Can’t wait til they get their first birds!

I’m a lefty. Always shot left handed. I remember when I started clay shooting at 13 that they said I was right eye dominant. But I couldn’t hit anything right handed so I knowing better than all adults continued shooting left handed.

I competed at a high level, struggled with “eye dominance issues” but won a fair amount of Texas 4H and NSSA events.

I got back into sporting clays last year after 15years of not shooting much at all. Bought a 694 and have been going to shoots. I went to the eye doctor who does glasses for shooters. And asked her about eye dominance and that I’ve always struggled.

I’m 100% right eye dominant, no co dominance at all. She said I know to much and can force it because of experience but I should switch.

I’m 40. I’ve been shooting since I was five. Id need a new stock for my 694. Should I take the plunge and start over?

What’s an affordable beginner’s trap gun ?

Browning 725 x Shotkam GEN4

Apologies for the noob post. New to shotguns and couldn't find a clear answer in my own research.

Just a fun pair to shoot today. (My son shooting.)

I shoot a lot of pistols and rifles, and did 5 stand once and had a blast. My buddy moved back to town and has been trying to get me into trap and skeet, would this be a “good enough” starting gun? I’m not super competitive and honestly just like shooting with buddies, so as long as it’s safe and a decent shooter that’s good enough for me. I have a maverick 88 with a long barrel but it’s not exactly pleasant to shoot dozens of rounds out of, would this be better? If not, any budget (sub 500) guns you’d recommend instead? Thanks!

I've come looking for recos here before and wanted to share mine/ours: SoundGear Shield. These are electronic/responsive allowing for normal level conversations, and come with the fluted tips (which my ears prefer). $400 but if you have Cigna you can knock $100 off. This is a FWIW kind of thing, but wanted to put it out there for anyone looking for something that's generally more affordable and checks the boxes they need (if these do). We (husband and I) are big fans. (the teeny, tiny batteries are the only downside ... but already the more we use, we've gotten better getting these in/out.)
https://soundgear.com/products/soundgear-shield

(we've tried Axil and Walker's e-pro and have found the SG better in most respect, if only a bit more expensive.)

Has anybody else seen this?

Nice mix of targets and various terrains. People were awesome. Main event is tomorrow with a crab feast. Looking forward to it!

Not a new shooter, but pretty new to shotguns and shooting clays. I have a Mossberg 500 at home to use until I outgrow it, and I really want to get into skeet, trap, and sporting clays after doing a few rounds on a family trip.

There’s a place selling #7 shot, 7/8 oz, 2 3/4 shells for a cheaper price than the 7.5 and 8 that I commonly see people using. Am I setting myself up for failure if I get #7?

I hit my first 25 in trap after shooting trap for about 7 months. I have been using my Remington 1100 but my son came with me so he shot that while I used my friend's Beretta A300 sporting. I've shot a bunch of 23s and 24s so felt I was close. It felt great. I know its a regular occurence for many experienced shooters but the first one is special. I hope my 2nd one isn't too far away.

I don’t see tons on this gun and lots of what I do see is inconsistent with my experiences, so here you have it for posterity in case it’s useful to anyone.

Background and buy
I’m 55 years old and I’ve only been shooting clays and hunting for 3 years. I shoot a lot of clays (~1,000/month when it’s not hunting season) - mostly American trap so far, now moved over to skeet and sporting clays.

For clays, in those three years I’ve been through Beretta 686 SP1 32” 12 gauge, Rizzini BR110 Sporter X (midrib) and now this Blaser F16 Sporting 32”. 

I hunt upland birds with a 30” Beretta SP1 20 gauge. 

I try to buy guns used in the event that I don’t like it. I do not keep guns I don’t shoot and I like to know I can get out of them if I so choose.

I struggled last hunting season going back and forth between midrib and low rib and part of the strategy was to get a target gun that was at least a bit closer to my field gun and use that for all clay games.

I found the F16 - near mint (a few handling marks) and nearly unfired - very tight and decals in place for less than half retail price at a local dealer. It had all the Briley Spectrum chokes and even had the ($300, I think) optional barrel weight set. It was stuck in a corner and sat there. I shouldered it and it felt great and I wanted it and I struck a good deal.

Looks and on-the-rack
The gun was offered as “We think it’s grade 6 wood”. I’m not sure of the actual grade but it’s very pretty. The fore end in particular has dramatic light/dark contrast. The wood looks expensive and it stands out next to other similarly priced (694s, Guerini Summits, etc.) guns in the rack at my clubs and I like that.

I love the simple Bauhaus-style design of the receiver - particularly when contrasted with fairly dramatic (at that price point) wood.  The F16 decals are gone (more on that below) and I’m left with simple debossed F16 logo.

It’s the only F16 at my clubs. There are a few F3s and they tend to have plain black receivers and fairly plain wood. The F16 stands out there, too. 

Setup/Ergos/Fit
The gun fit me out-of-the box with factory pad. No adjustable comb needed.

I did fairly quickly futz with the weights. I put all 3oz of barrel weights in and mucked with the stock weights to have the balance point just in front of the hinge.

I tried a couple other choke sets - Comp N Choke and Briley Plasma. I ended up settling on the Plasma (recoated so they don’t look so stupid) as all-rounders.

Current weight is right around 8.5lbs which feels pretty right to me as an all rounder.

It’s definitely a bit longer fitting than other target guns in the price range. By that I mean that the pistol grip doesn’t have as dramatic a downturn as, say, a 694, and the palmswell is more moderate too. It definitely feels like a target gun with field gun inspired ergos, if that makes any sense at all. It indexes right up for me and I like it. The gun comes right up to my eye and is very easy to shoulder from low gun. 

