Should I Sell My Perfect Shotgun for a Perazzi?

[Mumbles Marble Mouth]

If your answer is anything other than “YES! You should own a Perazzi!” then I’m not interested in hearing it.

I never thought I’d own a shotgun more expensive than a Beretta 686 or Browning Citori. Then, a couple of years ago, I bought a Caesar Guerini.

It has been an absolutely fantastic shotgun. Honestly, it may be the perfect shotgun for me.

But I still want a Perazzi.

And now, I may have a problem.

A pretty incredible opportunity has come up: a 2010 Perazzi MX8 with SC2 wood and a very low round count. I have the opportunity to shoot it next week before making any serious decisions, but I already know I’m in trouble.

I love the way this gun feels. The balance is incredible. It feels as though the weight is planted perfectly between your hands. It mounts just as naturally as my Guerini, and the way it swings feels completely effortless.

So now I find myself in a rather ridiculous situation.

In order to fund the Perazzi, the Caesar Guerini would probably have to go. And honestly, that thought gives me a bit of dread. I could be selling what is already the perfect shotgun for me… to buy something that may shoot just as well, simply because it says Perazzi on the side.

And yet…

I still really want the Perazzi.

I never thought I would become the kind of person who gets this excited about a shotgun. But here we are.

So, Canadian Gun Nuts: convince me that I absolutely need to own a Perazzi.

 

[guntech]

I can't do it without quality pictures of each... and without a picture hosting logo over the image. NO photobucket pics please.

Maybe shooting your's and the Perazzi will decide... maybe a simple trade ?

 

[45CAT]

You can get along with just one kidney

 

[G_Alan]

Do you have a Summit or an Invictus?

 

[kamlooky]

Iff’in it t’ain’t broke, don’t go broke.

 

[Longstud]

The price of Guerini shotguns has skyrocketed in the last few years! Our club had a Guerini day a couple months ago with lots of models and gauges available to try. I handled about a half dozen but didn’t shoot any of them. I listened to the comments by many members that tried different models. One of the most common remarks was about felt recoil. One of our members with a 682 gold sporting tried two different models both with 32” barrels! Exact words were “Beat the shxt out of me”. I was suprised cuz I’d handled that gun and it pointed and swung nice and felt heavier than my guns so I assumed it would feel softer!
I have a 686 EELL with 30” barrels and highly upgraded wood which I really like and shoot well. But of all the shotguns I’ve ever owned and shot, my Perazzis are the best. I have an MX8 mirage with two sets of barrels and forends engraved by Angelo Galeazzi, his daughter is now considered one of the worlds best! I just recently sold my other newer MX8 Sporting to a buddy of mine, shouldn’t have, it’s in good hands and he’s shooting it very well!! I have a line on another that I might try to aquire. I don’t think you’ll regret a Perazzi. EDIT just cleaned my Beretta and it’s not a 686 but a 687 EELL Diamond Pidgeon.

 

[270WSMXBolt]

Should you sell any gun..... um... no.
Should you sell the perfect gun.... why is that even a question...
Should you buy a new gun.... Yes. full stop. Have fun with your stuff while your here... You don't have to share...
Never loose your precious....

 

[struff55]

it's always a a tough decision and a round about way to get to where you want to be
i have owned 5 Caesar's since 2012 nice guns good quality but it is a love hate thing for me i do shoot them well
back in the day 80's 90's i shot a mx8 a fair amount and shot it very well
at the end of the day when i got serious about breaking targets i shot a Rem 3200 trap gun choked imp mod & full and togeather we would crush targets
At the end of the day you just have to go with what works
i still have one caesar field gun and the remington 3200

 

[iron cat]

If you want the Perazzi, shoot it and see if it works for you.
If you don't break targets any better than your current gun, cross that bridge when you come to it......
Cat

 

[SigWig]

If it was a bird gun, how many birds would you have to shoot to pay it off?

Lol

 

[guntech]

As far as I know Perazzi's have a reputation for soft recoil going back to about 1970... shooters in Calgary made comments reflecting that.

 

[the spank]

Well here is my take on it based on my experiences as a former Perazzi owner(my wife still shoots one though). Todays Perazzi is NOT yesteryears Perazzi. I would pull the trigger group out of it and if it has leaf springs instead of coil find out if it can be converted to coil! If not, put it down and walk away!
The last three trap shoots I have attended the squads I have been on have been interrupted for trigger swap outs no less than three times and this past weekend one fellow on my squad ending up losing targets to having no less than 8 ftf's on our last 25 targets while shooting handicap and he'd had his 2 allowed ftf's on a previous 25 round due to trigger issues. His trigger had multiple issues going on at different times, not just the springs. Worst I've ever witnessed.
I made the comment to one of the guys after we finished our 100 event that I believe the new Perazzi's are todays 1100 replacement.
Honestly I have seen more new Perazzis dying on the line this summer with trigger issues than all the broken down 1100's I witnessed in the past 40 years of trapshooting.
Now my wife shoots a 1981 coil spring driven TM1 but I make sure she throws her BT-99 in the car for a backup gun. Those older Perazzis are bulletproof IF you leave the coil spring trigger alone. Put in a leaf spring and be prepared to fix it LOTS!
Meanwhile my 69 year old Ithaca Knick and 35 year old Citori + go bang every time and never leave me hanging mid-round.

