doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - $700 Target gun

Well, blast it....I found one. A used Browning Citori Target gun, fixed chokes, adjustable pad, 30-inch tubes, fairly high and wide target rib. There is a fair amount of finish wear on the bottom of the gun and (probably the worst part for me) buggered screws on the trigger guard. The forend has that big blocky trapezoidal shape (which always looked a bit odd to me, being an upland guy), but seems to fit me well-enough, and it opens/closes quite nicely w/no detectable looseness. I've been looking at CZs and newer SKBs (both Turkish) and the feedback on both is clearly mixed, This gun seems a bit older (80s or 90s?) and was built in Utah, so I'm fairly comfortable with overall build quality (where the Turkish stuff is clearly an unknown). It's not a lefty but... it seems fairly ambidextrous w/no palm swells or any detectable cast. The weight seems sufficient to soak-up the recoil of 100 or so rounds casually expended. No case of course, and no choke tubes. Does one really need either? I was looking at $1600 (at a minimum) to get into the game so-to-speak. I'm not so sure a new gun with a plastic case and multiple choke tubes would make me any better (or happier). I was thinking about showing up there tomorrow with some snap caps, a choke gauge, and a fistful of cash? What says the educated crowd here?

"Target guns wear out from the inside out. Hunting guns wear out from the outside in." - Bruce Buck.
An alternative would be to look for an OU model designated for waterfowl hunting. Long, relatively heavy, and probably not beat to death from decades of target shooting. They are often a bargain since autoloaders dominate waterfowl sales.

https://www.midwestgunworks.com/know-your-browning-citori.html

Something nobody has bothered to mention is the fact that if this is a trap gun, and it sounds as if it is, it will have high stock dimensions in the neighborhood of 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x whatever l.o.p. Unless you are accustomed to "floating" whatever you're shooting by a considerable bit, you will shoot over everything with this gun other than trap targets, and it won't be conducive to alterations either. Not a good choice for SC. Just a caveat for you, Lloyd.
JR

In the $700 to $1100 range, for your purposes, I would prefer a low mileage 12 gauge Superposed field gun, a higher quality gun and easy to find in high condition. Don't buy a Superposed or Citori that flops open.