Are over under shotguns really worth it? Strikes me super weird that an o/u will usually run 1000-2500+ while another good shotgun pump or auto loader will be significantly less and unimaginably durable.
Looking to upgrade from my mossberg 500 for hunting and shooting skeet and sporting Clay's ( I can hit doubles fine with a pump) and am wondering if I have the money is it worth it?
>hitting doubles with a pump lmao
Stoeger sells them on the cheap, good as an intro i guess
O/U are a rich man's hobby gun, kinda like high impact golf. The prices are so ridiculous for what you are actually getting, only those with excessive disposable income can afford one.
I've shot a few $3500 O/U's and $1500 O/U's and while the expensive ones are better, no way in hell are they worth the price tag.
If you are skeet shooting/hunting just get one of those semiauto's that hold 2 and cost 1/4 the price. Unless you are rich.
I know an old guy with literally hundreds of OUs he's won in competitions, some worth enormous sums. When he goes hunting he usually carries a relatively modestly priced gun. Make of that what you will
I like OUs because you can set the first choke to a wider pattern, and the second to a more narrow long-range pattern. But I get just as many birds with a Benelli semi-auto as I do with a Franchi OU
Their status guns,it's' like owning a rolls
You can buy them fairly cheap as long as theirs no etchings
[Spoiler]all guns with etchings cost a shit ton[/spoiler]
I shoot trap & skeet with an O/U 12 gauge. There's nothing like hitting both clays then cracking open a smoking double barrel and the shells flying out. It's satisfying as hell. Auto eject is a great feature.
>he cant hit doubles with a pump
Practice more.
It takes a tremendous amount of hand fitting to get both barrels regulated properly. Cheap o/u will use a monoblock breech with the barrels brazed to it. Expensive ones are two independent barrels with the lock mechanism attached.
Nice etching. Was it hand crafted?
>O/U are a rich man's hobby gun
Wait until you see the price of double rifles
>is it worth it
If you like O/U's and want one anyways probably, if you dont really care about them probably not. IMO a break action belongs in every collection
I wanted to die after looking at the prices and realizing that I can't afford a double barrel 45-70
Apparently a master gunsmith is needed for getting the barrels zeroed to each other and its a process of trail and error shooting the gun, and then having to realign the barrels and test again.
Understandable, but sad because my dreams of larping as some buffalo sharpshooter died that day.
what's always confused me is how much more over-under cost than side-by-side.
You can get a more reasonably priced Sharps in the $1000 range, but yeah a H&H Royal Double Rifle is my dream gun.
My O/U was £120 second hand and it performs just fine, better than my ability to shoot. Shotguns are so simple that any expensive ones are merely status symbols rather than better tools.
O/Us are JMB's brainchild; is JMB a meme?
They're expensive because the action is more expensive to produce.
My $800 Vepr 12 performs just as well as the $5000 OUs at the local trap & skeet, much to the anger of the old fudds there
>Strikes me super weird that an o/u will usually run 1000-2500
Good SXSes cost the same. And $1000-2500 is *nothing* in the world of double shotguns.
You can easily spend 10's of thousands or even 100k+ on a fine double barrel shotgun. O/U or SXS makes no difference.
O/Us have existed for hundreds of years before JMB was born.
No it doesn't.
I think you mean that you shoot just as well or perhaps better than they do, which I certainly believe.
Some Russian firm, Baikal I think, makes some double rifles which use a screw system to regulate them. That makes them a fuck of a lot cheaper than the traditional method that places like H&H use. I dunno if they made them in .45-70, but that might satisfy your itch for a double rifle without spending crazy money.
Another option is to buy a double shotgun then fit it with rifled sleeves. That may not regulate well, but it might be good enough for your needs depending on what range you want to shoot at and it will be inexpensive.
I don’t understand how an OU can be a better precision instrument than another shotgun, especially a single barrel semi auto. They’re all just tubes with shot coming out the end, no?
The O/U will be lighter than the Saiga, that means it points faster. It has two barrels which means you can fit two different chokes at the same time. For example, you might have a wider choke in one barrel for short-range shots and a tighter choke in the other for longer-range shots. It is also more reliable than any other mechanism, and it has two totally separate firing mechanisms so even if one barrel fails to fire for whatever reason you still have a 2nd shot ready to go. and of course your follow-up shot can be made far faster than an autoloader or a pump.
Also, this is not necessarily true of all double shotguns, but the nicer ones are generally custom-fit to the shooter's measurements. Things like length of pull, cast on/off, drop at heel, etc, make a big difference when you are pointing a gun rather than aiming with sights.
Of course, many times a good 'ol pump or whatever is plenty good enough, but it's absurd to think that there aren't real differences present.
Yeah, 2 chokes are good, I thought about that. Although it seems more situational, like if both targets are farther away at the station you’re at then it’s not so great.
I’d argue the vepr would have a faster 2nd followup shot due to heavy weight and less recoil... and it cycles fast enough the next shell will be ready by the time you can pull the trigger again anyway. Reliability isn’t much of an issue either, its self regulating gas system lets it cycle on pretty much everything
What he means to say is that having things better than others does not make you better at them
Baikal is a great company. My pump is leagues better than a mossberg, and I only paid $50 more dollars than other pumps there. (I paid $300 dollars for a MP133)
I bought one of their IZH-43s that Remington imported and I love it.
Weighted stocks for OU are a thing, long 32" barrels for a proper swing. They are engineered for competitive shooting. The point of skeet shooting is that you can repeat a process like a robot hundreds of times over. The mass of a bolt moving around and gas around your face doesn't help. Go out and shoot 100rds of skeet and learn from there.
I'll agree with that.
>Although it seems more situational
It certainly does, it's a tradeoff. No one gun is best for anything. If I am shooting something where precision matters and the rules limit my number of shots, like shooting clays or hunting birds, I like my O/U. But when precision is less important and I'm not limited by rules or hunting laws for magazine capacity then I'd much rather have a semi or a pump. I think I own about fifteen shotguns and only two are doubles: a 10ga SXS coach gun (purely for fun), and a Beretta O/U I use for hunting. Doubles are great for certain things, but they're not what I would choose for a general purpose or defense shotgun, especially not with the great options for both pumps and semis these days.
O/U are patrician guns, for those who can appreciate their balance and accuracy>
Oh, and if you are hunting dangerous game there is something to be said for a double, since you have two totally redundant firing mechanisms in one gun. If one fails to fire for whatever reason--ammo or mechanical--then you still have an instant follow-up shot without having to clear a malfunction or re-cock anything.
Not hundreds, maybe about 100 years, and I'm talking about hammerless.
> autoloader, pump, side-by-side, over-under
The most important thing is not the type of shotgun, but the fit. A fine gun will not instantly transform a mediocre shooter into an expert, but a fine gun will help everyone shoot better. An ill-fit, ill-balanced gun will handicap everyone.
It isn't too difficult if you can practice shooting a shotgun.
>Stations 2&6, breaking 2clays with one shot, on purpose