1600-1800 for a Benelli SBE2. Aluminum receiver, plastic stock, etc...

And why is everything so damn ugly?

Makes me cherish my older Remingtons, Brownings, Berettas, and Benelli's.

+1

If the SBE's prices are scary don't look at a A&S Famars, Fabbri or David McKay Brown shotguns.

Birds fall out of the sky just as well with an 870.

My two hunting partners are using 20ga Charles Daly autos for pheasants this season and they both love them for their weight. One of them got a triple on wild pheasants and a scotch triple on ducks. They both have cabinets full of much more expensive shotguns. I'm a sxs guy but I still let them tag along with their evil black guns.

I did pretty up one of them with a rattle can.

because Biden told everyong to "use a shotgun" ???

i love my Vinci!

Because we have become a very marketing-gullible, want-to-be-part-of-the-in-crowd, society.

If a maker is savvy, or lucky, enough to break in and become an "IT" name, guys pay stupid money to join that crowd.

Look most any pickup rolling down the road today. They'll have the entire back window covered up in Matthews, Browning (buckmark logo), etc decals. It's not enough to pay the high prices for the gun or bow, but guys will then pay MORE, just to get a decal, to let everybody else know about it.







Yep. I own a few nice O/U shotguns that are primarily used for sporting clays (informal, never a registered bird in my life), because they fit me well and work well for that game, and yeah, they look good.

But when it comes to hunting, the majority of the time it's a good old Rem 870 that's in my hand. They've never let me down, and have been responsible for many truckloads of game of various flavors.

And guess what? Not a Remington (or any other) sticker to be found anywhere on my truck.

Those three are not expensive. They are obscenely expensive.

Know a fellow who has a Fabbri and he shoots Quail with a Cesare Guarini or Remington 1100 20. Another fellow has them all plus a bunch of others and he isn't afraid to use them for anything. He isn't one to say, I can't use them for fear I may get a scratch or they are too pretty to actually hunt them. Sometimes the back of his Suburban is carrying a better than decent retirement package in shotguns. Nice guy on top of it all.


I saw him shooting one day and thought the shotgun may have been Fabbri. Out of curiosity I asked and he said; "Yes. If you are using factory ammo, shoot it." That new broom swept clean.

Down at Cabela's the other day they had two Marlin 39's in the Gun Library rack.
Price? $1100. One had some funked up gold wash engraving and it was a little more. What is that all about?

Chicks love stickers

You can almost get two brand new Ithaca 37 12 Ga pumps for the price of that SBE2 and ugly will not come with them.

Problem is they usually leave with the guy carrying A&S Famars, Fabbri or David McKay Brown shotguns.

Yep! When ya got the bux - you get the babes...

B - I - N - G - O ! ! !

A sticker on the car is an invitation to have it broken into for the gun.

Happens at the Sporting Clay Nationals at San Antonio on a regular basis. Bud just lost a Zoli down there. They popped the lock while he was in a restaurant.

When weren't decent quality shotguns expensive, relatively speaking? The price of a new Model 21 during the 30's was as dear to a working stiff then as the same used Model 21 is to a working stiff today. I posit that the prices of guns in general, relatively speaking, is the same now as it has always been.

Difference was you got a solid well made shotgun for your money. One that it would be the exception if something broke. Today most of the semi-autos are cheap parts guns. Snap something in the trigger or crack a gas piston. Rush over buy another and pop it in. None of them will out last a good Model 12.

Something to be said for that. Depends on your perspective.

Same reason gas is $3 a gallon with low demand. Your almighty dollar is being rapidly diminished with every QE.

Spot on.

A gun back then was "made", and fitted by hand.

Today they are "assembled" by people that don't the first thing about actual gunsmithing, or even how a gun works.

They just know that Part A attaches to Part B, being held together by Clip C. Need another Clip C? They're over there in the bin on the shelf, after being spit out of the CNC machine by the thousands.

They sure as hell didn't have plastic trigger guards back then.

Well let's see in 1959 a Ithaca 37 retailed for $70. A Browning. Auto 5 retailed for $159 and a supposed was $269 according to Gun Digest. The average income was about $95/ week. Bread was $.14 a loaf. I agree that guns seem sort of high but realistically I am not sure. Most of the dad's I knew only had one and most were not auto 5s or superposed. Now most of us have several. I do agree with the gripe that they are not quite the nicely fitted pieces they once were but the 870 has proven that even a mass produced gun can be pretty reliable. Actually ammo is quite a bit cheaper relatively to then.

I agree, bangeye, I think when prices are adjusted for inflation, they will not be all that much higher than in the past, maybe lower in some cases.

Thanks Ploughman, I will have to agree somewhat with the conspicuous consumption theory that some have expressed here though. Compared to not that long ago we have all become much more attuned to the upper end of the scale due to the advertising and marketing forces we are bombarded with. The rise of sporting clays has also contributed to that as has the demise of small game& bird hunting as most of us knew it in our youth. Back then it was small farms and public land hunting and most went afield in jeans or pretty much work clothes. Today small game hunting is mostly dead and the bird hunting has moved to preserve hunting and the image is of some nattily attired country gentleman with a o/u or SxS jauntily carried over his shoulder by the barrels. Actually I am amazed that in little more than a generation we have gone to where few of the folks I see can actually operate a pump shotgun with any speed.

