12 Guage: Pump or semi auto?

rt014

rt014

Joined
Jun 21, 2001
Messages
2,861
I'm thinking about buying a shotgun. Would like opinions on pump vs semiauto and also opinions on any particular brand. Here are a few requirements:

-Want to be able to shoot all size shells
-Would prefer to spend less than $400 or $500
-Will use for turkey hunting in NY, and possibly deer hunting in NJ

Thanks in advance for your opinions.
 
Lots of great shotguns in your price range. I prefer a pump myself. Remington 870 is a good one, as well as the Browning BPS. Go to a gun store and check them out. Bring a small magnet to verify if the receiver is steel or aluminum alloy.
 
Man, if you really want to stir up some sh!t, go visit one of the gun forums and state your love for really any brand/model of shotgun, and you will get tons of supporters and detractors. Doesn't really matter which you choose, it's amazing. It's really worse than stirring up a Busse vs. Ferhman type thread here.
You may want to consider a semiauto for recoil reasons if you will be shooting 3" and 3.5" turkey loads, they will rock you. I patterned two brands of 3" loads through my Winchester pump and had a bruise for two weeks! :eek:
One starting point for a versatile turkey gun would be the Mossberg 935. This one won't shoot 2.75's though. A turkey gun and deer slug gun are pretty specialized shotguns. I look at it this way... a golfer doesn't have one club in his bag, you can't expect one shotgun to do it all. Trap/skeet, upland hunting, turkey, duck/waterfowl, and deer hunting are all different shooting situations. YOU NEED MORE THAN ONE SHOTGUN! At least, that's what I keep telling my wife. ;)
Good luck on your quest, let us know what you get.
 
Hunters tend to avoid semi-autos because of the extra weight to carry, though that might not matter if you only hunt from a blind that's close to a road. The advantage of semi-autos, reduced apparent recoil, doesn't matter much to hunters because you don't burn up that many shells -- especially hunting deer and turkeys -- and you're too excited to notice recoil much anyway.

(Place your bets on how long it'll be before someone who reads the title and not even the first post in this thread starts talking about how great the intimidating sound of racking a pump shotgun is for scaring off burglars ...) ;)
 
I tell ya, nothing scares the be-jesus outa burglar than the sound of a racked pump! ;) (Sorry Couger, had to do it!)
I agree about noticing the recoil during the actual hunt, but patterning the bitches is an unfortunate necessity. I'm glad I found the brand that works best in MY shotgun, I'd hate to have to repeat THAT adventure.
 
i prefer pump
my understanding is that semi autos wont reliably feed the next round unless the gun was up at your shoulder
in other words, if you fire from your hip, they dont feed well

someone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong :)
 
bill_G, I used to have a Winchester 1300 that would cycle fine if I shot it from the hip. My dad's Ithaca was the same way. Still, I prefer the pump over the auto, especially if I'm rabbit or bird hunting. The Winchester seemed overly sensitive to dust and such, and I had it jam a couple of times during a hunt. The Ithaca on occassion would eject the spent shell, and the shell behind it, then jam up on the last shell. My 870 however, has had no issues at all.

Just make sure if you use a pump, you remember how many shells your gun carries. I can remember one time I was shooting at a rabbit with my .410, and I racked the slide and pulled the trigger at least two more times before I realized I was out of shells. The sad thing was, I watched all three shots hit him, and he still got away :(
 
A friend of mine has a Mossburg semi 12ga, and it works just fine no matter how you shoot it. OTOH, I've never seen a pumpgun fail. They've both got highs and lows, really. .
 
I have owned Remingtons in the past, they're good guns. Currently have a Mossberg 590 and an HK M1-S90, they both do what they're supposed to do.

Buy a name brand with the features you like, and you wont go wrong.
 
I would seriously consider looking at a Benelli Nova. I have Nova Tactical on order. After looking around at all of the pumps and autos, I decided on the Nova due to price and quality. It can shoot 2 3/4", 3", and 3 1/2" shells with no problem. It is avallible in many different configurations depending to what you need it for. With all of the talk you will hear about the 870 being THE pump shotgun, I think the Nova is on par with whatever the Remington can throw at it.
 
Benelli makes a heck of a scattergun. To watch Tom Knapp with one of their semis or pumps just amazes me. Heck, anybody who can hand toss 9 clay pidgeons and hit them all before they touch the ground is good enough for me :) The guy is amazing.
 
i have had my remington 1100 12gauge for almost 20 yrs now and other than one time when i left out the 'o' ring that fits between the lower part of the bbl and the mag tube, it has NEVER malfunctioned, period end. i have a 26" bbl w/vent rib imp cyl and a 22" rifle site bbl, its a versatile combo imho. the slug bbl shoots pretty well too, and the gas system really reduces recoil vs a pump, which is nice when shooting lots of slugs/buck in a day. the rifle weighs little more than a pump, and carries well too.

i dont have a benelli, but a bud does, they are also good but pricey imho.

my dad loved pump shotguns so i have quite an assortment of them now (ie remington/winchester/savage/S&W/mossberg/stevens) and i grew up shooting them, had a savage 12gauge in 5th grade lol, and have always loved them also.

for the money, its very hard to beat a good pump, much cheaper than an auto, a little lighter, it should not jam on ya, ya can have shorter bbl (on my 1100, bbls shorter than 22" wont let the gas sys operate right) - cons of pump are stiff recoil, and, well, thats about it. my wife shoots a remington 1100 20 gauge and a 870 20 gauge also, and sometimes she will 'forget' to pump lol, which is quite funny to see, never has tried to pump the 1100 though, lol, or i havent seen it yet anyway.

if money was no object, i would prob get a benelli myself, but aint nothing wrong w/a pump imho.

greg
 
I have an Ithaca Model 37 featherlight. It is a great gun and very fast. It ejects out the bottom.
 
Why does a semi-auto have less recoil? My dad has a Mossberg 500, came with just the pistol grip and the heat shield over the barrel, sure was wicked looking! Later on he ordered a stock for it, much better firing from the shoulder.
 
FSCJedi said:
A semi-auto's action itself absorbs some of the felt recoil.
Click to expand...

Oh ok that makes sense; because the recoil itself forces the bolt and firing pin orwhatever its called back, to let the next round in, right?
 
Hi All-

Very pleased with my Vangcomp Remington 870 Police Magnum. It's got a 18.5" ported barrel, ghost ring sights, and synthetic furniture...but it's still a hoot to go shoot clay pigeons with the thing! A pumpgun is about as reliable as an anvil, so I don't have any complaints at all...

Purchased it from Hans Vang about five years ago, so I won't be able to use it when the cartridge companies start to offer the new 4.00" shells. :cool:

Regards,

~ Blue Jays ~
 
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