What shotgun for trap, skeet, and sporting clays

[shootem]

Any opinions on over/under shotguns for trap and skeet? What do you like and dislike? I want to get into the clay games to sharpen my shooting skills. I am a life long hunter that uses a Benelli to hunt with.

[Heredoggydoggy]

Fairly open choke for Skeet.  Improved Cylinder or "Skeet" chokes.  Tight chokes for Trap.  Full or at least Modified.  Never shot Clays, but I would think more of a "Trap" type choke for that...

[AWS]

I'd look at a dedicated sporting clays model for all around off season clays.  Trap guns are ribbed and stocked for rising birds and don't work well for crossing and falling birds.  Sporting clays guns will do yeoman service on the trap field unless you get big time serious about just trap.  Sporting clays guns work well on the skeet field with just a change of chokes to SK&SK.

Your budget will determine what to start looking at.  If your on a limited budget hit the bulletin boards at your local clays coarse, guys are always upgrading as they get more serious about shooting and you can find some nice deals on sporting clays guns, you can usually meet the seller at the range and try the gun on a round also.   The amount of shooting you plan to do will determine what you need also, if you shoot a 1,000 or less rounds a year you don't need as much of a gun a you would if you were shooting 10,000 or more a year.

[huntingfool7]

As a life long hunter, I think you should run what you have.  Shooting skeet from a low gun with the safety on is great practice for bird hunting.  It'll cover incoming, outgoing and crossing shots that are relevant to waterfowl or upland gunning over a flushing dog.  Trap relates more to hunting over a pointing dog.

If you need a new gun, look close at Browning or Beretta for over/unders.  If you go with a cheap over/under, you'll start looking at Browning/Beretta guns in a few years.

[TwoSixFourWins]

Look for a used Ruger Red Label or Browning GTI. I would start there.

[muzbuster]

As a life long hunter, I think you should run what you have.  Shooting skeet from a low gun with the safety on is great practice for bird hunting.  It'll cover incoming, outgoing and crossing shots that are relevant to waterfowl or upland gunning over a flushing dog.  Trap relates more to hunting over a pointing dog.

If you need a new gun, look close at Browning or Beretta for over/unders.  If you go with a cheap over/under, you'll start looking at Browning/Beretta guns in a few years.

If its just for practice for hunting I would definitely use what I hunt with. I you think that you may want to get more into the skeet/trap then the sky is the limit with a dedicated gun for that purpose. 

[C-Money]

If you are serious about all three sports, getting a gun that is designed for each will maximize your success. I am a fan of the Perazzi TM-1 or TMX if you can find an unmolested, used one. Or just go for it and buy a MX-14 combo set and be good to go for singles and doubles. Good luck!!

[h2ofowlr]

Browning 725 is a light o/u and a good one for sporting clays.  It has the options of 28", 30" and 32" barrel sets.  Also Krieghoff K-80 is another good option and you can get multiple barrel sets, so you could get one set up for trap with a high rib and then one for sporting clays with a low rib.  Best advise would look for a gun with an adjustable cheek piece, so you can set it up so you are centered on your target or your eye is centered down the rib.  Many of the guys I shoot sporting clays with do shoot the K-80, but they are going to start at $8k and go up.  A two barrel set up will be about $14k base model on up.

Or save money and look at the browning option as they are about $2,700.  If you like the benelli's they also have a sporting clays model.

Many will get a few different guns for shooting.  I shoot the Browning BT-99 for trap and the K-80 for sporting clays.

[Heredoggydoggy]

Shotguns are more versatile now, with choke tubes.  One gun with multiple choke tubes can pretty much do it all.  Back when I was shooting registered skeet I had an Olin Winchester O/U 3-barrel set in skeet chokes.  My buddy was more serious about it, and ended up with a Remington 3200 fitted with a set of Briley Tubes in .410, 28, and 20 gages.  That was the best technology you could get in those days....

[wadu1]

I shoot a Browning 525 32" barrels and a Beretta AL391 with a 30" barrel for most of my clay shooting (Sporting) 99% of the time I shoot IC. I also shoot a Beretta AL391 20ga and a Baikal 28 gauge sub-gage events a Winchester SXP pump and a Baikal SXS for the other events.
Bottom line find a good used Browning with Invector + tubes (easier to find) like a 325, 425 or a 525. They can be used for all clays sports, I like 3200 and K-80s but I don't have the $$$ for one. 

[12Gauge]

Browning, Berretta, Winchester 101, Weatherby Orion, SKB, Ruger Red Label

Any one of these will work just fine.  I would not go with any thing cheaper. 

The secret to shotguns is the FIT.  If the gun do not fit you, you will miss a large % of your shots. 

[wadu1]

Browning, Berretta, Winchester 101, Weatherby Orion, SKB, Ruger Red Label

Any one of these will work just fine.  I would not go with any thing cheaper. 

The secret to shotguns is the FIT.  If the gun do not fit you, you will miss a large % of your shots.

Well said, FIT  is the key

[wildweeds]

I shoot skeet,sporting clays and hunt  with a 20 gauge browning citori,I also shoot  a .410 CZ woodcock at those three too,Those are my two go to favorite guns to shoot.I also have a 12 ga browning superposed silver pigeon,more of a trap gun,And a Rizzini 20/28 sporting clays set.I shoot all low gun,it's the only way it works for me,I need the  motion of raising and mounting to get the fluid action swing to break targets.Best advice is to buy whatever fits good,is something your not afraid to hunt with and run a bunch of rounds through it practicing. The best way to check the fit IMO is to close your eyes, mount the gun and then open your eyes if you see a bunch of rib it aint for you.For a great fun shoot on sporting clays save the date and look for the Ducks unlimited sporting clays shoot at Sunnydell shooting grounds in Sequim in june annually,fun time and great target presentations that resemble live bird situations.

[uplandhunter870]

as said fit is the ultimate key here.

perazzi, Krieghoff, high end beretta, guerrini, or any other high end clays gun is going to run a lot of money, like starting at the 8k range, these guns used probably around 4k. if you seriously want a dedicated clays gun its a whole new animal.

your question is pretty broad. are you looking for a clays gun or a nice o/u to do double duty?

for entry level clays guns id reccomend browning citori's (nice used ones can be had at decent cost) any of the SKB _85 line, winchester cynergy, winchester 101 (although the ones ive shot were heavy and kick like an angry mule), weatherby (athena, orion or regency) beretta 68_ line

for trap guns you want to find something with a low angle of pitch in the stock and raised rib that tapers down the muzzle that has a middle bead. as said trap targets are meant to be shot on the rise so you want a higher patterning gun.

skeet and sporting clays can be shot with trap guns but its a tad more difficult (i do this all the time and the crossing and falling shots are tough with my trap gun that shoots 95% high) however if you mainly shoot skeet and sporting clays you can do both with any over under or semi auto even field grades work here (fancy guns just make you look good when you miss lol) so for say a beretta silver pidgeon field grade would be just fine and it only runs 2k new compared to a K80 sporting that STARTS at 10k. plus shooting trap is way easier with a sporting clays gun than shooting sporting clays with a trap gun.

if you could narrow you question down a bit and maybe throw in a few more specifics of what you ultimate goal for this new gun is theres a lot of us seasoned clay hunters here that can help

[wildweeds]

Fellow I've shot with for years retired and thought the Kreighoff would make him a better shooter,he was allready a very good shooter, well he's back to running the browning 425 clays and the 10k kreighoff holds down the safe.