doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stoeger Uplander , Baikal, or Stevens 311?

While at Dick's today I looked over a Stoeger Uplander S/S double in 20 ga. Heavy but seemingly well built but for the rather crude cocking levers. Had nice walnut stocks, screw-in chokes, decent rib and barrels that lacked waviness. All this for $329 less another 30 if bought before 1/6/07. Handled no worse than a 311 and seemed like a larger ga. gun because of weight and bulk. Who makes this gun, anyway? And if a guy was looking for a beater, which would you choose of the three mentioned guns. Chopperlump

I find the Remington Spartans a bit less chunky than the Stoegers. I also like the walnut on the Spartan better than the brazilian hardwood on the Stoeger. I have heard the Spartans are a bit more reliable, but I cannot say from experience.

I bought a Spartan 220 last summer (the double trigger version, 20ga, 26inch barrels) and it has been a great gun for the money. It has functioned flawlessly and I really enjoy shooting it, although I do not imagine it will outlast me. (Already the top lever is a bit left of center.) But, for $300 I have never regretted that purchase.

Of the three mentioned I'd take the Stoeger.
I owned a Stevens which I shot quite a bit until I picked up a better gun and realized how thick and poorly balanced the Stevens felt. I looked at the Baikals as beaters, but they seem very heavy and the LOP is way too short for me.
I'm still looking for a good 20 gauge beater myself.

Dan

Well, I don't know. Who's got the most overrated football team? Michigan or Rutgers? Anyway........ you didn't give us much to chose from but since I have a Baikal .410 and have seen several guys abusing them at the skeet range for the past few years, I would have to give my nod to the Baikal. It 's like your mother-in-law...... rude and crude and it won't go away. For the money, people are having pretty good luck with them. Good luck on your choice. In mother-in-laws, too.

At 70, my mother in law (87) is perfect. I intentionally didn't give you much to choose from; but in that price class, you gotta make a choice --- that or go to the latest Remington stamping. By the way, my beaters are 80-year old Nitro Specials. But at $500+ a gun, that gets weary after awhile. Wondering about something for my grandson until he gets to know how to handle better stuff. Chops

I'm with chopperlump. I'm a skeet shooter and see a lot of problems with the cheap guns. They might be okay for an occasional hunting trip, but won't hold up to week after week of shooting.

I wanted a sxs for vintage skeet shooting. Found a Nitro
Special made in 1921. It is nice and tight and has 28" barrels. Shoots great and should last forever. We are taking out abit of choke to make it a skeet shooter. Paid $475. Accordingly to the book, even that was a little high, but good old doubles are becoming harder to find. JD6729

Note: Reference to last post. We reamed out the chokes today and honed the end of the barrels. We now have .006 resistriction. Test fired, it looks good. Hope to take to the skeet field tomorrow and give it a good run. jd6729

I bought a Stoeger Uplander 12 ga a few years ago when I was looking for a cheaper SxS also (read a Terry Weiland review that wasn't too bad). Decent wood, decent but not great wood to metal fit, pretty well regulated. I also did not feel bad about doing my own stock work to lengthen the LOP and drilling out the stock to rebalance. Triggers are definitely too heavy, but can live with that for now. It is a good gun, especially for waterfowling, wading rivers and sloughs, etc. Wet and muddy, no problem.

A Stoeger Uplander from "a few years ago" that was reviewed by Terry Weiland, author of the fine Spanish Best books, was likely the older version built by Victor Sarasqueta in Spain. Those guns were head and shoulders above the quality of the current Stoeger imports, which I believe are made in Brazil. It would be helpful to the post to be sure if the Stoeger you rate as a "good gun." If it's a VS gun, most here would agree with you, maybe not if it's the newer Brazilian.

I have a stoger uplander 20 ga with the American walnut and ejectors which I bought about 3 years ago to get into the sxs game. It is not perfect, as stated somewhere above it is big - a 20 built on a 12 ga receiver, since everyone talks about how they break I tracked my rounds through it - 3357. Seems to be a tank and can take lots of abuse, and shoot heavy loads with out beating up the shooter, probably shoot it the best of my sxs's, triggers are exeptionally heavy but I do not seem to notice as long as I shoot it as first gun for the day.

As time has gone on I find that it needs to be shut agressively in order for both hammers to get fully cocked and for wahtever reason it does not like the primers used on remington shells - federal and winchester are fine.