Three shotguns I took note of, from the Savage booth (and tried two of them at the range on Monday).
Worth taking a closer look at is Savage's new "Renegauge" semi-auto. May be late for them to get in the game of shotguns which take light 2 and a quarter to 3 inch magnum shells, but still, maybe this means they had time to get details right.
Tried it on some clays, ran light and heavy loads. I am not the best fan of recoil - 175 pounds, 5 foot 9 - and have cheek bones which often get punched by the buttstock with some shotguns. This one fit fine. The shotgun is sold with three cheek rests of different sizes to adjust comb height, and three different butt pads to adjust length of pull (14.25 to 15 inches). And they added some shims on top of that for fine tuning of drop and cast. So, there, my face can fit on that shotgun!
Another visible feature of this semi shotgun - the barrel is fluted. Savage's litterature mentions "9%" weight reduction; why not. Beveled loading port makes reloading easy. Seems to be a gun which would be easy to live with; easy to take apart and clean; can't see why it couldn't stand to some abuse. And, it's made in the US, which for Savage maybe something of a good marketing choice.
It's offered in four flavors - Field, Waterfowl, Turkey Obsession and Turkey Bottomland.
Aside from this new Renegauge, I took a look at two other shotgun models from Savage.
First: Savage's 301 Turkey. A simple, single shot 410 which happened to be fun to try out. Ejector; manual safety on the side of the receiver; removable choke (extra full). Afordable and easy to use; probably going after new shooters, youth or other smaller people. Not a new model, but my first time seeing them. Also available in 20 ga. Weight is just over 5 pounds for the 410, 6 pounds for the 20 ga.
Second, a new single-barrel trap gun - Model appropriately named 555 Trap. Adjustable comb height; nice fit and finish; available in 12 and 20 gauge, and a choice of barrel length for each caliber (30 or 26 inches); "compact" option available (length of pull reduced to 13 inches, from 14.5); nice fit and finish (one would hope so). weights varies from 6.6 to 7.5 pounds.
Worth taking a closer look at is Savage's new "Renegauge" semi-auto. May be late for them to get in the game of shotguns which take light 2 and a quarter to 3 inch magnum shells, but still, maybe this means they had time to get details right.
Tried it on some clays, ran light and heavy loads. I am not the best fan of recoil - 175 pounds, 5 foot 9 - and have cheek bones which often get punched by the buttstock with some shotguns. This one fit fine. The shotgun is sold with three cheek rests of different sizes to adjust comb height, and three different butt pads to adjust length of pull (14.25 to 15 inches). And they added some shims on top of that for fine tuning of drop and cast. So, there, my face can fit on that shotgun!
Another visible feature of this semi shotgun - the barrel is fluted. Savage's litterature mentions "9%" weight reduction; why not. Beveled loading port makes reloading easy. Seems to be a gun which would be easy to live with; easy to take apart and clean; can't see why it couldn't stand to some abuse. And, it's made in the US, which for Savage maybe something of a good marketing choice.
It's offered in four flavors - Field, Waterfowl, Turkey Obsession and Turkey Bottomland.
Aside from this new Renegauge, I took a look at two other shotgun models from Savage.
First: Savage's 301 Turkey. A simple, single shot 410 which happened to be fun to try out. Ejector; manual safety on the side of the receiver; removable choke (extra full). Afordable and easy to use; probably going after new shooters, youth or other smaller people. Not a new model, but my first time seeing them. Also available in 20 ga. Weight is just over 5 pounds for the 410, 6 pounds for the 20 ga.
Second, a new single-barrel trap gun - Model appropriately named 555 Trap. Adjustable comb height; nice fit and finish; available in 12 and 20 gauge, and a choice of barrel length for each caliber (30 or 26 inches); "compact" option available (length of pull reduced to 13 inches, from 14.5); nice fit and finish (one would hope so). weights varies from 6.6 to 7.5 pounds.
