Michael
Well-known member
I have been clay shooting since the end of 2011, with sometimes fantastic, sometimes very ordinary results. In this short time I have used 4 guns reularly.
1st gun.
Lincoln o/u 12 gauge 28inch barrels. Bought 2nd hand but in as new condition. Initial results poor, but improving, to the point of my personal best, 86x100.
2nd gun.
Beretta 686 silver pigeon 12 gauge 32 inch barrels. I always wanted a Beretta, this one was offered by a friend for a good price. I thought i was buying a 30 inch barrel gun, turns out it was a 32 inch. Reults at first terrible, but improving, this gun was awsome on long stuff,crossers and teal targets. But not good at all on close stuff, particularly rabbits. In fact this gun aided by me destroyed my confidence on bunnies, to the point where they remain my bogey target.
3rd gun.
Browning B725 12 gauge 30 inch barrels. Bought on a whim at my local regular shoot on my 62nd birthday. Beautifull piece of engineering and i thought a good fit, steadily improving but still not matching my Lincoln for results. This gun has occasional second barrel no fires and because of that I am always a bit stressy on 2nd barrel targets, not good. The way i overcome the problem is in my words open and close the gun smartly, the mechanical cocking mechanism seems to like this. I dont.
4th gun.
Beretta 686 Onyx.
Along with the wife I decided to enter this years Beretta shoot. It is only 15 mins from us, so why not. So i need to find a cheap Beretta for myself. Looked around lots about all pretty suitable, but nothing that jumped off the page at you.found the above gun on a Beretta owners site at a good price. It's 9 years old in as new condition, having fired 75 rounds in that time. It came with everything it's owner giving up his licence, ammo, cleaning kit, cartridge bag yada yada. This gun apparently came to it's owner new, with a composite stock & forend, I did'nt know that was an option. The stock was unsatisfactory for some reason and the gun was returned to the dealer for repair. It came back with new upgraded wood, which clearly has a lot of right hand in the stock. That will do for the Berettas, Perhaps ille buy it shoot it and flog it after the competition. So 3 weeks ago I gave this new ,to me, gun a run out at a local 50 bird shoot. Not expecting to much first time out, I was shocked to immediately be back to pretty much my best, I even only missed 1 rabbit. The gun feals different to any that I have shot previously, stock is slimmer, target pictures all different to previous guns. It just seems to shoot where im looking. It has cost a fair bit of time and cash to arrive at this point.
I hope I continue to learn, but maybe that's the end of my shooting apprenticeship.
1st gun.
Lincoln o/u 12 gauge 28inch barrels. Bought 2nd hand but in as new condition. Initial results poor, but improving, to the point of my personal best, 86x100.
2nd gun.
Beretta 686 silver pigeon 12 gauge 32 inch barrels. I always wanted a Beretta, this one was offered by a friend for a good price. I thought i was buying a 30 inch barrel gun, turns out it was a 32 inch. Reults at first terrible, but improving, this gun was awsome on long stuff,crossers and teal targets. But not good at all on close stuff, particularly rabbits. In fact this gun aided by me destroyed my confidence on bunnies, to the point where they remain my bogey target.
3rd gun.
Browning B725 12 gauge 30 inch barrels. Bought on a whim at my local regular shoot on my 62nd birthday. Beautifull piece of engineering and i thought a good fit, steadily improving but still not matching my Lincoln for results. This gun has occasional second barrel no fires and because of that I am always a bit stressy on 2nd barrel targets, not good. The way i overcome the problem is in my words open and close the gun smartly, the mechanical cocking mechanism seems to like this. I dont.
4th gun.
Beretta 686 Onyx.
Along with the wife I decided to enter this years Beretta shoot. It is only 15 mins from us, so why not. So i need to find a cheap Beretta for myself. Looked around lots about all pretty suitable, but nothing that jumped off the page at you.found the above gun on a Beretta owners site at a good price. It's 9 years old in as new condition, having fired 75 rounds in that time. It came with everything it's owner giving up his licence, ammo, cleaning kit, cartridge bag yada yada. This gun apparently came to it's owner new, with a composite stock & forend, I did'nt know that was an option. The stock was unsatisfactory for some reason and the gun was returned to the dealer for repair. It came back with new upgraded wood, which clearly has a lot of right hand in the stock. That will do for the Berettas, Perhaps ille buy it shoot it and flog it after the competition. So 3 weeks ago I gave this new ,to me, gun a run out at a local 50 bird shoot. Not expecting to much first time out, I was shocked to immediately be back to pretty much my best, I even only missed 1 rabbit. The gun feals different to any that I have shot previously, stock is slimmer, target pictures all different to previous guns. It just seems to shoot where im looking. It has cost a fair bit of time and cash to arrive at this point.
I hope I continue to learn, but maybe that's the end of my shooting apprenticeship.
