Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters If you only could buy 1 Shotgun....12 gauge, all around ???

Three numbers..........870

870 Wingmaster mentioned so much here is hard to beat. I have a couple. The SBE has become the successor to the 870 in the duck hunting world. I don't know much about upland hunting but the SBE shows up a bunch of dove hunts in my neck of the woods. I own a Merkel and Fox 20 ga. They are cool but I shoot the big, plastic automatic better. Wish I could say otherwise. Prior to the SBE, I used a Benelli Nova for ducks. It was also a big clunky piece of plastic. This said, it would still work with sticks, mud, and rocks inside the action. Not sure an 870 would take such abuse.

Beretta 390 for the easy win.

Mossberg 500 over the 870 due to the 500's tang safety. I wish Beretta would put their safety on the tang.

Simson, actually, but same difference and same factory.

It's 9,3X74R.

Wingmaster supermag

That sounds good to me. I'm not as enamored of hammers from a functional point of view, though they sure are pretty...

My Citori FW Upland, but then I'm not a waterfowl hunter so.....

Beretta 390, close runner up a benelli M2.

I've been using a Benelli M2 the past several years for quail, dove, and turkey. I swap between a 26" barrel for dove/quail and a 21" barrel for turkey. I'd go the same route again.

I don't know how you can possibly go wrong with a 870 that fits you correctly. There are plenty of other makes and models out there, though, and the 870 ain't the only one.

Have owned two 870s and still have my first. But I have fallen for the 1100, old and new. Really like the auto loader in the Rem platform. I just don't need a 3 inch 12 for what I want to do with a shotgun.
Goose Hunting requires a good hide set up and wait till they are feet down.
Add a rifled barrel to a 26 inch rem choke barrel and away you go.
If you really feel in the need the extended mag option is fun on the range with plates and would make any HD situation less uneven with a full tube.
Have to admit I would really like to keep the long overbore barrel from my competition 1100 with the Ken Rucker bump buster, but its a bit tall for the upland......
BUT that thing is deadly at the Trap field at the back fence.

Shame to let all the OU's and SxSs go but if push came to shove.......
thats how it would go.

fwiw & imho,
28 gauge O/U by David McKay Brown or a Custom S/S AH Fox by CSMC depending upon whether I could switch to a s/s or not. I'm not at all a great fan of heavy engraving, however, something personal with Bobwhite featured and a favorite dog would be nice. Nothing shorter than a 28" Barrel with 29-30" preferred. Right now I shoot an SKB 785 28" 28 gauge, built on a 20 gauge frame, and it has been magic for 20 years. The SKB company, now defunct, came from a Samurai family named Sakaba. It was shortened to SKB. They made solid guns for what they are...

I could very easily live the rest of my life with one shotgun and without question it would be a well made 28... I could also make shotshell choice simple and shoot Winchester High Brass 1 ounce 7.5s(though I would leave shot choice open) just about exclusively short of set birds where you need less lead or either let them get to 30-35 yards. Close up is ugly.. B&P makes some grand 28 shot shells, however, they fool with my lead that I have worked out with Winchester 1 ounce loads over the years so I try to stick with what I know...

Best Regards, Matt.

Did just that 25 years ago - A Ruger Red label 12ga. Really had no desire for anything else.

This right here ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

fwiw,
I truly wish I had simple taste when it comes to shotguns. I've never cared for the Red Label due to construction. The ones I've shot seemed to get awfully loose quick. Granted this is shooting skeet and clays and not birds. They'd likely do fine as hunting shotgun.

I asked for Browning Sweet 16 for my first Shotgun, however, my uncle(the all knowing) had an issue with a 14 year old getting semi-auto as his first shotgun. That is something I do not follow to this day. Nothing would do but to buy an 870 from a friend of his. Received the gun and I was happy despite it NOT being what I wanted in the least. Where I started to HATE that shotgun was shooting incoming dove and I found the gun was a wee bit short. My right trigger hand would bump me in the nose on recoil. The shotgun was actually beautiful. Prettiest wood on an 870 I've ever seen short of the Custom Shop. However, I knew shooting it would lead to a hell of a flinch so I put it down and didn't shoot anything until my brother noticed and loaned me his old Model 11(Remington Auto 5). Then I started to connect... I may just buy a Sweet 16 as that is an itch I never got to scratch and I found an old, but perfect and full box of Western No. 2 16 gauge Shot Shells Marked "New Plastic Shells". THAT has got to be a sign... I love guns.

Out to right an old wrong and believing in it all at the same time...(grin)

Regards, Matt.

Well, dang! Don't we have champagne tastes!

When you reside in "The Palace Of The Poobah," anything less will NOT be a consideration.

The same mag extension that fits on a 870 fits a 1100. I have it rigged up like that for crow hunting. I love calling crows in and shooting the crap out of them.

Crap can get in between the bolt and the extractor causing failure to extract. You see it more on the express models than Wingmasters, but it can happen to any of them. Some sort of small pick has you back in business and like most other shotguns, this is easily avoided via a good cleaning once and a while.

This would work...Ithaca 37 Supreme, 30" full from 45 years ago, with an extra 26" Imp Cyl barrel.
Bob