I have shot a few different shotguns over the years from .410 single shots to a 10 gauge shoulder buster. Single shot .410 was the first shotgun I ever fired, and I used it to go dove hunting in Nevada many moons ago. All the other guys had semi autos, only me with a single shot and a small, really small bore for a shotgun. I did well thoguh, I shot as many as anyone else and was tied for high take. It was an experiences I'll never forget. I figured I got lucky, but over the years I realize that I have an affinity for the shotgun.
As I see it: Semi-Autos are nice for all around guns, single shots make fine teaching guns and are fine for hunting if you want a challenge, side by sides to me are useless except as belly busters or a wall hanging, over and unders ok for hunting or trap and skeet, bolt action shotguns - well I never fired one of those. I find I like a pump action more than anything. Maybe that is because I have fired Remington 870s for so many years now. I used them at work in the Border Patrol, and continued with the same in Customs, and now in ICE. I have shot them now continuously for 25 years and can say the 870 is one heck of a gun. I have owned two of them, one a Wingmaster I sold because I needed money after I got married (ouch that hurts to even think about), and the other I have owned for about 16 or 17 years an 870 Express.
My 870 Express has taken a lot of abuse, and the only part s I ever needed to change were a magazine spring and follow because I lost them (don't ask - the story is too embarrassing to bring up again). Oh it did need one other part, the screw or bolt that attaches the stock to the frame. I fell a few times while hunting, each time right onto the shotgun, but it was held safely and it broke my fall, and they were hard falls. I never noticed any damage except a few dings to the wood, but when I went to refinish the wood a few years back, I noticed the screw was not coming out right - it screwed wobbly from side to side and the screw head actually was rubbing on the walls of the hole in which it was recessed as it turned. Wound up that screw/bolt was bent really bad, I think I gave it a few whacks to make it straighter and used it again, but yes it still needs replacing some day.
Good shotgun, quite handy, easy to use, easy to break down and reassemble, accurate enough if you know how to shoot it, comes to the shoulder well, points well, works well. I have used it to hunt deer, upland game birds, waterfowl, turkeys, and small game like rabbits. Have taken most of my deer with it; and it has interchangeable barrels for the other game shooting. I also used to carry it for work when we were allowed to carry personally owned long arms of the right type. I have shot trap or was it skeet with one of them when I was in the Border Patrol and I hit every one of those clay flying saucers/pigeons - not all great hits but everyone they let loose - sometimes three at once, but that was when I was in my twenties. I may have to try that again someday before I get too old.
One of these days I'll have to buy a Beretta over and under for fun, and maybe to get my son into trap and or skeet, but for now the Remington 870 is the shotgun of choice.
