Gun StuffJeff Soyer on 22 Sep 2007 10:04 am
Am I the only one who prefers to use what some consider a bit, er, déclassé, my cheap Mossberg pump shotguns for trap shooting? I’ve got a nice Franchi over/under and yet I get the best results with short barrel pump guns in both 20 and 12 gauge.
I’m so ashamed. Now you all will shun me. . . .
23 Responses to “Pump Guns & Trap Shooting”
on 22 Sep 2007 at 10:48 am # Affe
LOL - I’ll take a few strange looks on my Remmy 870 with a long barrel, over paying a grand and a half on a good starter O/U.
BTW, the best shooters at the range I go to tend to be either older guys with a lot of high-end gear, or the hunters with the Mossy-Oaked-up pumps. One group yells “p-ULL”, the other “bird”… and most of the time hits ensue.
on 22 Sep 2007 at 12:40 pm # Benton
I recently went to shoot trap with my father, and I took my Mossberg Maverick Model 88 (cheapish black pump shotgun). One of my father’s friends mentioned that it was more suited to a SWAT team than to trap shooting, jokingly, but I was hitting more than I was missing, so it was ok.
on 22 Sep 2007 at 1:37 pm # Drew458
That’s Ok. I do the reverse and take my presentation grade Beretta out hunting. The birds are suitably impressed.
on 22 Sep 2007 at 1:59 pm # Voolfie
I’m an old trapshooter from way back - and I used to be very good. I don’t get to shoot much anymore, but once in a while I’ll sneak out to some local club where nobody knows me. Whenever I do I usually take my old Remington 870 Wingmaster pump-gun and leave all my ‘accoutrement’ at home. The scene that greets me at the gun club never fails to be something out of a Kurosawa movie…I either get ignored because of my inferior equipment, or people roll their eyes and snicker behind my back as I stuff shells into my pants pockets, because I’m such an obvious rube. I *LOVE* the looks I get after the scores are posted. I’ve seen more than a few shooters give their Perazzis, Ljutics and Krieghoffs dirty looks after they see the score I’ve posted with my battered old gun. It’s all very Zen
At the end of the day the ONLY thing that matters is: did you have fun?
on 22 Sep 2007 at 3:45 pm # triticale
I knew someone back in the late ’60s who had a beat up Edsel station wagon with an engine which even then cost thousands of dollars under the hood. The people he made money racing against were making exactly the mistake being discussed here.
on 22 Sep 2007 at 6:25 pm # anon
I’m thinking I’d LIKE to take a short barrel, extended mag, perforated heat shield 870 to the trap range. The looks I’d get are what’d make it worth it.
As to your situation, you are seeing the importance that a good ‘fit’ makes. Go with what works!
on 22 Sep 2007 at 6:46 pm # straightarrow
My Mossberg 500 works just fine. I don’t go to shoot for them. If they want to engage in gamesmanship they should just rent a hall and show the price tags of their equipment. The guy with the highest dollar value wins. And us heathens win because there are more open stations where we can shoot without playing the “princess” game.
on 22 Sep 2007 at 8:56 pm # acanback
You should the looks I get when I step to the line with an old egyptian martini ( 14 gauge) . Usually by the end of the last post there is no one grinning except me.
on 22 Sep 2007 at 10:28 pm # T-Bolt
Heck, I shoot clays with a short 18 inch barrel Remington Model 11, milsurp. No sights either. You think they look down on a Mossberg?
I don’t shout, “PULL!” or “HEY!” or “BIRD!” when I want a clay. I shout, “BOO-YAH!”
on 23 Sep 2007 at 5:24 am # 71'Jarhead
Ya, I used to get the same looks when I shot bullseye for shooting with a piece of junk “AMT” and not a _______(insert Gold CUP, SA Custom). So I say hey you may be right but at least mine was made in the USA to which there would be some bickering util they realized the slide was marked made in Brazil. blah blah blah, I dont think that the guys at the local shootn clubs realize what a lousy job of PR they are dong by looking down thier noses at someone who mayybe can not afford the Citori, what ever the poor sod is jus trying to get a little practice in so they dont waste thier shells some hunting season.
Whatever, if your killn’ the clays you can use a sling shot for all I care.
on 23 Sep 2007 at 6:35 am # Perp
Went trap shooting for the first time recently. Brought 2 Mossberg 12 ga shotguns: 500A with 28″ bead sighted barrel adn 580A1 with 20″ (IIRC) barrel.
The range was not crowded and the few folks there were friendly types, so no strange looks. Tried one round of skeet and the only comment was a friendly “that 590 is a home defense shotgun. Leave it at home and use the 500.”