My policy is to never lose sight of my truck when my guns are in it. We stop in Memphis every year to eat ribs on the way to Arkansas for a duck hunt. We NEVER allow a situation where we can't see the truck. We heard of another group of duck hunters heading to Arkansas that lost all their guns and some of their clothes/bags on the way out there while they were eating somewhere.

I have always loved wood stocks and blued steel. Today it seems as though everything is heading for the plastic/stainless steel route and I find myself cold with that.

However, if you do want to find the best semi-auto shotgun in the world, you would probably have to look to the Benelli Supers. Like them or not, if you go to Argentina or Chile or any other country in South America, where they shoot the living snot out of the guns and run 100's of thousands of rounds through them, you won't see the lodges using 1100's and the like, Benelli is the one you will find more than any other.

There is nothing to compare with a fine English double, but when it is icky out and I want something I can abuse and not worry about, a Benelli works great...

Yep, Benelli is one make that disproves the theory that modern semiauto shotguns are undependable. I was just down in Argentina this April and the "lodge guns" go through at least 100,000 rounds every season. They're Benelli Montefeltro 20-gauges that are several years old. Yeah, they need a part replaced now and then, but not very damn often.

And some Benelli autos have pretty nice wood, and I haven't shot one yet that doesn't balance well and have a good trigger.

I also know more than one gunsmith who works on high-priced shotguns who loves Purdeys, because they need "adjustment" so often compared to German and Italian doubles, and Purdey owners are willing and able to pay for that adjustment. But everybody knows Purdeys are the best shotguns in the world....

Perazzi and Beretta are fine O/U that will normally give more than most ask them to take. Kreighoffs are fine but complicated, and if not so well made with quality parts and attention to detail they would't work very long. They are expensive.

Benelli rules when it comes to semi-autos, but a girl I know has had feeding issues with hers. Dressing up a Benelli with nice wood is a waste of nice wood.

Other than recoil-which is a big other-semi-autos can be a pita. They break comparatively more frequently when used hard and require more maintenance then any other action type. Know a few clubs that use them for club guns and rentals and may have 30 or more. These get used hard and a few of them are always down waiting for a part replacement or are being fiddled with. And certain individual ones are genetically flawed and are not ever reliable.

But If it has to work come rain or shine I'll take a solid American pump.

Know a guy who shoots an 870 so much that he has gone thru a bunch of trigger parts. Only reason for issues is the trigger parts are of cheap quality to begin with. But he is the exception and probably shoots 30,000 rounds a year.

Addition: One guy I know was down in Argentina shooting Doves and he said while they were having a tody at days end the workers were going over each semi every night. Taking them apart and cleaning an oiling parts. Any that had problems that day were culled out until they started working again.

Also at the one club Beretta gives them their rental semis and replaces them on a regular basis. They want to put them in the hands of new shooters hoping for a future purchase. Not sure if the they do the same in Argentina.

Beretta semis are 10 x's the gun a Benelli is. I never have, and never will understand the love for an inertia gun when you can shoot a gas gun. It makes zero sense to me.

Actually the Beretta semi rules in numbers on the sporting clay range, but I always hear that Benalli has them beat for not skipping a beat. Have a Beretta and it has been extremely reliable.

I have shot both and the Beretta seems to kick less

I like the handling of a Beretta better myself.

Franchi seems to make a pretty nice gun for the money.

I have fewer problems in the field with inertia guns, than I do with gas guns. I'm not a venerate gun cleaner. Inertia guns work better for me, personally.

Still, my favorite autoloader is an obscure older Manufrance I got back in the late 70's from a product rep. It was his sample, and it has never missed a beat. It will shoot the lightest dove loads to the heaviest 3" 12ga loads with its progressive spring gas venting system...

AND it was Cheap!

These high priced plastic wonders are akin to Corona Beer. Corona is one of the cheapest to produce as a corn beer, but marketing made it Yuppie...just like the Italian zip-guns.

That's inertia semis through and through.

Definitely nowhere near a shotgun expert, owned a SBE I and a Beretta, call me simple but I still own a cheaper Winchester/FN SX3 and am happier with the sx3 than i was with the Benelli Super or the Beretta that moved on down the road years ago.
SO let me add a vote for the lowly less-expensive Winchester/FN sx3, a damn fine shotgun in my experience!

I've always wondered how much a model 12 or Super X1 would cost to produce now...the same way they were produced new. I'm guessing it would make a Vinci seem cheap. I think it was around $450 for a super X when the 1100 was introduced at around $150. That was the early 60's wasn't it?

The Winchester Super X model 1 semi auto would cost over $2000.00 and likely higher to produce again. Having been designed with a "Short stroke" gas system the Super X was the fastest cycling gas shotgun and best semi-auto shotgun ever produced in the USA.

Having 5 Super X's it is the easiest shotgun to strip down for cleaning.

Doc