Irishlad

I had the "light strike" problem using the shok-buff. It drove me nuts trying to fiqure out the cause because it only happened 1 or 2 out of a hundred. It finally occurred to me when I noticed the grip safety was "wiggling" around more than normal. The buff must have adjusted itself after awhile. I'm still waiting for a 1911 without a grip safety- fat chance probably, but I'm surprised STI or SV doesn't "try one".

Choke selection is a "religious" experience for some people, but I'll give you some thoughts anyway to make it easy. Skeet: two skeet chokes. If you don't have two, cylinder in the lower bbl. 16 yard trap: Modified works fine, Improved modified to hedge you bets. Full is used often, but is tighter than necessary if you are hitting the birds from 35-40 yards out. If you can't decide and everyone is telling you to use a different choke - go improved modified!! Sporting: is all over the board. Best bet is to change chokes as little as possible and if in doubt, over choke. I would say if the birds are within 30 yards, use improved cylinder- both bbls. This is a subject of debate due to patterns, shells, heavy-light loads, etc. but I might then use modified from 30-40 yards. Improved modified out to 40-50 yards and full from 50 +. I can't gauge targets within 5-8 yards of their true distance, often anyway, so when in doubt over choke which will insure a hit if you do your part. I am inclined to put in mod for everything under 40 and then im or full for the rest. Good luck

Overall, I would go with the AA for it's good recoil characteristics, breaking targets and the hull reloadability. Over the years I haven't found a bad load from them. Consistent quality overall. If money was no object, I would shoot Federal paper and never look back. At least in the old days anyway. Federal has been bought and sold numerous times and their quality is not always there- IMHO. They own Estate now, which may explain the problems you had- shame!! Not bad, not great: Remington, for no particular reason. You don't need a reason to dislike a shotgun shell if you have shot several bad scores with them. It must be the shell!!! Worst shell- Fiocchi or "Finokeyo" as I call them. Hard kicking and didn't smell good. I could have tried some of their others, but why bother? There is a ton of imported shells now to try for good prices, but I am too lazy to experiment. I'll just reload AA's.

Nice gun, I have read very good things about them. The gun should loosen up within 500-1000 rounds, at least you shouldn't need to strain to open it. Some O/U's take a while and gradually loosen, while others loosen quickly and stay that way. I have had one O/U that would not loosen up after 5000 rounds. It was a real pain. I finally took it to a very experienced gunsmith who "smiled" and with 5 seconds of filing, fixed the problem. He filed the forend lugs on the bbl. So, it may not be self evident where it need to be adjusted- if at all. Good luck

Good advice, I have always found the longer the time the gun is mounted the greater the chance of missing. I also double mount depending on the time frame of the second bird. Having a shotgun mounted and swinging for 2 seconds is a long time, 3 seconds is an eternity and my mind is thinking, "This is not good" and I will miss the "rifle shot". I don't mean to imply "snap shooting" is good, but once the sight picture is acquired- pull the trigger. Different people will acquire sight pictures at different times, I think the key is simply to mount at the "right" time and fire according to your speed and reflexes. Good luck ----------- Open and closed this post just to see if I could de-squirrel the indexes. E (Edited by EricW at 11:40 am on Feb. 28, 2003)

Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try.

Quick question: If you use lube or "Quick Shot" do you have to spray on all the cases or every so often? I assume you have to be careful not to "get" any spray inside the case? I ask that since I want the loading to be faster and easier, but if I have to take the time to "lay out" all the cases and spray carefully, I might pass! Thanks

My Browning trap gun does not have any cast, that I can see anyway. But it's not a XT. I would call the factory to confirm that and ask about the adjustable stock model. The Brownings are excellent and consistent guns so no worries there! I can't say whether you will like it or not, but they shoot just fine- like most other high quality shotguns. Not much help there!!! Good luck

Hi, I would avoid any "bead" work since they really are not that useful for shooting or set-up, once your stock fits and your mount is consistent. I would start with stacked beads and shoot a fair amount, raising the comb a little bit at a time, depending on how much you like to "float" the target. It will be trial and error and what you like to see when you break the bird. ATA shooters often have high ribbed, high stocked guns to always float the target to a greater or lesser degree. Keep in mind that a fiqure 8 on someone else's trap designed shotgun will probably shoot higher than your fiqure 8 field gun. Rib height and design, bbl boring and bbl "hangers" can affect shot pattern as much as stocks. I learned that the hard way, and expensive way!! Good luck

Hello, There's a lot to fitting a gun properly, but the short version is the higher the "comb" the higher the gun will shoot. So, the higher the cheek piece, the higher it should shoot for you. The absolute test is to pattern. Field guns may be 50/50- half the shot on top and half below the center line of the circle. Trap guns may be anywhere from 60/40(low) to 80/20(high). Adjusting the height of the butt plate will not affect the pattern. I have read that Pitch does affect the pattern height, but I have only adjusted pitch to make it fit in my shoulder pocket properly and have not noticed any pattern differences of consequence. It would be great if you had an experienced trap shooter do this with you on the range. Good luck

It certainly would pick up the "pace" of a sporting clays round if everyone shot a 9 round shotgun!!! I could think of some interesting combos with that! 17 is a good round after the warm up round. Shoot a little skeet before the next round and have your brother in law go first. The scores might be a lot closer than you think! Have fun.

