Field and Stream - Shotgun Reviews RSS

Bourjaily: Is the Ruger Gold Label a Failed Classic?

Online Editors — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:56:13 -0500

Bourjaily: Remington's Competition 1100 Prototype

Online Editors — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:13:18 -0500

Clearly, the gun in this picture is not your father’s 1100.

It’s a prototype Competition 1100 sent to me by Remington’s shotgun product manager Brian Lasley. The gun grew out of a conversation I had with Lasley about affordable youth target guns. I cannot take credit for the result because Brian sensibly ignored 99% of what I told him to do and took the project in a totally different direction.

Items of Interest from Day One of the 2010 Shot Show

Online Editors — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:55:23 -0500

New shotguns, rifles, optics, and other stuff from the show floor that caught the eyes of Gun Nut bloggers Dave Petzal and Phil Bourjaily.

SHOT Show Report: Live from the Shooting Range

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:25:19 -0500

SHOT Show Report: Bourjaily Shoots the SXP

Online Editors — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:10:12 -0500

SHOT Show starts tomorrow, and as always, several manufacturers held pre-show shooting events today that gave us press-types a little trigger time with some of their new guns. At the Browning/Winchester shoot, I had the chance to get reacquainted with the SXP.

Why .410 Shotguns Are Better for Experts than for Kids

Online Editors — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:42:48 -0500

A lot of us here probably started with .410s. The first gun I shot was a single-shot Beretta that my dad had cut down to fit me when I was quite young. I mostly remember shooting stationary paper plates and balloons blowing along the ground with it. For puncturing plates and popping ballons, a .410 is plenty of gun and they have practically no recoil. For anything else, it can be challenging. There’s just not much shot in a .410 cartridge making the pattern core small and the fringes weak. I waited until both my kids were big enough to shoot 20 gauge youth model 1100s (age 11-12) to start them out because I wanted them to think shooting was fun, not frustrating.

10 Rifles and Shotguns Sure to Become Tomorrow's Classics

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:04:31 -0500

Bourjaily: Update on My Beretta A400

Joe_Cermele — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:08:40 -0500

Beretta’s A400 semiautos – which I saw in Italy earlier this fall -- are trickling into the country. I have one and have been putting it to good use. Thus far, I like almost everything about the A400. Through a flat of target loads and an assortment of hunting loads, it has worked almost perfectly. Its one failure to fire came on the second shot of skeet doubles. I was using 2 ¾ dram, 1 1/8 ounce target loads, and the second round chambered but the bolt didn’t close 100% of the way and the gun went “click.” I think the loads were a little light for this 3 ½ inch gun, although it may eventually cycle them with complete reliability after I shoot it more.

Bourjaily: The Browning Maxus “Turnkey” Plug

Online Editors — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:44:17 -0500

When Browning introduced the excellent Maxus semiauto last year one of their engineers walked me through all the features of the gun, including the “turnkey” magazine plug. It is pretty slick: you take the forearm off, use any car key to turn the plug through 90 degrees, and you can slide it out of the magazine tube without any disassembly, increasing the capacity from two shells to four. The plug goes back in just as easily if you need to limit the magazine capacity to two for migratory bird hunting.

I thought, that’s clever, but so what?

Guns Top Many Holiday Wish Lists

Online Editors — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:28:29 -0500

From the Examiner:
In a November survey, the Consumer Reports Money and Shopping Blog . . . revealed a number of items new to the [poll] that gifts respondents said they’d be ‘thrilled’ to receive: boots, purses (designer, no doubt), pajamas and guns.

Chad Love: Bankers with Guns

Online Editors — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:49:31 -0500

So say you're a Goldman Sachs investment banker and you're a little worried about the anti-Wall Street populist rabble-rousing all those little people keep going on about. You've got that seven-figure bonus check just burning a hole in your custom-tailored suit, so what do you do to protect yourself from the pitchfork-wielding mob?

According to this story, you do exactly what we little people do - buy a gun.

Bourjaily: Beretta's Shotgun Break-In Machine

Online Editors — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:57:23 -0500

The machine pictured above is one more interesting things I saw at the Beretta factory: the shotgun break-in machine.

Every A400 Xplor action gets a turn on the machine. Two barreled receivers go in the rests at a time and metal arms clamp onto the bolt handles (the break-in machine operator is about to put a second barreled action in the machine. You can see the arm that will fit over the bolt). The other end of the arm is attached to a wheel which spins very fast, working the arm back and forth, slamming the actions open and shut. It loolks like an old-fashioned steam locomotive when it gets going.

In two minutes on the machine the action cycles 500 times -- the equivalent of running twenty boxes of heavy ammunition through the gun.

A lot of people recommend ...

