Opinions on entry level over/unders

Chuckbuster

Chuckbuster

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CZ, Baikal, Stoeger, Mossberg, and Stevens all make entry level guns in the 5 to 6 hundred dollar range. I've been wondering what all of the O/U hype is all about and am wondering if I should dabble. A good friend is very into these guns...has no kids, property taxes low enough to make you weep upon seeing your own bill, and $50/week groceries for him and the Mrs...and has been extolling the virtues of guns well over a thousand bucks in cost. His latest acquisition was something like $2500. Me, I have other gun sins to atone for in addition to higher living costs. So, if I jump in, the above mentioned brands are what I'm looking at...if I have missed anything else in that range, please let me know.

What experiences have people had with these particular guns...good, bad, and or ugly?

Thanks.
 
CZ or Baikal and forget the other 3 you mentioned they are very prone to breaking critical parts and having safety failures. Add huglu(sp?) and yildiz for around 800. Personally try a CZ or Baikal they have a slightly better resale and if you are looking for more of a dedicated clays gun their aren't many that will stand up to it until you get into the brownings and berettas.

I know shortly someone will be along saying for that price get a used browning or beretta but I haven't seen many used brownings for under 800 and even fewer berettas and they sell very fast.
 
As mentioned already, if you are in the $600.00 area then look at the CZ or Baikal although I don't think you will find a new CZ for $600.00 but I'm not sure what their lowest priced O/U is right now. Forget the other 3 you mentioned.
 
For me the gun would be used for bird hunting. Mostly grouse and maybe ducks on occasion when I feel like something other than my standby pumper.

Epps has new CZs for a hair over 6 hundred, and I saw new Baikals or Stoegers (I can't remember which right now) at Al Flaherty's for 6.
 
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In my opinion for the limited shooting you will do, I think that you'd be fine. If you want to shoot the gun for the next 10 years and put 100,000 rounds through it, you may want something else. The rec shooters at my club with budget guns do Ok and I have not personally seen any failures. That goes for baikals, stoegers and others.
 
They are OK, if you are going to shoot a couple of boxes of shells per year. They won't stand up to shooting clay targets in any volume. I've seen them all break or disappear from the clay target scene within a year or two.
 
kamlooky said:
S'perianced high end to me is better than new mediocre value.
Click to expand...

Truuf!

I wouldn't buy any double, O/U or SxS for under a thousand bucks unless it was on a quality gun that the seller has priced too low (you see that from time to time, even on the EE). Cheap guns are just that - cheap. Fit and finish is poor and they feel wrong in your hands. Spending a bit extra on a good gun, even if it is old, is well worth it. I've seen a few used shotguns like Sauers go on the EE for ridiculously low prices.
 
Just bought a high end browning 625 field from my lgs, was used 3 weeks and got a deal $1800 and prob had less then a box down it. Picked up all the others, showed me a cheap one, WOW makes sense why they were cheap, not a good locking design, sloppy fit and heavy! For some reason barrel and chamber was manufactured in 2 pieces, kinda weirded me out.
 
I just bought an O/U and spent months looking for the right one. Before I committed to a manufacturer, I shouldered as many brands as I could to see which fit me the best. No matter the shotgun, if it doesn't fit you properly, it's not worth what you paid for it. Another consideration is how the shotgun functions. I found a nice Franchi that fit me well but I didn't like that it had an auto safety. Every time you broke the action, the safety would engage. Pass. I personally don't like triggers that rely on recoil to set them. I prefer mechanical triggers because if one barrel fails to fire I can fire the second barrel right away. I also wanted a shotgun with removable chokes. I found some good deals on well fitting O/U's but they had fixed chokes. Pass. In the end I bought a used Browning Cynergy. It's a little out of your set budget but my point is there is much more to consider than just the price. Good luck.
 
All of the sub-1500.00 priced guns these days are Spanish or Turkish made, other than Baikal. CZ is Huglu, Yildiz, Akkar, are all Turkish. Even the new Webley & Scott at 3000.00 is made in Turkey. That is where the industry is building the cheapest guns. They are what they are for the money. They will function, they have some nice looking embellishments on them to make them saleable. They will all need fixing, some time down the road, if you use them enough.
 
Of the bunch the baikal will bang the longest. They're not prudy they're designed to work and that they do

I know first hand what cheap ou can be like. Stay away from tristar and Stevens and as much as I love mossberg pumps their ou guns are an embarrassment
Things that go wrong on a cheap gun. For example my tristar setter. Fit and finish not great. Bluing is though. Soft metal reciever it dented on the bottom when tapped with another gun barrel. The barrel selector didn't work. The front bead broke off. The trigger wouldn't reset. #3 steel blew the steel rated mod choke out of it and the lower firing pin broke as well as its retaining spring. The extractor used to hang up as well. I have only about 700 rounds thru this gun. The barrels don't shoot to the same poi either. On the plus side I like the damn thing. It's light it comes up nice and I'd feel bad if I sold it only to have it break on the next owner. It's a loaner gun for my club if someone wants to try an ou and I use it for duck hunting occasionally but I always bring a backup gun.

I have a sxs baikal that will see its 43 000 round this season. No failures. The foreend metal is starting to wear so the fore end has slight play in it but the action is tight.

A used browning or Beretta or even a skb or Charles Daly would be great choices but for your current budget a baikal or cz will do fine
 
I would caution against going cheap, but from a different standpoint: if you are worried about the finances to buy the gun, how do you expect to feed it? Shooting clays might not be as pricey on a per shot basis as big bore rifles; but you tend to fire a lot more; shooting 100 targets will run you $50-150 depending on where you go/what discipline; it doesn't take long to rack up the equal value of your gun in spend ammo.

If your good friend is exactly that, he won't mind letting you put a few boxes of ammo through his gun; at least enough to "see what all the O/U hype is about". Spend $100 on targets and shells before flushing $600 down the drain on a cheaply made stop-gap.
 
I don't shoot skeet or sporting clays, but feeding the gun is not an issue. It's just a matter of "Do I really need to spend big bucks to obtain a reliable hunting over/under?". I'm not into big names or brands for show...can you say "Norinco".?:D

However, from the less than varied opinions here, I may wait a bit till after the busy(read "expensive") summer holidays to obtain a higher end gun than what I originally had in mind...I do like the look of the Webley and Scott guns...
 
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Try and shoot the guns you are interested in. I've picked up guns, mounted them and felt they fitted well, shot them and wished I'd never pulled the trigger.
 
Of that list I would only suggest CZ or Baikal. However, for a decent condition secondhand shotgun; I myself would hunt high & low for an SKB shotgun. IMO you should avoid at all costs something like the Mossberg Reserve. Break a firing pin, (or two) an unbushed firing pin adds to gunsmith labour costs far surpassing the initial cost of a cheap double gun. And don't forget to buy dry fire snap-caps for any double gun either.
You can find a decent SKB for under a thousand if you look hard enough. This is not true with the Browning Citori for the most part. And they are excellent guns too.

my two cents only
 
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