Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Best o/u for the buck

I have been without an O/U for a few yers now and I miss it. I had an SK that I really enjoyed, I think I paid around 1500 for it at the time. I am looking for a great O/U, preferably in stainless or nickel, 26” barrels and price is $1500-2700.

I have looked at but not held, Benelli 828U, Citori, 690 field.

Thoughts please?

Thanks

What’s your application?

I`m a Citori fan.
They`re the workhorse of the O/U world.
Why not 28" barrels?
The Benellis are purty, just not a fan of the rubber comb.

It's a buyer's market for 26" barrel 12ga over unders. They are out of style as most folks want 30"+ barrels these days, but the 26" barrel guns still work great. You should be able to find plenty of Japanese SKBs and Browning Citoris in that price range.

I think the best value is a used SKB 535 or 785.

Buy a DT-11

My application is busting clays in skeet and upland shooting if I can find something suitable for both. I have a Benelli SBE II for waterfowl.

And I just like the 26 inch barrel but a 28 would be fine as well.

If you start to shoot a lot of clay stuff you will probly find a 26 inch gun lacking in several areas, they are great for quick point and shoot on game but will leave much to be desired on a skeet field or sporting clay course. Look at 28’s at a minimum or better yet 30 inch tubes for a good all a rounder. As others have said 26 inch guns are super cheap and there is a reason for that. Don’t forget 30 inch o/u is the same oal as a pump or auto with 28’s. I doubt you will find it too long unless your spending lots of time in a cutover.

Browning and Beretta rare top choices imo. With an edge to Browning IMO

Ok, I’ll look at brownings, I think honestly 28 inches will be a good compromise for skeet and field. Any particular Browning models I should look at?

If the makers name starts with a B, you cant go too wrong.

I would start with fit, and go from there.

Browning Lightning is a great field/sporting gun. I have one in 16 gauge with 28’s and wish it were 30, but the longest they make are 28...

I think the Brownings are as good as any, but they do not fit me well at all... I use Berettas and Win 101s best and really like them. You get much nicer wood on Brownings for the money.

cannot imagine a synthetic stock on a O/U...

Find a club that loans or rents out guns, and spend more than a little time shooting and you will have your answer. Then again it may be a temporary answer. What I, or any other poster likes may or may not be what you like. Even with the same brand, there are variations between models that you may or may not like. Shooting will give you more answers than a campfire consensus.

A shotgun you may shoot a lot of skeet with, may be one you don't enjoy carrying a lot hunting. It works that way with most people. Shotguns are essentially tools and you know what they say about tools.

The best bang for the buck will be with a used gun by far. Let someone else take the hit in depreciation when buying new. Often one can find decent examples for under $1000- especially if it has fixed chokes and 26" barrels. There are two fixed choke Browning Citoris at a small gun shop nearby. The asking prices are $600 due to configuration and barrel length. The one has been carried a lot but doesn't look much fired. The other shows more range use with a decent amount of time in the field. I am tempted to pick up the one but really would like at least 28". 26" and shorter do not balance as I like which makes them a bit more demanding to shoot well. I shoot them well but averages in targets and birds trend higher for me with longer barrels.

Weatherby made by SKB, SKB, Browning, Beretta, Miroku, and then Winchester 101 are the best deals though one can sometimes find a decent Superposed or Remington 3200 in that price range. In the price range in the OP the options for used are nearly limitless and even new has a lot of opportunities. As mentioned, borrow or rent as many different guns as possible before making a decision. Prefer Browning/Miroku over most others but shoot Beretta and most others as well.

I don't worry much about gun fit other than the balance is pretty close to how I want it. Length is not a great factor if it is fairly close as short or long are both easy and fairly cheap fixes. A low comb is typically a deal breaker as raising it is harder as is a gun with too thin of a comb or stock as the comb can bite and there is no wood to remove if needed to bring the eye behind the receiver. Bending a stock is expensive, time consuming, and is not guaranteed to work. A good 98% of the time it is wasted advice to tell someone to get a gun that "feels good" to them as that fitting advice invariably means to get something similar to what they have which is unlikely to fit. Unless one has been fitted by a good stock maker and paid close attention and asked questions or has learned the hard way through many tens of thousands of shells (and typically with good advisors/instructors who have an idea on gun fit) it is pretty slim chances that they will pick out a gun that fits correctly. One can adapt to some guns better than others but adapt and fit are two different subjects.

Said to myself I wouldn't go there again, but.....

Gun, fit, gun fit, gun fit.....Get one that fits is the campfire mantra. Well when buying off the shelf, within the same model they change little. So, you can look at more than a few and they will be mostly close to the same. You may get lucky.

Next will be that unless one has a correct and repeatable mount, the best fitted shotgun will do you little good. You can include proper visual skills into the mix also. Until then, a close fit will serve one as well. And to quote Stick: "Spent primers are the ultimate tutorial."

On the Upland Journal forum there is a poster by the handle of "PatridgeCartridge" who has posted a series on shotgun shooting, and there is more than a little to be learned from reading it.

I settled on a Citori Lightning with 28" barrels after going thru a couple BT-99`s a GTI and a Special Trap.
YMMV.

Those seem to work well for most guys.

I wanted a dedicated clays gun so I bought a Browming 725 high rib. Sent it out, had an adjustable comb, and a gracoil installed.

Being that it was dedicated for clays and I mainly shoot sporting, 5 stand and trap I bought 32 Iinch bbls. When I shoot skeet I shoot one of my field guns with 28 inch tubes

Anything in the Beretta 68* series is your best used gun bet, if you plan to carry it while upland hunting.

I bought a Citori 625 for Skeet. It happened to have an adjustable comb, which I didn't touch for awhile. As I got better, I changed the fit by moving the comb up and increasing cast off. Later I shot Sporting Clays. After awhile I sensed I needed more weight at the end of the barrels. I bought a Caesar Guerini Invictus with 32" barrels. I use it for Sporting and Skeet but it's a little slow and heavy for hunting. For hunting I use the Citori or, better yet, a sweet little Browning 28 gauge with 28" barrels.

If I were you, I would probably pick 30" barrels unless you are shorter than 5' 10" But make sure you try out any gun before you buy it.

I would definitely specify an adjustable comb on any gun I bought from now on.