It's kinda beat up and was, once, a pretty SxS. I see many of those Turk guns as having the same problem 20 years from now, lack of parts.

I'm still kinda likin' the Franchi Instinct I looked at. They have a steel frame gun and a lightweight aluminum framed one in 20 gauge that fit me like a well fitted tux and was, at least, a handsome, well fitted and finished shotgun. They were running 1100 to 1500 depending on adornments about 3 years ago.

My buddy has a "Charles Daly" O/U that's a nice shotgun and fits him well. His is a 12. He has little use for smaller bores, not too well schooled on these things even though I ALWAYS out shoot him with my 20, LOL! But, his gun is pretty impressive. It's Italian built, not Turkish, but beyond that, I don't know who builds it. I've been impressed with it and how it's improved his shooting, though. It obviously fits him well and it's a quicker gun than the pumps he HAS used in the past, which helps. But, there have been several shotguns from several manufacturers that were labeled as Charles Daly, so I'd suggest if you find one, maybe see if it fits you and consider the factory's rep that produced it if you can figure that out.

 

[MCgunner]

Steel frame, sorta prefer this one, really.

http://www.franchiusa.com/instinct-l-over-and-under-shotgun

Lightweight aluminum alloy frame.

http://www.franchiusa.com/instinct-sl-over-and-under-shotgun

 

[WoodchuckAssassin]

A touch outside my price range, but very interesting and tempting all the same