Shotguns

(GunReports.com) -- New GunReports.com Videos: 1: In this video from the NRA Annual Meetings in Pittsburgh, Kevin Winkle of GunReports.com interviews Angela Leslie, assistant marketing manager of long guns for Beretta. She details features on the A400 Explor, a new 3.5 inch semiauto shotgun. 2: In this video from the NRA Annual Meetings in Pittsburgh, Kevin Winkle of GunReports.com interviews Colt Marketing Manager Michael Guerra on the rebirth of the Colt Mustang PocketLite, not made since the 1990s. 3: Kevin Winkle of GunReports.com interviews Phil Schrier, senior curator of the National Firearms Museum at the NRA Annual Meeting.

A recent Gun Tests magazine review asserted there are two sides to the competitive shooting coin; one side is the challenge of being the best you can be and the other side is just being able to have a little fun. Picking the right shooting tool to handle both sides of this coin has become a lot easier with the availability of a good number of quality, fine-handling 20-gauge semiautomatics. These small-gauge shotguns provide the shooter with a lighter, quicker target-busting tool that also carries the freight in the field during bird-hunting sessions. For the magazine's field test, the staff selected the Benelli Cordoba, $1500.

The nearly unquestioned champion of home defense is the shotgun, which provides power, capacity, and hall-clearing firepower when youre the only one standing between some zombies and your loved ones. Unlike in concealed carry, where portability is extremely important, the home shotgun can stand magazine-loaded but in a safe condition in a corner, waiting to answer whatever bad news the night brings in on size 13 boots.Assuredly, the plugged-for-ducks pumpgun can do double duty in this role, offering three shots of No. 4s, but 5 or 7 or 12 handy shots are better, most would agree, so a certain tactical design comes to the fore.Many consumers love the Remington 870 pump shotgun both as a field product or as a tactical shotgun. We have tested and rated many of them very highly. This round we wanted to take an 870 that had good basic appeal and see if adding some stuff to it would make it better.Toward that end, we looked back nearly six years and found an 870 that earned a Buy It rating, but which lost ground to the test winner in part because of its stock. In the September 2005 issue, we tested the Remington Model 870 Express Magnum Synthetic 12 gauge No. 25077, $345, against the Mossberg Persuader Model 590A1 No. 51411 and the Winchester Defender Model 1300 Pistol Grip & Stock Combo No. 512907308. All three guns were matte-black synthetic-stock pumps with 3-inch chambers, with 18- to 18.5-inch barrels and weights around 7 pounds. One of our staffers wound up keeping the Model 870 Express Synthetic, but he wasnt happy with the furniture. The fixed 870 buttstock had an LOP of 14 inches, a drop at comb of 1.5 inches, and a drop at heel of 2.5 inches, with no noticeable cast. In the 2005 test, the Winchester came with a pistol grip, which gave it flexibility the others couldnt match. Also, the Winchester had a noticeably better buttpad than the others. Its ventilated design was much softer, and the edges were already rounded off. As well, the Mossberg and Winchester buttstocks included molded-in studs for rear sling swivels, and the Winchester also included a screw-in stud on its magazine cap. Overall, our team said the Winchesters stock was much better than the Remingtons, so that naturally became the area we wanted to try to improve.So we ordered five replacement buttstock kits from Brownells, along with some tools to make assembling the upgraded 870 parts easier. Because Brownells offers so many buttstocks, weve listed the companys order numbers to ensure you can find the right product if you choose to follow our advice and buy one. Our test units were the Blackhawk Knoxx SpecOps Folding Stock ($130; #100-003-180), the Blackhawk Knoxx SpecOps Adjustable Recoil-Reducing Stock ($135; #100-002-438), the Phoenix Technology KickLite Tactical Stock ($110; #100-005-357), the Brownells Remington 870 Tactical Conversion Kit ($180, #080-000-567); Choates Top-Fold Stock ($103, #159-000-014), and the Mesa Tactical Products Low-Tube Kit ($230, #100-003-297).Along with these stocks, we also ordered a Brownells Magna-Tip Ratchet Handle ($30, #080-000-513) and a Remington Forend Wrench ($51, #080-870-202). Not to veer too far off course, but its worth noting that our team came to depend on these two tools very heavily while moving the stocks on and off the test action. The ratcheting driver has an ergonomically designed T-shaped handgrip of high-impact plastic contoured to ensure maximum comfort and control. It provided extra leverage to quickly tighten or loosen the stock screws, and it accepts all Magna-Tip bits, which are magnetized. On a couple of the stocks, the magnetism was a godsend in aligning screws in dark, deep pockets and getting them started with a twist of the wrist.The Remington Forend Wrench made getting to and removing the action nut on the 870 simple, which was helpful on the three kits that had forend replacements. That became doubly important because we compared the forends to each other in administrative handling indoors, and decided to keep the original Remington forend on throughout our shooting tests. Making those "is-A-better-than-B?" forend changes without the forend wrench would have been arduous.

