Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Stoeger ?

I've been looking for a s/s 410. The Stoeger seems reasonably priced for new on GB, but no one around here carries them. I'm curious on the quality? I'm not looking for an heirloom piece. Just something to bang some bunnies with and possibly turkeys.

I’d keep looking.

The ones my buddies had in the past were junk.

More recently the schools standardized Stoeger O/Us as the gun all the kids have to use to participate in the state trap shoots. I assume it was decided by a committee of guys who don’t actually shoot but were convinced that an O/U was needed for trap shooting and wanted to keep the costs down for schools buying practice guns. At any rate the local regional organizer said recently that of the 10 guns they have for the kids to compete with he has had to send an average of 7 back for repair or replacement every year.

Aside from that they’re clubby and ill handling.

I say buy something of high quality. It only hurts the pocketbook once, holds a retained value for when you let it go and makes you feel really good carrying it afield.
Or rubbing on it with an oil cloth.
Or seeing it propped up in the cabin.

For me, that is England, Italy or Japan. Custom US is quite spendy but can be nice too.
It's all about the guts.
Turkey? Nah.

I've got an m3000 19-in what they consider tactical shotgun. I like it well enough and it had a thick enough barrel on it I had it threaded for chokes. works great. just use ammo at a minimum level of what the book States..
as far as they're over and unders years ago I had one of the Condor 1's it was definitely not a beauty prize gun. but I never had any issues with it. I shot it just as well as I did my Browning Citoti White lightning.

but I noticed the OP was wanting a side by side 410. you're a little limited on just what there is out there and that aspect. in my opinion to keep the price down and maybe a nicer shotgun I would be looking to see if Yildiz makes a side by side 410.. not sure if they make a 410 in that or not.

20-ish years ago, I bough a new Stoeger Uplander Special. It was a 20 gauge with 24" barrels, straight English wrist and double triggers. Made in Brazil by ER Amantino. I shot a couple summers of recreational trap with it.......so a couple thousand on the round count. It never failed or hiccupped in any manner.

With low end sxs's the single selective trigger is the main trouble maker. Double triggers are pretty reliable and easier to fix.

I bought a stoeger combo 12 and 20 gauge helping a guy out for some cash. Myself and a friend went to sporting clay range and I let him try out the stoeger. After about 30 rounds he quit, said he couldn’t take the recoil anymore. I tried a couple shots, he was correct. The gun found another home.

CZ??

For clarification, typically

SS or s/s = single shot
SxS or sxs = side by side
SA or S/A or s/a = though it is quicker and easier for most to just type "auto".

It can help avoid confusion to type out the full words the first time before switching to acronyms, especially when the rest of conversation does not give clearer context.

To the OP,

I am not aware of a single shot being sold by Stoeger other than their dedicated trap gun which is not a 410 and is relatively expensive. There maybe one but it is not something that our store stocks nor is it on our purchase contract.
That said, it would be a current model under the Beretta/Sako ownership and I would expect the quality control to be far better than the post 1973 company when Stoeger an importer looking to sell at a price point. They wouldn't be Beretta quality but there shouldn't be abysmal examples getting into the market as I saw in previous decades. Myself, I would search the used racks for an Iver Johnson, Harrington & Richardson, Savage/Stevens, or the like.

If this is about their SxS guns, then I am more than a bit jaundiced towards them. I've gone through a handful of the pre- and early Benelli owned guns and found them mostly wanting. There were barrel convergence issues with most as well as trigger/safety issues with either the safety resetting or the trigger locking up after the first shot. The current guns are probably "better" internally but my previous experiences bias me against these models as well as others in a similar range. Personally, I would search for a Savage 311 or similar over a Stoeger but that is just me as I am not a SxS fan.

I bought a Stoeger Uplander in 28ga 38 years ago when I was a 17 year old kid, back when they were marketed under the "IGA" name. They are indeed crude, but I have never had an issue with reliability. For a "brush hog" for rabbits and what-not, you'd be ok. I'm in the gun business and we've sold a lot of Stoegers over the years and I don't think we've ever had one of the Uplanders come back defective. The O/U Condors are another story.