For some time now, I’ve been thinking about getting a shotgun as an accompaniment to my bedside revolver. Now the advice is going to be predictable: “12ga pump-action, Kim!” followed by a host of brand recommendations/warnings.
I don’t want to do that.
I don’t want a 12ga, because my aging shoulder is going to hate me for the recoil, and I’d rather have a semi-auto bedside shotgun for the same reason I carry a semi-auto 1911: one up the spout, cocked and locked — a flick of the finger and away we go.
I have fond memories of a semi-auto shotgun I once owned (and sold because Poverty, with lasting regret). It was one of these:
Browning Gold Hunter (20ga)
…and it was an absolute joy to shoot, reliable as hell and featuring minuscule recoil, so one might think that I should just get a new one.
Silly rabbit: Browning no longer makes them (#Idiots) which means that because they are such good guns, the second-hand market thereof is priced at Ferrari levels, i.e. unattainable to one of Humble Means such as myself.
Oh well. So off I hie to the various Merchants Of Death to see what’s on offer in the same chambering.
Franchi Fenice ~$2,500
Lovely, but way too spendy. I’d have to sell at least two guns out of Ye Old Gunne Sayffe to be able to afford one of these, and I don’t want to do that. Next?
CZ 1020 ~$750
Not bad, and I do like CZ guns as a rule, but these are Turkish-made pieces, and I’d rather buy Murkin.
The problem with both the above is those 28″ barrels. That’s kinda long and ungainly for use inside a home, and one thing I liked about pump-action guns is that they have shorter (18″) barrels, which to my way of thinking is much better for close-quarters work of the anti-social persuasion. So what else can I look at?
Remington 1100 Lt-20 ~$900
Okay, that’s much better, with its 21″ barrel. But it’s listed as “New Production”, which means… “new” Remington quality? I’m not so sure, and given the price of nearly a grand, I don’t really want to take the risk.
And would I really want to get, say, a CZ 1020, only to have to pay for my Friendly Local Gunsmith to give it a 9″-10″ circumcision? (If the proposition gives you a bad taste in the mouth, it does that to me, too.)
All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Afterthought: another reason why I’m set on something in 20ga is that during a recent inventory of Ye Olde Ammoe Locquere, I discovered two cases of sundry 20ga ammo: buckshot, birdshot and slugs, all a legacy of the late-lamented Gold Hunter which I (fortunately) did not include in the sale of said gun. So there’s no ammo cost involved, just the gun itself.