The nearly unquestioned champion of home defense is the shotgun, which provides power, capacity, and hall-clearing firepower when youre the only one standing between some zombies and your loved ones. Unlike in concealed carry, where portability is extremely important, the home shotgun can stand magazine-loaded but in a safe condition in a corner, waiting to answer whatever bad news the night brings in on size 13 boots.Assuredly, the plugged-for-ducks pumpgun can do double duty in this role, offering three shots of No. 4s, but 5 or 7 or 12 handy shots are better, most would agree, so a certain tactical design comes to the fore.Many consumers love the Remington 870 pump shotgun both as a field product or as a tactical shotgun. We have tested and rated many of them very highly. This round we wanted to take an 870 that had good basic appeal and see if adding some stuff to it would make it better.Toward that end, we looked back nearly six years and found an 870 that earned a Buy It rating, but which lost ground to the test winner in part because of its stock. In the September 2005 issue, we tested the Remington Model 870 Express Magnum Synthetic 12 gauge No. 25077, $345, against the Mossberg Persuader Model 590A1 No. 51411 and the Winchester Defender Model 1300 Pistol Grip & Stock Combo No. 512907308. All three guns were matte-black synthetic-stock pumps with 3-inch chambers, with 18- to 18.5-inch barrels and weights around 7 pounds. One of our staffers wound up keeping the Model 870 Express Synthetic, but he wasnt happy with the furniture. The fixed 870 buttstock had an LOP of 14 inches, a drop at comb of 1.5 inches, and a drop at heel of 2.5 inches, with no noticeable cast. In the 2005 test, the Winchester came with a pistol grip, which gave it flexibility the others couldnt match. Also, the Winchester had a noticeably better buttpad than the others. Its ventilated design was much softer, and the edges were already rounded off. As well, the Mossberg and Winchester buttstocks included molded-in studs for rear sling swivels, and the Winchester also included a screw-in stud on its magazine cap. Overall, our team said the Winchesters stock was much better than the Remingtons, so that naturally became the area we wanted to try to improve.So we ordered five replacement buttstock kits from Brownells, along with some tools to make assembling the upgraded 870 parts easier. Because Brownells offers so many buttstocks, weve listed the companys order numbers to ensure you can find the right product if you choose to follow our advice and buy one. Our test units were the Blackhawk Knoxx SpecOps Folding Stock ($130; #100-003-180), the Blackhawk Knoxx SpecOps Adjustable Recoil-Reducing Stock ($135; #100-002-438), the Phoenix Technology KickLite Tactical Stock ($110; #100-005-357), the Brownells Remington 870 Tactical Conversion Kit ($180, #080-000-567); Choates Top-Fold Stock ($103, #159-000-014), and the Mesa Tactical Products Low-Tube Kit ($230, #100-003-297).Along with these stocks, we also ordered a Brownells Magna-Tip Ratchet Handle ($30, #080-000-513) and a Remington Forend Wrench ($51, #080-870-202). Not to veer too far off course, but its worth noting that our team came to depend on these two tools very heavily while moving the stocks on and off the test action. The ratcheting driver has an ergonomically designed T-shaped handgrip of high-impact plastic contoured to ensure maximum comfort and control. It provided extra leverage to quickly tighten or loosen the stock screws, and it accepts all Magna-Tip bits, which are magnetized. On a couple of the stocks, the magnetism was a godsend in aligning screws in dark, deep pockets and getting them started with a twist of the wrist.The Remington Forend Wrench made getting to and removing the action nut on the 870 simple, which was helpful on the three kits that had forend replacements. That became doubly important because we compared the forends to each other in administrative handling indoors, and decided to keep the original Remington forend on throughout our shooting tests. Making those "is-A-better-than-B?" forend changes without the forend wrench would have been arduous.