Bourjaily: The Best (and Worst) Shotgun Safeties

Online Editors — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:15:45 -0500

One of the very nicest features of AyA guns (which I wrote about a month ago, here), were the safety buttons. I liked them so much I took a picture of one. As you can see, they stick up high where you can’t miss them and they practically grab your thumb like Velcro thanks to the sharp hand checkering on top. They snick off easily with a mere flick and are easily among the most positive safeties to operate that I have ever tried.

That brings me to the subject of safeties good and bad: a good safety comes off easily so you don’t even have to ...

Bourjaily: A Closer Look at Beretta's A400 Xplor 'Dinosaur Gun'

Online Editors — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:53:46 -0500

Bouraily: Aya Shotguns and Dreams (Nearly) Fulfilled

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:07:23 -0400

When I first got interested in shotguns, Orvis offered custom Aya doubles from Spain. I only saw them in the catalog, never in real life, but I yearned for one in the worst way. I even sent away for the order form, where you could specify finish, stock dimensions, grip style, etc., and spent way too much time designing dream guns I couldn’t afford. Although they were out of my price range, they weren’t exorbitant, at least, not when compared to other custom doubles. It seemed feasible I might own one someday.

Inside the Benelli Shotgun Factory in Urbino, Italy

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:54:19 -0400

Bob Marshall tour the Benelli plant in Italy and gets a first-hand look at the surprising way these classic shotguns are produced.

Mystery Gun: Beretta Says New Xplor Can Take Down a Dinosaur

Online Editors — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:40:43 -0400

I received the invitation you see here from Beretta a few weeks ago. They are introducing a new gun called the Xplor and inviting a couple hundred gun writers from around the world to come to Italy to see it. I'll be there and will get a picture of the new gun back to you as quickly as I can.

Remington Makes 10 Millionth 870

Online Editors — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:24:20 -0400

. . . and celebrates by giving you a chance to win a free 870 shotgun. Here are the details, from a company press release:

Bourjaily: The CSMC A-10 American

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:37:51 -0400

A year ago I visited Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company and witnessed a Marvel Of Our Age – a world-class fine double gun maker located right here in the US, in New Britain, Connecticut, to be precise. CSMC employs about 70 craftsmen, and, save for a few springs and widgets, every part of every gun is made entirely in house.

Bourjaily: Tighten Chokes, Lighten Up

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:50:10 -0400

My first takeaway from this year’s Iowa State Sporting Clays shoot: tighten your chokes.

I’ve never believed in cranking choke tubes into the muzzle super-tight, but I do make sure they are firmly seated, then I nervously check them periodically during a day in the field or at the range.

From now on I’ll be examining my tubes more often after seeing somebody launch one – something I had heard of but never witnessed before this weekend.

The Ten Best Best Bargains In Shotgunning

Online Editors — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:01:35 -0400

There are still wise buys beyond the basic 870 Express and Mossberg 500. Phil Bourjaily lists his top ten values in shotgunning.

Bourjaily: The 870 Project

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:09:46 -0400

I think we might all agree that they don’t make 870s – or a lot of other guns – quite like they used to.

A little while ago, I mentioned the 70s vintage 870 Wingmaster I picked up and made a mag-tube recoil reducer for. Once upon a time, it must have been someone’s duck gun, but in these days of steel shot, a 2 ¾ inch chamber and a fixed full choke is not what people want. The gun had been beautifully cared for, the barrel was 30 inches long, the action was left-handed and the price was only $269. I grabbed it.

Bourjaily: It's All About Tempo

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:22:01 -0400

Bourjaily: Removable Triggers

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:25:38 -0400

After some gun trading a couple of weeks ago, I wound up with a Browning BT-100 single shot trap gun. The 100 was made from 1995 to 2002, then discontinued in favor of the reintroduced BT-99. I suspect Browning got rid of the 100 because the 99 cost less to make. Don’t get me wrong: BT-99s are also great guns, just not as great as this one. It balances and handles better than the 99s I’ve shot, and, although it costs a small fraction of what you pay for a Krieghoff or Perazzi, BT-100s have one of the niceties of a high-end gun: a removable trigger.

Bourjaily: Fun Guns

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:49:35 -0400

What’s your idea of a fun gun?

The question came up last week when I gathered five testers for the annual Best of the Best shotgun test. One of the entries was Rossi’s new Tuffy, their version of the .410 Snake Charmer single shot. It weighs three pounds, has an 18.5 inch barrel and a very short thumbhole stock that holds extra shells. It has practical applications as a backpacking, truck or boat gun, I guess, but my bet is, most people buy them because they’re cute, inexpensive, and they look like fun. During the test, we tried a round of skeet with the Tuffy.