Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best over&under for the money?

Beretta is the best for the money with Browning running a close second

What sold me my Citori was fit; it's like it was made for me. Throw it up, and I'm looking right down the rib. It points naturally for me.

Mine is the FW upland version with an alloy receiver, and on the subject of durability I did have plating issues with my first one. Browning replaced it. My first one had very plain walnut, which I liked because it was a field gun. The replacement has quite purty wood.

,y wife has a huglu make, imported by cz and really likes it.
life span ?
but it locks up tight, hits where aimed, and for just her 7th thru 11th round of trap she's ever shot, she is hitting a 15, 18, 14, 19, 15.

so they can't be all that bad for a new shooting woman and using 7/8 ounce loads in a 20 gauge.

Hitting, long term durability and ease of finding replacement parts if needed are all different issues.

Savage 330 (Don't hit me)

Absolutely nothing wrong the the Savage 330 and the CZs. They are hunting shotguns and unless you are going to pound them hard they should give one good service. The 330 even looks like it has a Krieghoff lockup. As an aside a Krieghoffs trigger mechanism is so complicated that if it wasn't put together with great care and quality parts it probably wouldn't last as long as the Savage which is much less complicated.

The OP said that it would have to last a lifetime, but didn't say how hard he would use it. When it comes to hard use, the Brownings and Berettas have proven the ability to endure along with convenient availability of parts and service if needed. If one uses them hard, eventually you will need both.

The older Savage 330 and the Valmets were good shooting guns and certainly are - and were- an inexpensive way to get a useable O&U. So were the older Marlins ( M-90?) but as battue pointed out above - long term durability and ease of finding replacement parts eventually become an issue if they get used a lot.

You can have your choice of any O/U out there as long as it's a Beretta.......

Mr. Shoemaker,

Kept looking at a pic of the Savage 330 and was wondering about where I've seen that before. Forgot about the Valmet. If I remember correctly, I think you could also get them with a set of rifle barrels. A good shotgun.

Browning O/U, take your pick..

Browning O/U, take your pick, hard to beat for the money but not cheap..

But don't over look the Savage 440 or Marlin 90s, they are very inexpensive, have double triggers ( I like that) and extractors (I like that also)..They are an excellent working gun, and will serve you two lifetimes and not to shabby to look at! They are an overlooked jewel for the birdshooter..A real fun gun and at about $600 for the plain jane version in 12 ga. and a tad more for the 16 or 20, and then you have the deluxe models with upgraded wood at about $750-$800...hard to beat.

Well my 2 cts worth. Browning Citori is hard to beat for the money. I have a Lightning grade 20 ga for skeet and bird hunting,its never let me down,solid value. My 1st Red Label was one of the original all blued 20 ga with fixed chokes . It was a good little shooter . I got dumb and sold it thinking to replace it with a newer Red Label with choke tubes for more versatility, but the newer ones didn't handle the same.Then I bought a 12 ga Red Label from a guy with a problem with the bottle for $500 and damn sure glad I didn't pay more. After a few years the butt broke thru the wrist, I sent it back to Ruger they said I didn't have the stock bolt torqued to 4 lbs and that's why it broke. Well, I never had it apart so I don't take the credit for improperly torquing the stock bolt, but they did put on a factory second at no cost cept the shipping. Coupla years and many thousands of shells later the automatic safety wore out and recoil inertia after the first barrel would slide the safety back on.Sent it back to Ruger had them repair the safety and convert it to a manual ($17). Last year the gun had loosened up and the lever lays left of the tang centerline with the ejectors inconsistantly working off and on. Sent it back to Ruger they tightened up the lock up and blew off my ejector problem. Sent it back a month ago to have them fix the ejectors. They said yeah we will do that but the stock is cracked and that costs $350...to replace I told them to fix the ejectors and send it back. I will fix the stock and trade it for a Citori or a Beretta... Had all the Red labels I am ever gonna need. Maybe 20-30 thousand total shells thru it. Magnum_Man

To do what? Without that criteria it matters not a damn what you get.

Brownings are stoutly built and heavy with short stocks. Berettas are well built and reasonably light. Rugers are overbuilt and swing like 2x4's for me with too much drop and stocks way too short. Guerini's are wonderful field guns, light responsive and nicely done. Rizzini's are a delight. Were it me and it was a hunting gun a B. Rizzini round body 16 ga O/U with schanabel fore end, solid rib, straight stock and Dt's would be perfection with a color case receiver and dark barrels. The there are the FAMARS guns, an Excalibur would be sweet.

