Shotgun Life | The Best in Wing and Clays Shooting

Shotguns

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…

  • Shotguns for Clays and Wingshooting
  • Shotgun Actions
  • Break Actions
  • Over/Under
  • Side-by-Side
  • Single-Barrel Shotgun
  • Semiautomatics
  • Pumps
  • Skeet Shotguns
  • Trap Shotguns
  • WaterFowl Shotguns
  • Upland Shotguns

Legacy Sports International Shows Us How Cerakote is Done

Tuesday, April 07, 2020
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Shotguns
Tags: cerakote, legacy pointer shotguns, legacy sports international

We tend to associate embellished shotguns with extravagant engravings of pastoral bliss rendered in masterpieces of steel. But head down-market to the other 99 percent and you can order a field or clays shotgun personalized with your own visual flash for about $600.

Your budget alternative comes courtesy of the same coatings that protect your shotgun against the elements and handling, and applied on the Turkish-made Pointer semi-automatics sold and customized by Legacy Sports International in Reno, Nevada.

Read More

How Electronic Shooters Protection Improves Your Shooting – A First-Hand Account

Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Written by Marty Fischer
Categories: Shotguns
Tags: clays shooting ear plugs, electronic ear plugs, electronic shooters protection, jack homa, marty fischer, shooting ear plugs, wingshooting ear plugs

If you’ve ever been to a trap, skeet or sporting clays range, and most likely you have, you know without asking that hearing protection is required. And if you’ve traveled the world to many of the premier wingshooting destinations in remote places where you can shoot thousands of rounds of ammunition in a day, you find out quickly that hearing protection is pretty much mandatory there too. It is smart to protect your hearing under such conditions, but you quickly discover that without the right kind of hearing protection, communication with your fellow hunters and the outfitter, guide and staff becomes very difficult. Let me explain.

Read More

Westley Richard’s L.D. McCaa II: How to Build a Quality Collection of Shotguns

Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Shotguns
Tags: ld mccaa ii, shotgun collecting, shotguns, westley richards

If you’re of the mind to start a quality shotgun collection, here’s one essential tip you need to know: understand the difference between a shotgun salesman and a consultant.

A salesman will sell you a shotgun that may not be in your best interest to own. A consultant should advise you on the best way to build your collection by identifying high-quality guns that are fairly priced, have investment potential, and satisfy the objectives and vision of your collection.

Read More

Going Hunting with the Legacy Sports Pointer Field Over/Under

Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Written by Scott Linden
Categories: Shotguns
Tags: legacy pointer 12 gauge shotgun, legacy pointer 20 gauge shotgun, legacy pointer hunting gun, legacy pointer overunder shotgun, legacy pointer sporting clays gun, legacy sports pointer field

The GPS said my dog was 300 yards down a boulder-strewn gully. I stumbled over rocks and sage, and ten agonizing minutes later found the young wirehair staunch, one front leg raised. The chukar covey roared skyward, and I made a go-to-hell shot down the hill at 50 yards.

I missed, but not because of the Pointer shotgun I’d shouldered. It had been functioning fine in the field and on the range and turning heads, too. But in this case, only a Star Trek transporter could have beamed me into range of those devil birds.

Read More

Pacific Sporting Arms Now Official American Importer of Longthorne Shotguns – Celebrated for Their Barrels Made From a Single Steel Billet

Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Shotguns
Tags: longthorne gunmakers, pacific sporting arms

It’s official: Longthorne shotguns are now available in the U.S. – bringing to American fine-gun afficionados the most advanced break-opens to appear from England in the past century.

John Herkowitz, owner of Pacific Sporting Arms in Azusa, California with a secondary location in Walled Lake, Michigan, took the first-move advantage in becoming Longthorne’s exclusive American agent after watching the gunmaker evolve over the past few years. 

Read More

Scotland’s New Buchan Guns Handcrafts Only Eight Per Year, With Griffin & Howe Exclusive U.S. Agent

Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Shotguns

Turn back the clock to 2016 at a cocktail reception in a posh London suburb. Scotsman Grant Buchan was talking about his desire to build “a true Scottish gun” with the sales manager of a best British gunmaker. “He tried to take the wind out of me and said, you’re dreaming, you will never do it,” recalled Mr. Buchan. “Here I was, a Scottish guy with a small gunsmithing business and a dream of making my own best gun.”

That’s when Mr. Buchan experienced his David-and-Goliath moment: “I told him straight to his face, we’ll see”

Read More

Bettinsoli Italian Shotguns Come to America

Monday, November 25, 2019
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Shotguns
Tags: bettinsoli shotguns, italian shotguns

I stepped down from the bird buggy marking our first stop on the South Georgia bobwhite quail plantation. I approached the side-mounted wood gun box and carefully removed an over/under from the padded brackets, exposed the breach and dropped in 20-gauge shells. We walked only a few yards when the pointer locked up. Our guide dispatched the hyper Boykin flusher into the understory. Shotgun at the ready, listening, watching, waiting, the pines and grasses aromatic of autumn conjuring a seductive beauty of the moment, when the covey exploded: bang, one shot, two birds down. 

Read More

CZ-USA’s Dave Miller Helps Four High-School Kids Establish a Shotgunning Guinness World Record

Tuesday, November 05, 2019
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Shotguns
Tags: aim (academics, integrity, marksmanship) youth program, cz 1012 semiautomatic shotgun, czusa, guinness world record, pheasants forever, quail forever, scholastic clay target program, sctp

Setting a new Guinness Official World Record feels like a bridge too far for most of us. But Dave Miller of gunmaker CZ-USA made it a dream-come-true for the four high-school students on his team who established a world record for the most number of clay targets shot in 12 hours by a team of five.

Read More

Muller Chokes and the Mysterious Ü

Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Written by Jimmy Muller
Categories: Shotguns
Tags: muller chokes, muller competition chokes, muller featherlight chokes, muller hunting chokes, muller sporting clays chokes, muller turkey chokes, muller waterfowl chokes

Visit the Muller Chokes web site and you’ll see choke constrictions new to the shotgunner’s vocabulary. For example, Muller Choke constrictions are marked Ü1, Ü2, Ü3 instead of Skeet, Improved Cylinder and Modified. That’s because Muller Chokes does not believe in generic constrictions. One size does not fit all. Check it out:

Read More

Shotgun Life Newsletters

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.