Home Forums Birds & Dogs Shotguns Your vote for the best...

I wouldnt even be able to give a conservative round count on my 303. I got it in 1991, and that was the time in my life that I spent just about every weekend at a trap or sporting clays tournament. Hell I registered 9000 targets a year in the early to mid 90s.

My vote is for the shotgun I bought new in 1961, the twelve gauge Browning Double Auto. It's still one of my favorite grouse/woodcock guns (the other favorite being a little Merkel twenty double)and I've never seen a better made and handling semi-auto shotgun. It has maybe the shortest receiver of any repeating shotgun, putting the balance right where it should be-between the hands. A real pity Browning stopped making the Double Auto decades ago.

390/391 is a good gun. The problem is you have to keep it clean. The Benelli you shoot until you feel guilty for not cleaning it, then just keep shooting it. The problem with the benelli's are they are not stocked to fit us Americans. But this problem can be easily fixed. There is no fix for not cleaning a 390/391. I think most of us grew up shooting and trusting the 1100 and because of that it will always have a place in our hearts. However the 1100 can't compete with the Benelli or 390/391.

Montana,
I would agree with having to do a little more cleaning on the 391 but the 390 and earlier 300 series shotguns will go a long time before a cleaning is needed.

Claycrusher, they will but they still need to be cleaned. The benelli really doesn't need to be cleaned. The only times I felt the need to clean mine was once after it went for a swim in a beaver pond in Southeast Alaska. Then after it has been drenched in a down pour. Other then that I really never clean it. I wipe it down with some Beretta Oil and that is it. I have had mine for if my memory is correct 8 years. I shoot about 200 to 700 rounds a week. Nothing against the Beretta's they are good guns. They just can't compete against the Benelli.