I'm looking for a 20 ga to mostly hunt mearns quail.
Looking for walnut, under 7 lbs, contenders would be a Wingmaster, Orion various double barrels. Let's say budget is $1000. Are Wingmasters even being made anymore. In searching i only see " sold out".
I spend a lot more time on Shotgun World than here and am mostly a bird hunter. So, I will probably refer to discussion had on the SGW forums in answering you.
First, there are options in all 5 types of shotguns: Pump, Inertia Semi-Auto, Gas Semi-Auto, Over/Under, and Side-by-Side. I will mostly focus on the Semi-Autos.
In Pump there is really only the Remington 870. Production probably hasn't caught up yet.
For Semi-Auto, it's mostly going to be Turkish guns. There are some REALLY good Turkish options though.
Gas Semi-Autos:
- Beretta A300 Ultima - No walnut models made. Also, customer service is essentially non-existent. Luckily Cole's does warranty work for Berettas now.
- Mossberg SA-20/Tristar Viper G2 - These are the same gun and made by Armsan in Turkey. Both have essentially the same warranty. The Viper has a Bronze Cerakote model that is really good looking.
Inertia Semi-Autos:
- Impala Plus - Turkish made. Not YET offered in 20 gauge, but allegedly will be by summer. A lot of people are really impressed with this $500 shotgun. Compares very favorably to, or better than, Benellis
- Retay Gordion - Turkish made and another Benelli competitor. Most of the shotgun reviewers rank it slightly below or even with Benelli shotguns
- Franchi Affinity 3 - Basically the same inertia system as Benelli and are owned by Benelli.
For O/U and SxS, the only options will be the cheaper Turkish guns. Specifically the Yildiz HP/HPS/SPZ lines which are available at Academy. It's a $500 O/U and your chances of getting a lemon are much higher than a Beretta or Browning. But, it's $500 and there are a lot of people who really enjoy them and have no issues. Also, a huge plus is that Briley is the warranty work provider in the U.S.
Huglu/CZ has pump, semi-auto, O/U, and SxS offerings all under $1000. They aren't as well known or talked about as other guns, but people that own them seem to like them. There are all sorts of other brands/imports as well that I likely missed. I tried to cover the major players in the sub-$1000 space for new guns. Used guns open up a lot of other possibilities.
