There are two challenges to finding a great shotgun — fit and suitability.
The shotguns section of Shotgun Life is dedicated to helping you recognize the perfect shotgun (that you’ll want to keep for the rest of your life, and then hand down to your family for generations to come.)
For some people, finding a great shotgun is simply love at first sight. For others, a great shotgun grows on them — and they find themselves down in the basement cleaning it for absolutely no other reason than just to be in its company.
But for every shotgun owner who falls in love with their pride-and-joy, there are teams of engineers and craftsmen toiling away behind the scenes to bring your gun to fruition.
As you’ll see, shotguns are generally designed for a particular sport. Some shotguns have composite stocks and fore-ends to withstand the travails of duck hunting. Then there are single-shot trap guns with high ribs that help you intercept rising targets. And skeet shooters find that their beavertail fore-end is particularly adept at bringing about a smooth, quick swing.
So let the search begin. Here is what you’ll find in our shotgun section…
For 2012, the Vintagers Order of Edwardian Gunners — fondly called the Vintagers — revisited their original venue for the 16th Annual Vintage Cup sporting clays and stalking rifle competitions, with a bevy of merchants populating the expansive white tents.
The clock is ticking to buy one of only 200 Ithaca Model 37 pumps custom built to commemorate the American icon’s 75th anniversary.
The newly minted 75th Anniversary Model 37 exemplifies Ithaca’s limited-edition tribute shotguns released during the remainder of the year, including the rare Larrabee, which honors the Sousa-grade Knickerbocker trap guns introduced in 1922 with approximately 11 new, exquisite replicas.
An over/under priced at $1,199 is leading the charge of fabled gunmaker Webley & Scott’s return to the U.S.
And after shooting 100 rounds of sporting clays with that new, affordable WS 900 K Sporter, Safari Club’s Nelson Freeman gave it an emphatic thumbs up – suggesting that Webley & Scott may very well succeed with its smartly priced shotguns for wing and clays enthusiasts.
A few years ago I experienced a moment that is now seared into my memory. The moment began inconspicuously. I and some of my Rocky Mountain Vintagers pals were ambling from station to station at Jerry William’s superb Quail Run Sporting Clays Club in Kiowa, Colorado.
Caution: shooting the new Krieghoff K-80 Parcours will cause an overpowering case of shotgun lust.
By shaving approximately 10 ounces from the standard K-80 Sporter, Krieghoff’s stunning K-80 Parcours is a significant departure from the traditional K-80 that defined the Teutonic engineering credited with garnering countless skeet, trap and sporting clays gold medals worldwide for the past 25 years.
Fate! Mark Reynolds saw the gun’s potential immediately, an impulse founded on years of experience as much as upon carefully reasoned thought. Ambling about at the 2009 Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, Mr. Reynolds met Iñigo Lopez, director of the prestigious Spanish sporting arms maker, Aguirre y Aranzabal (AyA), at its exhibition booth.
Locked in international tournament combat with Krieghoff and Perazzi, the Beretta DT10 has taken more medals in competitions than any other shotgun. In fact, since 1956 Beretta shotguns have dominated the Olympics.
Bespoke shotguns manufactured by Luciano Bosis are coveted for their brilliance, elegance and breathtaking engraving. From his modest workshop at 32 Via G. Marconi in the fabled Brescia region of Italy, Mr. Bosis produces approximately 30 hand-made guns per year whose names Michelangelo, Laura, Wild and Queen cast a reverie over sportsmen and collectors.
Until the Piotti Monaco, I never thought of bespoke shotguns as “cool.”
We often praise custom-made over/unders more in the vernacular of classical beauty than hip transcendence.
It’s Las Vegas, January 17- 20, and the sprawling Shot Show once again served as a venue for new shotgun introductions in our universe of wing and clays shooting. While Benelli’s Franchi and Stoeger units took the cake for the most number of new model roll outs at the Sands Convention Center, all eyes were on FABARM’s forthcoming semi-auto as it pointed the way for what we can expect from the company’s merger last year with Caesar Guerini of Cambridge, Maryland.
Join an elite group of readers who receive their FREE e-letter every week from Shotgun Life. These readers gain a competitive advantage from the valuable advice delivered directly to their inbox. You'll discover ways to improve your shooting, learn about the best new products and how to easily maintain your shotgun so it's always reliable. If you strive to be a better shooter, then our FREE e-letters are for you.
Shotgun Life is the first online magazine devoted to the great people who participate in the shotgun sports.
Our goal is to provide you with the best coverage in wing and clays shooting. That includes places to shoot, ways to improve your shooting and the latest new products. Everything you need to know about the shotgun sports is a mouse-click away.
Irwin Greenstein
Publisher
Shotgun Life
PO Box 6423
Thomasville, GA 31758
Phone: 229-236-1632
