When discussing shotgun performance, hunters and shooters often focus on payload weight, choke selection or shot material. However, one factor stands above the rest: pellet pattern.
The traditional standard for evaluating shotgun patterns is the 30-inch circle. While useful, this measurement can sometimes obscure a more important concept, which is the size of the shooter’s effective pattern and the resulting margin of error.
With the new Perazzi MR57, the Italian shotgun maker, which holds 62 Olympic medals, has taken an audacious leap into redefining the competition over/under as a work of art that turns clay targets into fairy dust.
Perazzi has always believed that even the most successful platforms must continue to evolve alongside the sport. As shooting disciplines progress and target presentations become increasingly complex – particularly in sporting clays – the demands placed on both shooter and shotgun continue to change. The MR57 was designed with this evolution in mind.
The prices of sporting guns have risen sharply over the past few years, most recently driven by a mix of higher manufacturing costs, supply chain disruptions and a wave of tariffs.
For wing and clays shooters, the impact is already impossible to ignore. What were once relatively accessible sports are now under financial pressure for both newcomers and longtime participants – even putting some of our cherished American traditions at risk for future generations.
For 2026 in particular, the whiplash originates from tariffs on raw materials used to manufacture sporting guns, components and ammunition; increased oil prices that impact manufacturing and transportation; and inventories being prioritized for conflicts worldwide. For the weekend clay shooter or upland hunter these market dynamics translate into a direct hit on our wallet. And at the bottom of the food chain (the cash register of your local firearms dealer), tariffs alone on the finished product can add anywhere from 10 to 30 percent on the retail price of an over/under, side by side, pump or semi-auto made in Italy, Germany, the UK, Turkey or Japan.
Before the Perazzi MX8 made its public debut at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Daniele Perazzi had built a little-known sidelock side-by-side pigeon gun that established the “pre-MX” era for the premier Italian sporting gun maker, and established the standards of quality and artistry that would later become the ultra-premium SCO grade.
Today, these pre-MX sidelock side by sides from the 1960s are highly sought after by collectors. They were produced during a five-year collaboration between the legendary Ivo Fabbri and Daniele Perazzi before Fabbri left Perazzi’s company to start his own groundbreaking sporting gun firm in 1965 that concentrated on pigeon guns of “luxury functional art.”
I had always been a little dismissive of the idea of a custom stock. I say this at the risk of confirming my ignorance, but hear me out: I already had an adjustable stock on my Krieghoff K-80, and I preferred it without any adjustments. Therefore, that contraption was of limited value to me. My LOP (Length of Pull) is 14.5” – which is fairly common. Cast was something to adjust to rather than worry about. Heck, if I had one custom stock made and shot it really well, that would be a slippery slope; I would need to have custom stocks made for all my guns. This is already an expensive hobby, so I thought it better to learn to shoot the gun as it was rather than custom-fitting the stock to me, and perhaps at one point in my shooting development that was not terrible thinking. I was not yet disciplined enough in my mount for a custom fit to make sense.
When it comes to reviving the names of long-gone British gunmakers, entrepreneurs face two choices: the easy way or the Tom Ward way.
The easy way is to buy the rights to an extinct marque and laser-engrave its name on a Turkish sporting gun. Case in point: Webley & Scott, William Powell, E.J. Churchill, Cogswell & Harrison and Holloway & Naughton.
But you’ll discover after spending 40 minutes with Tom that the easy way won’t produce a great sporting gun that also pays tribute to the English legends. It took a few years of experimentation and research, but as Director of the London Gun Company, Tom was able to probe a deep well of resources before resurrecting the U.K’s Frederick Beesley with a stable superb, high-performance over/unders.
First introduced by Longthorne Guns in 28 gauge, the Foxcote over/under pays tribute to Foxcote House, an 18th-century country estate in the village of Ilmington, England noted for the owner’s shooting parties dropping in by helicopter.
Now, the English gunmaker has upped the Foxcote’s firepower by adding a 12 gauge – certainly more apropos of us mere mortals for downing the plump high-flying pheasants of that lovely country manor. The 12 gauge continues the design and shooting principles of the growing Foxcote family.
Major Malet Peyton Phelps was born in 1869 to Lieutenant General Arthur Phelps of Edgbaston, Birmingham. Lieutenant General Arthur Phelps had a distinguished military career, including serving under Lord Ripon.
Malet Peyton Phelps followed in his father’s footsteps and in his own right, had a distinguished military career serving as the Senior Major, the second-most senior officer, in the Sherwood Foresters 1st Battalion in 1911. During the outbreak of World War I, through various reorganizations, the Sherwood Foresters could be found on the Western Front, Malta, and Egypt. Fortunately, Major Malet Peyton Phelps survived the great war and lived until 1951, when he passed away at the age of 82.
If you were the managing director of the Harris & Sheldon Group on Regent Street in London during the 1970s, you were probably suffering from financial heart burn directly related to your acquisition of the stalwart Birmingham gunmaker, Webley & Scott.
Yes, you were quite pleased with the other companies in your diversified portfolio that churned out office furniture, fishing tackle, luggage and consumer goods. But the 1970s saw an international influx of new-generation competitors to the British trade such as Beretta, AyA, Miroku, SKB and Browning who sold superior mid-market sporting guns at lower prices. For a an old-guard Brit who enjoyed a few gin and tonics over lunch at the club, it may have been a bitter pill to swallow. The U.S., Europe and Japan were leapfrogging British manufacturing by capitalizing on post-war industrial innovation, in particular when it pertained to that Harris & Sheldon financial black eye, the 180-year-old Webley & Scott.
When it comes to gun fit, we all know the standard check list: length of pull, cast, pitch, and drop at comb and heel.
But Mark Wade will tell you that something is sorely missing. Over the decades, after 15 custom stocks crafted by experts he describes as “well-known stock makers,” the competitive clays shooter will urge you to add one more measurement: gun grip. At 6 feet/3 inches and 280 pounds, Mark has what he calls “large hands, getting the right grip has always been a challenge,” he says.
For Mark, gun fit has become especially important as he ages. The Florida-based financial advisor has been shooting competitively since 1989 – winning the Grand American Trap tournament in 1992. He recently got bumped up into the ATA’s Veterans Category. But now it feels like Father Time is catching up with him. “At 68, I’m not as good a shooter as I used to be. I’ve had big layoffs in between. My primary game is American Trap, although I shoot all the disciplines. I just want to shoot better.”
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