doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com perazzi?

Ive read on another forum about fairly new Perazzis,and the do this and that and watch out for this or this will break etc., and know a couple Pgun shooters who bust mainsprings every 5000 rounds,and know these guns shoot awesome,but what is the deal with this design? All I hear is the gun will last 500000 shells,but constantly see things breaking on fairly new guns with nowhere near the stated round count,what gives?I`ve never seen a Beretta break anything,but maybe mine will now that I opened my mouth.
Remington 1100,winchester select energy,wetherby skb,cheap guns Ive seen give out something within 10k rounds,but not Browning,or Kreighoffs,altho I havnt been aroung too many K guns,some of the parts get replaced for "good measure" but never actually fail.

Competition guns, Perazzi being one of them, are built like tanks. Good materials, lots of it, close tolerances, good finish on working surfaces, and they last forever.

You can get Perazzis with leaf or coil hammer springs. Leaf springs are considered to deliver a better feel and more consistent hammer fall. They do break from time to time, whereas coil springs get weak with time. Most people with leaf spring trigger groups carry a spare set, and they can be replaced in two or three minutes. Breaking leaf springs every 5000 rounds is unusual. I suspect an informal straw poll of the faithful would give numbers more in the 25-75K range. Other than the leaf spring deal, I don't know that Perazzis have a weak spot.

How durable are they? Olympic and World Champion Kim Rhode has notoriously put anywhere from 500-1000 rounds a day through her (one) Perazzi for the last 10-12 years.

I bought a used Perazzi MX8 Clays gun a few years ago with the drop-out flat spring trigger group (with barrel selector switch but not the adjustable length version). They are the best precision trigger pulls that I have come across in a shotgun and at least as good as any top quality rifle or pistol I have tried. I haven't tried any competition bench rest guns but had a "Imperial grade" commercial Carl Gustaf/Husqvarna that could meet but not beat them.

My Perazzi Flat spring triggers have NO creep/slop/take-up and are tuned to 3lbs pressure. they are SO precise that I scared the $h!t out of myself the first few rounds because I would unconsciously tighten my grip in anticipation of the target and fire a round a split second before I intended to (still safely broke the target). Once I realized what was happening I learned how to relax and be VERY Precise with my grip and trigger finger.

I did break a spring once. the gun had been sitting unused for a few months and when I went out the gun fired, but apparently the spring broke at the "V". It took about 60 seconds to swap, once I went back to the car to get the replacement. I had put about 10k rounds thru it myself. I did notice a little bit of discoloring on the old spring. I called Giacomo and was told that the breakage was unusual. Many hard core competition shooters routinely swap out springs for new ones as a preventative measure and do so with other guns also.

There have only been a couple other "problems" with the gun.
One was a sticky firing pin that was just accumulated crud that I could flush out and fix in a matter of minutes due to the design (after about 10-12k rounds).

the other is a design quirk in the selectable drop-out triggers in these guns that happens when you do not use them properly. You MUST flip on the safety before switching the barrel selector or the gun WILL double/fan-fire when you press the trigger, and can damage the trigger mechanism if not done properly.

Mine did this a couple times when the selector switch was a little loose from wear/use. I sent to be adjusted and never had it happen again. Routine adjustment/tuning for a race-gun of its type.

BTW: The trigger on these is elegantly simple compared to a K-Gun. I've heard owners of them occasionally tell tales of trying to get theirs running right after a lot of wear and tear.

Consider these types of guns as world class purpose built race machines capable of running in many marathons. They are customizable from a dizzying array of large selection of near-off the-shelf options and easily rebuildable (usually on the spot) but needing minor maintenance to keep them at the cutting edge of performance.

If someone has one set up (including barrel weights/profiles/stocks) that suits your style see if you can use it for a few rounds. Just about ANYthing on these can be ordered to suit your needs (like different barrel weights for the same length tubes, etc).

If you find one that fits and has the correct dynamics it will seem to smoooothly and effortlessly find the targets by itself. I know mine seems to do that and is SO well balanced with a MOI that makes it feel a pound lighter than it is and moves effortlessly and smoothly all day.

JMHO

I've shot Perazzi's competetively for over 20 years. I've had one leaf spring break, but maybe I have just been lucky. One year I shot over 20,000 regiatered sheet targets (not counting practice) without a hitch. At the end of the year just send the gun to Giacomo and for $300.00 (or whatever the price is now, the gun comes back tighter than when it was new.

JMHO

Hack