Ultimate hunting shotgun?

[danowen12]

Originally from Plainfield. I joined the USAF and spent 2 years in Japan. My next duty assignment was being stationed at Holloman Afb next to Alamogordo, NM. Going to New Mexico and being an avid hunter and shooter but only being a E3, I purchased a Mossberg 930 field model. It was a good gun and needed to be cleaned every 300 rounds or so to keep it reliable. The piston rings would get plugged with so much carbon, that it would change your semi auto shotgun to a straight pull. This was never a problem as I cleaned it fairly regularly. There is a pond near the base that would be opened for duck hunting. Due to the smell of the pond, we nicknamed it the sh!t pond. Anyway, one day duck hunting, I was using Remington hypersonic loads, I do not remember the exact loading, however it was hypersonic. I had a flock lock up and come in and when I pulled the trigger, the first duck slammed down on the ground, as I moved to my next target all you heard was click. I never truly figured out why the mossberg was failing, all I could determine was the load was so hot that it was cycling the bolt so fast that it couldn’t pickup the next shell. It wasn’t the end of the world, I could have picked another load and the gun would have worked fine, however, knowing how I am, I decided I needed to upgrade. I purchased a Beretta A400 xtreme. I must add, going from a $400 shotgun to something around $1500.. I have no idea how much they are now.. was an incredible experience. Being it was a 3 1/2 chambered gun and my passion for dove hunting, as soon as it shows up at my Ffl, I drove to Walmart and purchased the lightest 1oz loads they had and ran 200 rounds through it right out of the box. I was shocked that it ran flawlessly. Since then, this gun has approximately 6,000 rounds through it.. it’s been on countless dove hunts, it’s taken Sandhill crane, snow geese, turkey, quail, ducks, pheasant, and the occasional coot. I can honestly report that this gun has had exactly one malfunction and that was only when I had tried to use my belt loop to bump fire it. It has never failed me and with the teeth on the piston cleaning itself, it was cleaned maybe 2 times a year. It still amazes me how a 3 1/2 chambered gun could run such light loads and be able to handle hard hitting 3 1/2in turkey loads and absorbs much of the recoil with its kick off system. I could go on and on about this scattergun.. however, at least in my experience, it is the one gun in my safe that would never been given up.

 

[ghuns]

I have dreams about an A400 Upland, but with a 24" barrel and straight stock, like my Browning BPS Upland Special. It would be the ultimate anything but waterfowl shotgun.

 

[Expat]

Glad to hear it has served you well. Contrary to popular INGO opinion, you usually get what you pay for. There is a reason the Beretta costs more.