Shotgun for 3 gun?

[steviesterno]

I want to buy or setup a great shotgun for competition and was wondering what you all choose to run and gun with.

I am deciding between building up an 870 or mossy 500/590 from scratch (cut my teeth on ol' pump 12s) or just building a remington 1100 to compete with.
not sure about autos, having never owned an auto i hear mixed reviews.

I can shoot faster than a pump can run, but not sure if i can out shoot an auto. any help would be good... and of course, im not looking to spend a fortune and get a crazy benelli or SPAS.

[Rundownfid]

I am no expert on this subject but have some experience. I use a Mossberg 590, which came with the peep sight. You want a gun with 8 in mag and 1 in the chamber, that is the limit for tactical and you don't want to be under that if possible.

I also thought I could shoot a pump well, however, I tried a Benelli semi and saw that they are just plain faster; both to shoot and more importantly to hit with. Even the light loads used in 3-gun 12 s kick hard enough to disrupt your sight picture, with the gas auto recoil is lessened the sighting is quicker. Unless you are going to shoot "heavy metal" (must use 308 rifle, 12 ga pump shot gun, .45 pistol), a semi is going to be better. That said, loading is where the real time is to be had. You may start a stage with 9 rounds and a fair number will, not surprisingly, be about 9 rounds. Each round you must load during the stage is a waste of time so starting with 9 in the gun is huge. Mossberg 590s are relatively inexpensive, built tough and can be had out of the box with 9 round capacity, they are a bargain. Bennelli (and Remington) makes an excellent weapon, but are significantly more expensive, especially as they need to be configured to reach their potential. It is your money, how much are you willing to pay for a couple seconds?

I have seen Saigas used, but never well. They seem to have potential on long stages, but are difficult to reload well and seem to lack the ergonomics of the pump and auto guns. I suppose that they can be made faster, and practice would make them faster yet, so perhaps they are the way to go but not for me. Also, there is talk of limiting their use as some perceive them to be a huge advantage.

There is a 3-gun "community" at Topton, just down the road from you. Dean DeTurk seems to be the go to guy there. I took a class from him last year and recommend you talk to him about this and other 3-gun questions. I don't have his e-mail address at hand but just go to the Topton Sportsmen site and look under 3-gun matches.

Good luck with this endeavor, 3-gun is great, but takes considerable effort to do well. Hell, it takes considerable effort to even do "better", I won't say I know about doing all that well, yet.

[hzox221]

I had a Benelli and didn't like it. Reloading was painful. I sold it and went to a Winchester SX2 Practical(same as the FHN SLP) and have never looked back. The Winchester is softer, faster and easier to reload.