I'm really not a shotgun guy. I've had a few nice O/U. The nicest being a Beretta 687 Silver Pigeon. However, I couldn't bring myself to pull that through Iowa weeds in search of ringnecks so it was traded in. I've owned a couple of really nice Browning A5's too. In fact, I had one of the last Tribute A5's made (they had fully engraved nickle receivers with gold accents). I'm not a "collector" so it too was traded.

My final assessment on shotguns has always been: practical over pretty!

That's why I have ugly black aluminum and plastic Benelli's, and matte Remington 870s. In fact, I'm so not interested in shotguns I've been meaning to sell my 870 Police and 870 Special Purpose. I simply don't need them and have never even fired the Police. The SPS has a whopping 5 "sight in" rounds fired before it was shelved. I'm 100% covered with my M1S90 for deer and defense, M2 Field for wing, and wife's 870 20g for house/farm/general purpose use.

The 20ga is my house gun. I had a 12ga 870 for the house, but my wife wasn't great with it past one shot. She can shoot the 20 without any problem, but it's difficult to accessorize. I don't have the 12 anymore because my safe isn't big enough to keep 'em all.

As stated above, I have the Stoeger 12ga SA for all my hunting shotgun needs. It'll run any round between 2 3/4" and 3 1/2" reliably. It's black, I might do a rattle can job on it.

I've never really been a shotgun guy either. I have a total of 4, the nicest of which is a Remington Sportsman 48B in 20ga that a dying friend gave to me. His grandfather put a lot of rounds through it upland bird hunting in California. A similar one could be found for about $300 if you looked hard enough. It's a nice shooting gun.

I also have an old single shot Rossi 20ga that my dad used when he was growing up in Oklahoma. It's a total beater.

I forgot about the single barrel Diamond brand wall hanger I found in my step-dad's garage after he died. It was apparently his dad's "farm gun". It has been repaired many times (CRUDELY I might add) and is about 15% condition. It just hangs on the wall in our Den.

http://i34.tinypic.com/d7bjr.jpg

Check out the homemade trigger guard.

That thing has CHARACTER!

It was covered in rust when I found it in his garage. I "browned" the steel and cleaned up the stock as much as I could with steel wool and my own blend of linseed oil / tru-oil. The stock is barely held together with a field repair. Its a complete piece of junk, but its a neat piece of history. My step-brother died before so I ended up with the shotgun. I also found a falling block 22 rifle that I was able to restore to "nice wall hanger" condition.

Man, that's great!

One of the guns my dad left me is a Winchester 1890 pump chambered in .22 long. It was manufactured in 1901 and my grandfather and father both learned to shoot with it. It looks beautiful, but the bore is garbage. Such a shame.

That Winchester would mean more to me than any other gun! That's a wonderful family heirloom. Its a shame about the bore, but honestly I wouldn't want to fire it with modern HV ammo anyway. Somethings are better appreciated visually than physically.

It does. Next in line is the Weatherby Mark V my mom bought new for my dad in 1981. That thing is so fancy I'm afraid to take it out of the safe.

I learned on a single shot Iver Johnson 20, had a hammer of course. I couldn't [censored] (I guess the forum censor doesn't like the C word for pulling back the hammer) it with one hand so I put the buttstock between my legs and used both thumbs to [censored] it. I was 9, maybe or almost 10. THEN when I was 12 I graduated to a Remington model 31 16g. Man I loved that thing and used it constantly for the next 20 years. Then when I got to Idaho I got a 12 for pheasant. I didn't realize it but when my folks sold out Dad sold ALL the guns! Oh well, I've not really got anyone to pass it along to (and the 20 as well).

So now I've got a couple 20's, 22's, 20g, and a .308. oh and a bolt action stevens or savage 410 with an under barrel magazine like a 22 and Patty's 410 Single shot. Did I mention I've got a .308? Gotta keep it on topic ya know.

Nonsense!

I'm right here!