 

[Mumbles Marble Mouth]

Do you have a Summit or an Invictus?

Summit. I was actually considering upgrading to an Invictus Artco, but a good-condition, previously owned MX8 is in roughly the same price range. That’s what makes this decision so difficult.

 

[waldo54]

I'm the wrong guy to answer but I will anyway, I have a KX6 special, and a CG summit trap O/U and a perazzi MX14 unsingle combo so IMHO YES you need a perazzi then shoot it for at least a year and see hpw it goes, if you don't like it or shoot it better you can sell it and probably get back what you paid or more for it, that is exactly where I am now I do not shoot the perazzi unsilgle any better than my KX6 and I do not shoot the perazzi o/u for doubles better than I do my CG so I have the perazzi for sale, I did shoot the perazzi exclusively for 1 year and my averages were so close to the same it was hard to tell but to be honest I like the feel of the KX6 better and love the roll over comb.

 

[Brad243]

Im going to go the other way. If you sell this sure thing and the new one doesnt work, breaks down or doesnt fit or kicks funny, then what do you do?

Buy it. Shoot it for 6 months. Then decide which one stays. Theyre both used guns so theyre not gonna lose much more value after 6 months.

 

[FLHTCUI]

If your answer is anything other than “YES! You should own a Perazzi!” then I’m not interested in hearing it.

I never thought I’d own a shotgun more expensive than a Beretta 686 or Browning Citori. Then, a couple of years ago, I bought a Caesar Guerini.

It has been an absolutely fantastic shotgun. Honestly, it may be the perfect shotgun for me.

But I still want a Perazzi.

And now, I may have a problem.

A pretty incredible opportunity has come up: a 2010 Perazzi MX8 with SC2 wood and a very low round count. I have the opportunity to shoot it next week before making any serious decisions, but I already know I’m in trouble.

I love the way this gun feels. The balance is incredible. It feels as though the weight is planted perfectly between your hands. It mounts just as naturally as my Guerini, and the way it swings feels completely effortless.

So now I find myself in a rather ridiculous situation.

In order to fund the Perazzi, the Caesar Guerini would probably have to go. And honestly, that thought gives me a bit of dread. I could be selling what is already the perfect shotgun for me… to buy something that may shoot just as well, simply because it says Perazzi on the side.

And yet…

I still really want the Perazzi.

I never thought I would become the kind of person who gets this excited about a shotgun. But here we are.

So, Canadian Gun Nuts: convince me that I absolutely need to own a Perazzi.

Have you spoken with Jason @ VGC on Sidaway by chance?
I'm sure he can fill you in on many if not all the details about it.
Rob

 

[Mumbles Marble Mouth]

Well here is my take on it based on my experiences as a former Perazzi owner(my wife still shoots one though). Todays Perazzi is NOT yesteryears Perazzi. I would pull the trigger group out of it and if it has leaf springs instead of coil find out if it can be converted to coil! If not, put it down and walk away!
The last three trap shoots I have attended the squads I have been on have been interrupted for trigger swap outs no less than three times and this past weekend one fellow on my squad ending up losing targets to having no less than 8 ftf's on our last 25 targets while shooting handicap and he'd had his 2 allowed ftf's on a previous 25 round due to trigger issues. His trigger had multiple issues going on at different times, not just the springs. Worst I've ever witnessed.
I made the comment to one of the guys after we finished our 100 event that I believe the new Perazzi's are todays 1100 replacement.
Honestly I have seen more new Perazzis dying on the line this summer with trigger issues than all the broken down 1100's I witnessed in the past 40 years of trapshooting.
Now my wife shoots a 1981 coil spring driven TM1 but I make sure she throws her BT-99 in the car for a backup gun. Those older Perazzis are bulletproof IF you leave the coil spring trigger alone. Put in a leaf spring and be prepared to fix it LOTS!
Meanwhile my 69 year old Ithaca Knick and 35 year old Citori + go bang every time and never leave me hanging mid-round.

Interesting. I’m not sure I would personally say that a Citori is more reliable than a Perazzi, although I certainly respect your experience with them.