Hello, If you are shooting International style skeet and trap then the 24 gram(7/8) is the required load. American(regular) style can be 28 gram(1 oz) or 32 gram(1 1/8). Effective pattern becomes smaller as you drop weight charges. Sounds like the 28 gram 8 shot would be good all around. If your "Tower" shots are very far then many people might opt for 7 1/2 shot as it retains energy better than lighter shot, better pattern and better breaks. Less shot in the 7 1/2's, but you need less pellets to break the bird also- always trade offs in life!! Have fun

That's an excellent first time score. You will be in the 80's in no time with enough practice. Sounds like the other "fella" is shooting the same course too often or he needs to change the course if a 94 is disappointing. Good luck

I'll say "Wow" too!!

Hello, Lot's of good questions. I'll give you my opinion but you know how opinions are...! I have owned and shot both the Browning and Perazzi quite a bit. Both are well made, reliable and durable. The Browning is a quality, consistent ,machine made gun that works. What you see in the catalog is what you get. Perazzi is more of a hand finished gun with a multitude of options(whatever you want) with excellent service. Compare a well made Toyota to a Mercedes. Justification comes if, after shooting them, you get goose bumps and you think you shoot better with it! World championships have been won with both guns so whatever feels better! Great deals in used Perazzi's I might add. Autoloaders win too! It's always the guy(girl) behind the gun. Tournaments do have classes and the more of those you shoot the better you will get. Watch the better shooters and have fun. 1 oz load in your 11-87 should be very pleasant for your wife to shoot! 1150-1200 FPS is plenty. It's cheaper and quicker to practice the fundamentals on the skeet field and apply them to the tougher sporting shots. 5-stand is very good also. Couple rounds of trap wouldn't hurt either. Good luck

That is quite a shot!!! Scratch my advice and go with Benos if you are shooting at that distance. For me, more choke is always better. I am lucky if I can guess the correct distance of a target within 10 yards of actual, particulary shots over 30 yards.

Carlos, Hello and thanks for the tips. I have the same philosophy on shooting and I agree with you. I think when time permits, L-10, would be the best for me. I am lazy on equipment(not shooting) and would not have the patience or inclination to fool with open/limited guns, calibers, mags, etc. Steel and pins looks interesting also. Thanks again

Tough shots. For me, quartering shots are hit when I shoot quickly, more so than other presentations, with little to no lead. I float the target above my barrel always on these. If the gun is on my shoulder more than a half a second, I would guess, I will miss it. I try to account for the drop in the initial move after I have determined where I am going to break it. As opposed to tracking the initial flight and tracking downward for a period of time. Of course, this is what I would do/try on a fast, dropping, quartering target. Ask 10 other people and get 10 different styles. Can't hurt to try them all. Take care

Carlos, Hello- I shoot a 1911 45 casually right now and was debating/deciding on whether to "get into" a handgun sport like IPSC or IDPA when time permits. Open probably is not for me but it does look fun. Certainly, the discussions are interesting!! Thanks and take care.

Thanks for the reply. That was interesting. Take care

As a beginner "looking from the outside in" and only having shot an open gun once, I have to ask a couple of questions about the debate going on about the 9mm major. I posted them down here since a lack of knowledge can be dangerous and irritating to seasoned shooters. I am sure these have been 'beat to death' already...but! Why wouldn't the the organization simply lower the power factor? As I was told and read, the power factor was designed to insure realistic loads out of unmodified guns for self defense training, and for fun of course! The open guns barely "jump" with power loads now, at least with the one I shot and have observed. It seems to be an awful lot of work to load up various calibers and then add devices to reduce the recoil, especially for a gun that has no pretensions of being "practical". If it's a pure shooting sport for fun and competition, which is reason enough, why not just make it easier, cheaper and safer for new shooters to become involved? Competitors would still use all the "stuff" on their guns, since it's open division, guns would jump even less... so what!! We had a friendly discussion like this at the gun club and the open shooters response was basically, "That's what production division is for". Maybe their right! Implied but not stated, I think the existing competitors have time and money invested in existing equipment and would be reluctant to change. I can understand that, but there appear to be fewer and fewer of them. Tough one !! What do you think? Take care.

I did use the wrong term. An easy designation would be "high cost" and "standard cost" mags. Take care

Hello, If the 10 round mag law is renewed in 2004, is there any chance the USPSA will change to 10 rounds or do you think they will continue with the high caps? I am asking that question for practical, financial reasons, not to stir debate on 10 rounds, etc. As I become more involved in the sports I have been hesitant to move towards the high cap guns and mags. Take care

My 1100 is over 30 years old so unless they have changed there is only one rubber washer. However, there two metal "washers" for a total of 3 removable parts on the magazine tube to see after you remove the bbl from the receiver. If none were on the magazine tube you would place the metal washer(piston seal) on first. That's the one with the groove machined in, but not centered. The 'thinner' portion, not grooved, should be towards the receiver. Next, the metal washer(piston) with a 'flange' should be placed with the flange towards the magazine cap. Third, the rubber washer goes on. You can place into the groove of the magazine tube if you wish. Don't be shy cleaning and lubricating the magazine tube with FP-10, breakfree, etc. Hopefully that makes sense, harder to describe than do, and is still valid for the new 1100's. Good luck

All I have ever used is Breakfree or FP-10 on the threads. If you decide to use grease, I would just make sure you clean and re-grease to eliminate imbedded dirt when you switch, set down, handle, etc, the choke tubes. Good luck.