American bird shooting is not much when compared to bird shooting in other places. I have traveled to various US states wing shooting plus, Chile, Peru. Paraguay, Argentina, South Africa, etc. Most of the guns built in the US are built for the US market, which is set for limits like 12 birds a day. If you go places where the birds are considered vermin or pests, then you will run into guns built to last hundreds of thousands of rounds and for very differing speeds of shooting, in thousands not in dozens of shots per day. To shoot 2,000 rounds per day, requires some speed.
I was on my 8th trip to Argentina when the outfitters around Cordoba switched from Benellis to Berettas. The gas guns are easier shooting, the cleaning was done by bird boys with gasoline and labor is cheap. But on my prior trip, the 2nd trip I noticed a marked difference in speed of shooting, counting shells and the actual bird count between my 391 Beretta Urika sporting gun and my 20ga 32" Browning Ultra XS sporting gun. The Citori was faster, mostly due to no stopping the bird shooting to reload the tube. So I shot only one gun on one day VS the other gun on another day. The O/U select barrel, ejector was faster than the 391 on actual birds down and shots fired, both in a high volume shoot, count by the day and over 10 days. After considerable thought, drinking lemonade at the end of day, it was the tube reloads, so tried a shorter string, not shooting the 391 dry, still slower, must turn it to load it.
So when my son returned from one of his outings, to the vacation sand box. 23 tours in Para-Rescue. I told him, if he made it back alive, I would take him to Argentina with me on a 10 day bird trip, all on me. Asked him, which guns he wanted, the autos or the O/Us, so he opted for the autos, 391 Urika sporting guns in 20ga, two Silver side ported Sporting guns. We did the set up for him on both guns and he shot a round of Sporting Clays the day before we left, was pretty even.
I shoot the Browning Citori Sporting guns in Sporting Clays and the bird fields both, they are built like a Patton tank, and are very fast. So I told the son on the plane ride down that I would beat his shell and bird count at the end of our trip, naw you will not beat me! So he was 485 birds and shots behind by the end end of 10 days. He is very fast and accurate, Dad paid the shell bill, which was, smoking.
Oh, I did break a Beretta Silver Pigeon O/U in the pigeon fields of South Africa, the steel actuator arm on the for-end snapped right off. Rendering the gun an engraved wall hanger. You do not take American guns to these places unless you have a sack full of extra parts or a half dozen extra guns with you. My Brownings, each gun, have hundreds of thousands of rounds through them.
By the by, buying a shotgun comes in stages, the first $1,000 gun really hurts, the first $5,000 gun gets your attention, after that it is easy, like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer you get used to it. :-)