FWIW, I found the 590A1 easier to shoot with: it’s heavy wall barrel’s weight soaked up the recoil more than the 500, and the bright orange front sight seemed head and shoulders above the bead sight (I know you’re not supposed to “aim” with the sights in this sport, but it just seemed to help anyway).
Anyway, I loved both trap and skeet and plan to do a lot more of it.
on 23 Sep 2007 at 5:22 pm # Cobar
The way I understand it, since you do not aim a shotgun, rather, you point it, hitting what you are looking at, chances are the Mossy fits correctly, naturally pointing where you look.
I just do not get the guys that drop big bills on the fancy stuff, it’s a shotgun, not a rifle your trying to make 1000 yard shots with. Get one that fits and works, it will do the rest.
on 23 Sep 2007 at 5:43 pm # Billll
I use a Mossberg 500 24″ myself, and it works fine. I overheard a couple of fellows once, one asked the other if he’d ever tried shooting trap with his coach gun. The second fellow was horrified at this until the first one told him he’d get more birds with the coach gun. I believe the way it works is not that the shorter gun puts up that much bigger a cloud of shot, but that the shorter barrel allows for faster target acquisition, and a quicker switch from on bird to another when you’re shooting doubles. I first discovered I could actually have some success with birds when I tried a friends Mossberg 500 in 18″, ex cop gun.
on 23 Sep 2007 at 6:08 pm # Jeff Soyer
That’s how I feel about my Mossberg 500 “Persuader.” An all black, all business, all ugly 12 gauge with no rail or sights but it swings with me quickly, the action works quick, and I seem to hit almost everything with it. And I’m beating others with guns that cost a whole lot more.
Ammo-wise, I’ve pretty much settled on Estate Game and Target Load, #8 shot, 2 3/4. No recoil that I notice, priced right, shatters everything. I guess I’m just po’r white trash. . . .
on 23 Sep 2007 at 7:36 pm # Jason
Heh. This makes me want to try trapshooting using my dad’s old Iver-Johnson Champion in .410. Sure, it’s single-shot, but it’s got to be fun to try it once.
on 23 Sep 2007 at 9:10 pm # John Davies
Pumps and semis are fine as long as you don’t mind picking up . Days like this it is OK, but picking up empties out of the snow made me buy an O/U.
on 24 Sep 2007 at 9:12 am # Cepik
I love my 870 express,
It fits me like a glove and I have never paid attention if others look down on me. Meh, to heck with them, my 870 is fun to shoot. Go with what suits you
on 24 Sep 2007 at 9:43 am # coffee
I’ve always wanted to give trap shooting a trying, but I’m not sure that I want get in with that many snobs. I guess my 870 Express would never fit in.
on 24 Sep 2007 at 1:11 pm # Jay G
Jeff,
Find a Saiga-12.
Go skeet shooting with the 20 round drum mag.
Then report on the looks you get.
:)
on 24 Sep 2007 at 2:21 pm # Greg
I bought a used Remmy 870 for $100 specifically to try trap shooting. My first day out with it, I out-shot a dude with a $1500 rig. (20 out of 25 on my second round)
I’ll never forget how it looked on the stand– dinged stock, matte barrel– sitting next to all those polished over-unders from Benelli and Beretta and Bianchi.
It isn’t about looks, it’s about putting steel on the target.
on 24 Sep 2007 at 7:44 pm # Fred
It don’t matter what it is. My ole partner shot a Sears & Roebuck
12 ga pump that somebody had cut a couple of inches off the barrel and then swaged the choke so big you could put a nickel in it. He won all the trap events with it. ( He bought it for 20.00 ) That old gun was ugly as home made soap but it did fit my buddy and won lots of beer money. He did get lots of funny looks at the start of tournament of champions. He won that one. Shooting games should be fun. The snobs can pound sand.
on 24 Sep 2007 at 8:07 pm # Craig
Yeah, I used to shoot sporting clays and trap with my 870 Express. Didn’t get a lot of dirty looks since I lived in a blue collar area, but I outshot most folks because I believe in the old saw, “Beware the man with one gun.” It’s my only shotgun so I shoot it well. And as an article in Field and Stream said recently, it goes BANG every time I pull the trigger.
on 26 Sep 2007 at 1:11 pm # Adam
I have lined out 25 in a row with both a 1500 dollar Beretta A391 and a 280 dollar Mossberg 535 pump in Advantage Max4. I find that no matter what shotgun I use I’m in the low 20s at the worst. O/Us are the easiest to shoot; their weight distribution lends to more favorable swing.
I’m surprised you fellas can use some of the things you’re talking about… almost every skeet field I’ve been to has a minimum for barrel length (typically 26″ minimum, sometimes 24″) and you can only load 2 shells per round in the shotgun.
Anyone who lined up with a Saiga anything at my home field would be politely told to leave.
Adam