Stevens 320 pump, experiences please

geologist

geologist

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Lower Mainland, BC
I have to buy three pump shotguns for an exploration project near the BC Yukon border.

Part of the selection process is what is available quickly.

Users will be young geologists without a lot of gun experience though I will be sending all of them to Silvercore for training at the Delta facility.

Reliable has the Stevens 320 with regular stock and ghost ring sights in stock. They also have the Winchester SXP pump in stock though it is bead sight only. I think the ghost rings may be easier for them to hit the target with slugs from 5 to 20 yards.

Does any one have experience with the 320s? The reviews look pretty good on these Winchester 1300 clones.

If I could get Mossberg 590s I'd probably go that route but I can't find a retailer near me with stock.

In addition to slugs we will also be shooting crack flares, bean bags and rubber slugs.

Any advice with your 320 experiences would be appreciated.
 
Ive seen several pass my local skeet range and come out for informal farm blasting. All have had issues where they kick a live shell on the ground and all suffered from light strikes on federal top gun ammo with those rounded primers they use.

If looking for in stock cheap guns tenda has a sale on hatsans. Would require shipping but in my experience theyre of better quality
 
I've bought 3 new Chinese made guns over the years, they've all had issues. Never again.

Cabelas let me put 3 Benelli Nova tacticals in my cart.
 
I settled on 3 Mossberg 590s M-LOCs, with 20" barrel cylinder bores, ghost ring sights, 7 shot mags.

Their LOP are long and I may set one up with a shorter or adjustable stock for the smaller staff.

Equipping each with a sling, Pic rail, mounted light, chamber flag, AZooms, butt stock shell holder and a case.

Site sponsor High Caliber is putting it together. Thanks Dave!
 
Probably more than you want to spend, but I second the Benelli recommendation above. Id go the supernova tactical, I have one and it sceams quality, and the stock collapses for better stowage.
 
Sighted in the 590S's. One of them has a canted front sight so I switched out the barrels so both 20"s have vertical front sights. Both are printing to POA, 2" groups off the bench at 25 yards with Challenger reduced recoil slugs.

It'll be good for the staff to run a bunch of shells through them as they are stiff action wise. No failures though.

The 590S converted to 14" shot over two feet high at 25 yards with the ghost ring in its lowest position and me putting the bead at 6 o'clock in the GR. I removed the ghost ring sight and shot it with just the bead and it's printing 12 inches high for me. I'm going to leave it as is and see if it shoots to POA with any of my staff. If not then i'll switch it back to 20".
 
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You've probably already considered this but getting the gun unslung and into battery is fairly important for new Shooters to practice. I would suggest a snap cap in and safety on. Have them practice getting their first "shot" away quickly and efficiently without the gun going boom.
 
Done plus we did Silvercore training yesterday. A lot of the Silvercore training was safe gun handling including transitioning to American carry and African carry.

I gotta say the 590S's were really good. No failure to feeds or extracts despite none of having run them before, them being brand new and all I did was clean the bores and spray some G96 on the bolt and action bars. They were getting noticeably smoother cycling as the day went on.

I'm thinking of buying one for myself.
 
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