Need Help on a Shotgun Purchase

AStack75 | 7/29/02 | AStack75

[El Gato]

Can I realistically hunt anything with a pump-action shotgun? I would like to have the option to go hunting but I also can't afford to shell out big bucks for a double barrel. Would anyone go turkey or deer hunting with a pump-action?

A pump was THE choice for an upland game hunting gun, and for deer and turkey too, until quite recently, and they are still seen in larger numbers. Their competition are autoloaders, not doubles, which are mostly a trap/skeet/clays thing (and wing shooting purists too). I've never hunted, or shot clay targets either for that matter, with anything but a pump. Well except for the first part of my first season as a kid, when I used a borrowed bolt action 16 gauge, the first pump came that Christmas. :)

[AStack75]

Sweet. So 12 gauge pump it is. I'm still up in the air on what kind. I'm leaning slightly towards the Mossberg though.

[FLCowboy,]

It's been years since I shot sporting clays, or trapshooting. My Winchester was the ultimate low price, entry level shotgun that satisfied all my field requirements also. I've also got a Charles Daly o/u 12 ga bored s/s for sale if you want to get into the real shooting business. It would also be a great home defender with it's 26" barrel.

[strela]

I built too many tennis ball cannons and potato guns in my misspent youth (using hair spray, underarm deodorant, Raid roach killer, or even gasoline as a propellant) to be at all comfortable when I see someone talking about converting a BB gun to a 12-gauge. It sounds like something I would have tried, and it might give mischevious kids like me ideas ;)

[wildbill]

Buy the cheapest shotgun you can find--used if possible. I have an old Mossberg pump with a variable choke and have done a lot of hunting of all kinds with it. It is a tool, not a collectors' piece, and has given me good service for so long I no longer remember when I bought it. I've had expensive collector guns and found I was too scared of scarring them to use them.

[amstaff1]

Forget those two and go for a Benelli Nova pump. A better gun for around the same money. It can be purchased in the special purpose form with short IC barrel and ghost ring sights for home defense. That barrel can be changed out to a field barrel in seconds for hunting, skeet or whatever. Great gun!

[Eaker]

One MUST use duct tape to reinforce the weapon!!!

If it can keep can keep a Russian space station in orbit, it can hold a bb/shotgun together!!!

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

You can get a brand new Remington 870 and buy a mag extension kit for under 400 bucks.

If you've got a Big 5 sporting goods store around you way, they are always putting the Mossbergs on sale for about 210 bucks with an extra (short self defense length) barrel included. Either way you've got a bargain.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Is that what James Kelly (Seattle's Urban league president) was carrying on the elementary school grounds?lol

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

There is a kit available to convert a Daisey Red Ryder BB Gun (price) into a 12 gauge. It is single shot, but the price is only about $35.00.

When asked about his Conversion Kit, H. Oldmy Beer said, "Word of mouth sales are unexpededly and unexplainably very low"

[strela]

One MUST use duct tape to reinforce the weapon!!!

If it can't be done with JB Weld and duct tape, it can't be done.

[FlyVet]

Would anyone go turkey or deer hunting with a pump-action?

My 2 cents, it can be done. I got my first and only turkey with a Winchester 1200, 28" barrel with choke tubes. Didn't really like the gun though, it had a bad habit of ejecting shells out the bottom now and then. I currently own a Mossberg 500 Turkey Special. It came with an 18 1/2" barrel with choke tubes, and nice advantage also drilled and tapped for scope mounts. It worked well for skeet shooting, once I hit 24/25. Sporting clays though, that was another story, lucky to hit 9 or 10 in that venue. Much more difficult. If you are going to get into clays I would think learning with a 28" barrel would be better, I was so used to the short barrel I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with the long barrel when I bought it. You won't catch one of the pro shooters using a pump, they're all using semis.

Also, as far as deer hunting goes, when I configured my turkey gun with a 4X scope and IC choke tube it was amazingly accurate with plain old Remington 2 3/4" rifled slugs. On a 100-yd rifle target, it will put 5 shots in the black out to 70 yds, about all you can ask from a smoothbore. The downside is, the pump slide rattles, very hard to keep quiet, and that metallic rattle will scare a deer off in a heartbeat. You can use it for deer hunting but I think a semi-auto is a better choice in that area, since it isn't loose and "rattle-y".

All that said, I think the 500 costs a bit less and is better in combat situations because it is so loose and unlikely to jam if it gets dirty. But I think the 870 is a better-built piece for hunting and longevity, something that is sturdier and will last longer to pass on to your kids. Tough choices..when you talk about buying a firearm, it's like being a kid in a candy store.

[FlyVet]

I built too many tennis ball cannons and potato guns in my misspent youth (using hair spray, underarm deodorant, Raid roach killer, or even gasoline as a propellant)

Man, don't even get me started with the tennis ball cannons. That was too much fun. Since we were stupid, our propellant of choice was always gasoline. At least we were smart enough to keep the gas can far away from the ignition point. That was the downfall of tennis ball cannons where I came from. A few kids blew themselves/burned themselves up, that one the end of that. Outlawed. Oh well, they don't make steel Coke cans to duct-tape together any more anyway.

[antivenom]

Dust tape = Arkansas Chrome

[AStack75]

Thanks everyone for all your help and advice. I've decided to go with a Mossberg 500 Field/Security Combo (28" and 18.5" barrels). I found it new for around $290. Seems like a good price so I'm gonna get it.

[packrat01]

Call Sarah Brady. She does straw purchases.

[Pappy Smear]

I have a question about choke tubes. I have a Mossberg 835 12 gauge. It has a ulti-full turkey choke tube. I don't really have any interest in hunting, tho occasionally will get together with friends to shoot clay pigeons or cans/junk.

Do you recommend having any different kinds of choke tube, just for the occasional non-sport shooting I do? Is there really that much difference between the different kinds of choke tubes?

[tcostell]

As has probably be said before, the real question is, what are you going to do with it? If it's just for home defense, then have a look on http://www.gunbroker.com/ and buy the low priced Mossberg. You won't need any options if you're shooting someone from across your living room. But if you are planning on doing other things with it, then the options might matter more. The choke screws into the end of the barrel and can be changed on most modern shotguns. It will dictate the diameter of the pattern, which will in turn dictate the effective range of the shot. So for shooting turkeys (a relatively long distance shot) you would want a tight choke like a "full", but for shooting pheasants or rabbits, you would want a choke with a larger pattern like a skeet or a cylinder. (this goes for shooting skeet as well)

A home defense gun should be a short barrel for easy handling, but a sporting gun usually has about a 28 inch barrel.

I'd like to throw one more gun out there for you to consider. Stoeger makes an excellent pump action which you could buy for half the price of the Remington. In fact, you could find their Semi Automatic gun for that same 400 you're planning to spend. I have their semi, and I've never had a days problem with it.

It's a well built tool.

[RightWhale]

No kidding. Why do they bother with this bogosity?

[fish hawk]

This "idiot" has three Remington pumps in twelve ga. and has never had a malfunction with any of them in the field or at the club. Nothing against Mossberg but Remingtons are reliable not too expensive guns.