Need recommendations on a shotgun

[SamW]

Really? Don't tell my GF that. She tears it up just fine with a Beretta 303 and anyone who sees her shoot assumes she has been doing it for years, not months. Maybe the fact she uses a 20 gauge instead of 12 impresses them too?

That's all well and good at the local shoot-em-up club, but when you start competing, there are going to be stations where you are simply at an overhwelming disadvantage having one choke.

ETA: At the National Colligate championships a few years back, we had a station where the was a short midi crosser, presenting only it's side about 10 feet out, perpendicular to the station house, with a 10 foot shot window... So close you could have broom-handled it. It was paired with a simo. bateau crosser about 50 yards out and 30 yards up. Yes, you could smack the close target with a full choke, but it'd be like hitting it with a rifle bullet at that distance. And you needed every bit of choke and load to reach that far target with about 30 feet of lead on it.


That's great that your g/f is doing so well. Sometimes, the advantage of reduced recoil of the 20ga. means more hits for a smaller, more recoil prone shooter than the advantager of having more pellets in a 12 ga.

But, I will tell you this: In the upper eschelons of competition in Sporting Clays, there simply aren't people using 20ga. in anything other than subgage classes. People modify their guns until they can tame the recoil, either through mechanical devices, custom fit, weight, etc.

Using a pump will put you at a great, great disadvantage for skeet, and especially for Sporting Clays.

Going to the range is great advice. Tell the guys you're looking to buy your first shotgun for trap/skeet and I'm sure they'd be willing to let you pop off a few FACTORY rounds.

The Mossberg and cheaper Remington offerings are field guns. They're light. They can be modified.... adding shot to the stock, etc, but they're still field guns. You're better off with the 1100.