(GunReports.com) -- Despite battling gusting wind conditions, four-time USA Olympic medalist Kim Rhode earned the silver medal at the ISSF World Cup in Women's International Skeet in Beijing, China, the site of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

(GunReports.com) -- Though standard-length shells and the guns that shoot them can certainly get the job done, we cannot deny the appeal of shotguns that will shoot 3 1⁄2-inch shells, in part because they will shoot nearly any 12-gauge shotshell out there. Here, we look at the Benelli SuperNova No. 20115 MAX-4 HD Camo 12 Gauge Pump, $599. We should note that Benelli also offers a matte black version of the SuperNova at $499.

(GunReports.com) -- From Neal Knox Associates and the FirearmsCoalition.org: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is seeking public comment on their recent 'study' on the importability of certain shotguns. It is critical that rights supporters express their objections to this 'study' and its pending implementation in no uncertain terms.

(GunReports.com) -- A new 20 ga waterfowl model has been added to the Super X3 shotgun line. The Super X3 Waterfowl gun comes in Mossy Oak Duck Blind camouflage and features Dura-Touch Armor Coating on the composite stock and forearm.

(GunReports.com) — USA Shooting teammates Kim Rhode and former Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP) National Champion, Caitlin Connor, captured gold and silver medals respectively in Women's Skeet at the ISSF World Cup Championships being held in Sydney, Australia.

(GunReports.com) - Mossy Oak's new television series, Turkey THUG, began the 2011 season with exclusive shotguns from Mossberg. Mossberg's Turkey THUG series includes three shotguns with Turkey THUG Series engraved on the receiver. Select models are available in matte black or Break-Up Infinity®. The guns will be used exclusively on Turkey THUG in 2011 and 2012.

(GunReports.com) -- New GunReports.com Videos: 1: GunReports.com's Kevin Winkle gets the lowdown on Steiner's 2011 glass offerings. 2: Learn how to install the Blackhawk SpecOps Recoil Reducing Adjustable Shotgun Buttstock and forend. 3: Sig Arms Academy Director of Training and USAR Team shooting coach George Harris talks about competition shooting. What good is competition? Competition puts stress on you and teaches you how to use stress to your advantage.

(GunReports.com) -- New GunReports.com Videos: 1: Sig Arms Academy Director of Training and USAR Team shooting coach George Harris talks about competition shooting. What good is competition? Competition puts stress on you and teaches you how to use stress to your advantage. 2: NSSF's Ryan Cleckner explains the measurement term 'minute of angle' (MOA) and how to use MOA adjustments on your scope for sighting in and to compensate for bullet drop at varying distances. 3: Ruger's Beginner's Guide to Shooting Competitions series takes you through a variety of matches to help you find an event that's right for you. In this episode we take a close look at the biathlon rifle and how it is specialized to this specific sport. US Ski Team member Annelies Cook tells you why the biathlon rifle is so very different than anything else on the market.