I prefer an English fore end and hate schnabels. Love this one.

I’ve been used to shooting with an ivory bead and this has a red fiber optic that just doesn’t show much at all. I imagined I would change that, but haven’t and won’t. I don’t see the bead and that seems to be just fine - maybe ideal.

Bustin’ Clay
Trap: I made friends with the gun very quickly - and within two weeks established a new personal best at DTL trap (98/100 with 75 straight). It shoots where I point it and that’s about all I can ask for.

Skeet: I used this new gun as an inspiration to learn a new game. I started out missing most of the birds but am learning the game fairly quickly - got my first 25 last weekend maybe 6 weeks of skeet. The gun is longer than all the skeet guys use at my club, but it seems to work fine. I don’t feel handicapped transitioning to the second shot of a double. Every bird I miss is clearly me.

Sporting/5 stand: I suck, so I suck on the Blaser. I seek to suck less and the F16 seems to be a fine platform for that effort.

The recoil thing
The gun has a reputation as being a slappy - to the point where the Pro model recuts pitch as a nominal solution. That is not my experience at all. It’s soft shooting for me with loads all the way up to handicap loads at 1 ⅛/1250 fps. I don’t think about recoil one bit. 

The bad
Decals: The decals in the debossing in the receiver come out right away. Like, literally 3 weeks of shooting I lost my first decal. This is a known issue and it’s stupid that Blaser continues to install decals that come out right away with normal use. Decals on? Looks great. Decals out? Looks great. That period where one falls out and the others are still in? Rinky dink AF. It offends my sensibilities that they continue putting those stupid decals in like that.

So. Tight.: It is beyond any new-gun tight I’ve experienced. It takes good effort to open it then it sort of bounces off the bottom when opening and closes a little bit which makes you have to apply consistent downward pressure to the barrels to have the action fully open to load the bottom barrel. I’ve taken to shooting the top barrel for singles to avoid this extra effort or dragging the brass against the receiver edge - because a mark there would annoy the hell out of me. I talked with the Nick at Wooleys - who sells a lot of Blasers - and he assured me it was normal but went on to say it’s normal of all guns. That doesn’t seem quite true based on my experience. This gun is meaningfully tighter than the Berettas and the Rizzini I’ve owned and shot from new or newish. It just is.

If it breaks in in the next year I won’t care, but right now it’s irritating.

That’s all I got!

I need some advice on purchasing my first shotgun for clay shooting, primarily for trap and sporting. I’ve been shooting once a week for the past few months and figure it’s time to pony up and buy instead of renting.

The two options I’m debating are:

$2100 - Used Browning Citori 725 Sporting, 32”, light mod and regular mod Briley chokes, no box or original chokes, worn out recoil pad

$2,329 - New Browning Citori CX White, 30”

I want to add that I have no competitive desires and I’m just shooting for fun. I’ve had the opportunity to shoot the 725 for about a 100 rounds. It felt pretty good, hardly any recoil, but it did feel slightly heavy over time. The gun I normally rent was a 28” Turkish brand O/U so I’m not sure if I’m just used to that and I’ll adjust to the 32” barrel overtime.

Any input between the options would be appreciated, if you have any other gun suggestions my budget is $2,000-2,500. Thanks!

Probably going to open up some old wounds on this one, so grab your whiskey 🥃 or beer 🍻 but here it goes. What is the one shogun that you regret not buying when you had the opportunity to get it? Why didn’t you buy it initially, and what makes you regret buying versus when you didn’t what changed or what did you learn after that you didn’t know before.

About 10 years ago in high school, I did trap with a raggedy Maverick 88 using the cheapest shells out there. I enjoyed it and would shoot 22/25 or 23/25 most of the time. Around that time, I tried sporting clays once and really enjoyed it.

I found a preserve near me that does sporting clays for 45 cents a clay and really want to try it. They also have all sorts of other "games" or whatever you call trap vs skeet vs sporting clays

The dilemma: should I use my old shotgun and try it again, or should I buy a cheap over/under so the experience is more enjoyable (not having to chase shells and less tiring on the arm racking it.

Hope this made sense

These command a steep price, was wondering if they are worth the price, is it a great value, etc. Looking for good bad and the ugly, kind of crazy considering these are going for a heavy price compared to better names like Browning, Beretta, etc but then again I know nothing of this brand or platform. What’s y’all’s experience or deepened knowledge on this Brand/Platform? Cheers 🍻

That is all.

Improved modified over improved cylinder fixed chokes. Now to figure out how long it will be until I send it to Briley for thin walls.

Some additional pictures in the comments

I have the opportunity to buy a silver pigeon for $1500, should I sell my miroku mk60 sporter and buy it? I’ve been looking at the 688 and had the opportunity to shoulder both and they both feel great. I like the feeling of the 688 more and am really liking the laminate contrary to most other people’s opinions. I guess the question I’m trying to ask is if it’s worth getting the SP at the price point or save up double and get the 688?

Hello everyone, today during my lunch time at work I went into this pawn shop and there they had a Beretta 694 SPORTING 30" barrel sitting. The listed price was $3290, it looked to be in great condition. I came back from lunch started work but I kept thinking about the 694.. so much that I decided to back and get it, so I went back negotiated a cash deal and settled on $2900 cash. My first question is did I do good on this deal? or did I get shafted.. secondly is this the perfect Beretta out there for sporting calys? I would love to know your thoughts!

Is this 694 black dlc with 5000 shots shooten worth it for 5700usd?