In my own experience, I replace bottom firing pins on Citoris, 525s, 625s, 725s, and even newer 825s fairly often. My own Citori was much nicer to shoot than my Beretta SV10, and I really liked the gun, but I wore out the bottom firing pin after about four years of ownership. I also experienced countless light primer strikes that required removing the firing pins and cleaning out the firing pin channels.

I don't mean this as a criticism of Browning. I think they make excellent guns, and I really enjoyed my Citori. However, this is part of why you don't often see Brownings on the ISSF world stage. In my opinion, they simply haven't demonstrated the same level of long-term reliability as the Beretta DT11, Perazzi, or Krieghoff. Zoli is actually starting to make appearances fairly often now as well as the occational Caesar Guerini.

There is one shooter from Taiwan who uses a Browning Citori and shoots extremely well, making finals fairly often, but she is really the only one who comes to mind.

As for Perazzi flat springs, they remain popular primarily because of their extremely fast lock time. That's also why the DT-10 and DT-11 uses V-shaped flat springs. The downside is that a flat spring can break without any real warning. It could theoretically break after the first round or after 100,000 rounds. On average, they seem to last somewhere around the 50,000-round mark, which is why ISSF shooters will often replace them preventatively around 20,000–30,000 rounds.

I suspect what you may have been seeing is a collection of older Perazzis with very different ages, maintenance histories, and round counts. The problem is that the average owner generally isn't following the same preventative maintenance schedule as a serious ISSF level competition shooter. The general gun owner will go until something breaks before they replace anything.

I would actually be more concerned about the detachable trigger group itself over the flat springs. Once a detachable trigger wears itself loose in the action, thats when it will begin to experience doubling caused from the trigger group shifting inside the action.

 

[stubblejumper]

I wouldn't sell a shotgun that feels right, and that I shoot well. My perfect shotgun is my F3 Vantage, and I don't plan on giving it up for any shotgun, regardless of looks or value. Try shooting the Perazzi, if you shoot it even better, then make the change, if you don't, stay with what you have.

 

[Falconflyer]

My 2 cents for what it's worth.

I've owned a lot of different shotguns over the years and finally settled on a Perazzi High Tech Sporting as my main gun and can't see myself ever replacing it with anything else. It's ten years old and has the detachable trigger group with coil springs. I also have two older Mx8's with detachable/leaf spring triggers and although they have never given me any grief I fully understand that they can from time to time and I have a spare trigger group that I could change out on station if I have to. Perazzi springs can last 200 rounds or 200,000 rounds and there is not way to predict when it will happen so replacing then regularly doesn't make any sense.
If you shoot registered targets then I fully recommend that you have an extra trigger group in your pocket. If you don't have a spare trigger group then it's a 2 minute job to change a leaf spring with the proper tool but in a registered shoot this can cost you score. Spare trigger groups are not cheap, a few years ago a non-selectable group was $2k and a selectable group $4k and those prices are undoubtably higher now.

Some one mentioned trigger groups getting worn and falling out of the gun and that might be true on occasion but my two older Mx8's both have many rounds through them and the trigger groups are very tight.

Breaking a leaf spring in a Perazzi trigger group is something almost everyone criticizes the Perazzi for but Beretta Dt-10's, Dt-11's and SO series guns also break leaf springs, the difference is they are a lot harder to change out.

Perazzi has a well deserved reputation for having great trigger pull's. I can tell you from experience that once you get used to a Perazzi trigger then any time you pick up another gun a shoot it the first thing you will notice is the inferior trigger... even the coil spring triggers are that good!

I also have a couple of GC guns, one a light weight field gun and the other a Summit Sporting in 20 gauge. I can tell you that the finish on the CG is probably nicer and fancier than your average entry level Perazzi but the CG will not last nearly as long as the Mx8. These are the most durable guns made and they are entirely rebuildable for little money and parts are readily available although getting harder to find for some of the older models. Perazzi has a well deserved reputation for longevity and CG does not.

I replaced a Beretta 692 Sporting with the High Tech and even though it cost 3 times as much at the time and my scores didn't improve, I have no regrets making that decision especially when you consider how Beretta quality and service has gone down the toilet in the last decade or more.
If you shoot your CG well and don't shoot more than a couple thousand rounds per year then you have little reason to change guns but if you want the best then you won't regret the purchase, I never have. If possible, try before you buy is always best.

 

[djm]

Seriously ?

You've already described it as your perfect gun.

If you can consistently hit everything with it - and it fits well - then keep it.

DON'T MESS WITH SUCCESS - I know guys who have sold their "magic wands" and regretted it forever.

Also IMO Guerini's are better guns than Perazzi's anyway.