Then if one wants the best O/U there is that will last a couple lifetime one needs to get a David McKay Brown.

What did you wish to spend anyway? We have run from $1,000 to about $100,000 in this post alone.

A shotgun isn't a rifle. It needs to be a part of you as you swing. Whatever you end up getting have it fit and a stock made to you. There any number of places to get this done. It will change your shotgunning for ever. There isn't a factory shotgun made that fits me with my LOP at 14 7/8ths, 1/4in cast off and drops of 1 1/4" and 2".

tur..,

Two months ago I would have recommended a Fausti - for the money. Not now. In the middle of waterfowl season the barrel selector broke. Repeated calls and e-mails to FaustiUsa has resulted in NOTHING! Not a response. There is no Fausti USA period!

My second o/u is a Winchester supreme. It comes up beautifully for me and has served thru pheasnts,quail,chukar and waterfowl season beautifully.

Shotguns are a personal thing. You need to try before you buy.

O

I've got an Italian-made Silma Mod. 70, 20 gauge O/U. I like to think of it as a poor man's Beretta and am perfectly happy with it.

That is certainly true. Its pretty easy to have a gun adjusted to fit and its not terribly expensive. So, why is it that with the same or similar dimensions, I shoot some guns better than others?

Its weight and balance, I believe. I tend toward heavier guns for open field or target shooting because I have a tendency to either stop or have a hitch in my swing. This is the biggest reason I sold the Zoli and went back to my well-worn Citori. On grouse in the thickets, a light short barreled gun that I can point and shoot (but don't really have to swing) works best. That's about the only time I have any real success with my Parker DHE Reproduction.

Browning all the way. I've had my Citori Grade III Lightening for 15 years now, hunted hard and started my trap shooting career with it.
Bought a Browning XT trap for me then another for the wife, kept her's mine got traded for a Kolar.
I also had a Beretta, nice gun but a little to light for my likes, also stock didn't fit me well and I felt every shot I took with it.
Brownings will last you a lifetime and then your kid's will shoot it for another 50 years.
Lot's of good used ones out there if budget is a concern.

Huntaria, I'd have to guess the fitting was bad or the guns weren't properly balanced after the stocks were made. Or they were made incorrectly and are not of the measurements you need.

I'd also suggest some lessons from a non target game oriented coach.

Umm, I don't think so. Its pretty obvious if the sotck maker didn't do his job correctly. A tape measure will give you pretty good idea of what's going on.

If you are talking about wood density, its my firm belief that if you're that sensitive, you are either at the top 1% or you're too sensitive. I guess I'm neither.

As for coaches. I've had them. Had some awfully good ones in Baton Rouge years ago. Even shot live pigeons for a while--for money. I didn't go broke, but didn't make much either. Shot that same fitted Citori. But, I was 22 years old at the time. Full of piss and vinegar. I did get to see the best, though.

Since then, I shoot the occasional driven pheasant shoot and have been known to kill the black pheasant. I've won my share of local sporting clays tournaments too. Again, with the aged Citori.

Finally, for a guy who has never lived in wild pheasant country, I've shot my fair share. I have friends in SW Iowa and, on average, spend about a month a year out there (although with the current bird loss, its been less than a week a year for the last 3 years). The last time I was there, I was missing a bit with the Zoli (with the same dimensions, btw). It was just a bit too light. My dad, who now can only hunt a couple of hours a day, caught one particularly terrible display of shooting and said, "Why don't you go back to the old Browning?" Didn't miss too many after that.

So, this is a very long winded way of saying that there are things about shooting flying that are not strictly limited to dimensions. In my case, its probably 30 years of famiiarity as much as anything else. A "between your ears" sort of thing, I suppose too. Its not lack of coaching, or experience.

The Beretta's and Brownings are both excellent. Usually one or the other will fit you, but not both. Try a few and determine which one fits better.

Having said that the best value in an OU is the SKB. I've found them to be every bit as reliable as the B guns and a new one can be had for around $1000.

A personal favorite of mine is the old Marlin 90. I've 25K plus rounds through a 50+ year old marlin 90 in the last couple of years and it locks up as tight as it did when it left the marlin plant shows no signs of loosening at all. I have no clue how many rounds were put through it in the 50+ years before i bought it.

Weagle