I want a double barrel for clays. I'm willing to buy used. Just something under $500 That works.

12 or 20? MSRP isnt quite under 500 but its close.

12.

Everything outside of a very well used Browning, Beretta or SKB will be a short lived, clunky, gritty piece of crap.

Ok because I was looking at some Turkish guns and the maverick o/u 28"s.

Search Gunbroker for SKB shotguns. These are good guns and will last and last . . . You should be able to find an older fixed choke gun in your price range -- likely a model 500 or maybe 600. You may want to buy something with tighter chokes than you want simply to get the longer barrels that usually accompany tight chokes. Pay a gunsmith to open the bores to more appropriate chokes.


ETA: As a general rule, if you only have $500 to spend on a clays gun you're much smarter to buy a good used semi-auto such as a Remington 1100 or a 3xx series Beretta. Most $500 over/unders aren't worth owning. The SKB mentioned above is an exception but you'll have to beat the bushes to find one for $500. I once bought a clean SKB 500 choked skeet/skeet that was a dandy skeet gun for $500. It wouldn't be much good for trap or sporting clays, though. A 28" barreled Model 500 with the chokes opened up to something like skeet/light modified would be OK for skeet and probably fine for a lot of sporting clays courses. You could shoot singles trap with the tighter barrel and not give up too many birds if you get on them fast.

Another possibility would be an old pre-Browning Miroku or Japanese Charles Daly/Miroku. Again these would be fixed choke guns but they're sweet shooters.

Finally, if you just have to have an over/under and you only have $500 to spend, don't get a Turkish gun. Get a Russian Baikal. They are strong like ox and pretty like Russian peasant bag lady, but they go bang and keep going bang.

I know I'm going to get flamed here but I paid $220 including tax for a 20ga Stoeger Condor O/U at Dick's. It was a closeout when their new model was coming out.

It is threaded for chokes and fits me well. I checked out the 12ga, too, but the comb of the stock didn't fit me correctly. I know how shotguns fit my father and the 12ga would fit him well so I got it for him for the same price.

It may be a POS Stoeger but I outshoot people who spent thousands on their guns. I shot that Stoeger for about four years until the old-timers decided it was time to have a SxS day. I brought along my 12ga Stoeger Coach Gun that I chopped back to 18-1/4" and installed a large bead on and found that I shoot that extremely well. Good enough where all the guys I shoot with said I may as well sell all of my other shotguns.

I got one of the earlier Spartans by Remington, not high dollar but works great for me had it for 4-5 years prob. 1000 rounds.  Think I gave 350 or 400.

Turkish steel is soft, turkish guns are poorly indexed, and turkish guns beat themselves apart.  If you only have $500, buy a semi auto Beretta.

I don't shoot fancy. I have a few friends that took the cheap route on doubles.

Most 99% are shit. turk,russian block.. soft steel as noted. if your shooting 500 rounds a week get a pump

yes you'll look like a dickhead you can bust as many clays as the fancy dressed folk

clays and golf always remind me the same old shit.

hell get an ugly maverick 88 and spank them. spray bomb camo for fun? try to find some lime green house slippers to wear, along with 70's style orange/pink/yellow summer wear. tall white tube sox
sadly nobody is going to talk to you

A good shot is a good shot no matter what piece of iron he or she is holding.  A poor quality gun is a poor quality gun, no matter who is holding it.

Buy the best gun you can afford for the job.  A $500 used decent autoloader will stand up to more than a $500 turkish o/u.   Quality steel, quality triggers and lockworks, properly regulated bbls all cost money.  Ruger couldn't get it done at 3x that amount.

What you're buying, more than anything else, is durabilility.  A gun that wears through the hardened steel on the hammer faces or sears in 1k rounds or 10k rounds is useless for target shooting.  In the field it may never see that many rounds in its life and might be fine, or at least no significant loss when it fails.

People on Arfcom love to tell stories about how they go out with some old turd pump gun and kick the snob's asses. Personally, I've never seen it. Occasionally, some young kid with good eyes and quick reflexes will show up with his turkey shotgun and do OK for about half a round but pretty soon the beginner's luck wears off and they're missing right and left (and up and down). If the kid keeps coming back, it's not long before he's replace the camo pump with something better suited to the game.

And frankly, I've seen very few snobs. The guys I shoot with may shoot Brownings or Berettas but they really couldn't care less what you shoot with so long as you're safe. If you show up to the skeet field with a full choked shotgun, they may offer you a spare gun out of their trunk but otherwise, it's simply not an issue.

In my regular circle of skeet shooters you'll see all manner of shotguns: off the top of my head, I can recall a Remington 1100, a Russian Baikal, a CZ, a couple of SKB guns, a few Brownings, a couple of Berettas and even a Ceasar Guerini. The guy with the CG is just as likely to show up with an old Ithaca 37 or Winchester Model 12 pump. One guy shoots a 120-year-old L.C. Smith hammer gun. One guy who shoots a high end Beretta in one round may shoot an old 1100 the next.

Honestly, the only people who seem particularly concerned about what shotgun they're using is the new guy who shows up and is worried about what others will think. Chances are, the other guys are much more concerned about how well you tell a joke . . . the shotgun sports are a lot like golf that way. People are much more likely to want to pair up with a good conversationalist than a top shooter or a guy with a fancy gun.

your always welcome to meet folk here I can still pitch them old clays by hand pretty good lic to according to boys. Still over the long road. get a decent double.

sometime you just have to bust off that $$$$$$.

still to see any fella go with a shit pump and bust a score out is priceless. no need to bust balls.

hell I about forgot about the Rugers. you'll spend some $$$ to play.  I think you hit it best with durability. 500 rounds aint shit for 2 guys on a sunday here. may differ with some?

I have been shooting sporting clays and related NSCA games for nearly 20 years, and agree fully.  I have yet to see someone show up with a gun that is ill suited for competition clays kick ass against experienced shooters.   The Arfcom lore does persist, though.

The only time that I have run into snobs was when I moved to the Midwest from Texas in 2003.   There are two clays clubs in the KC area that seem to attract that type, and there are a few high dollar d!€ks at these clubs.   They are mediocre shooters, but think that their $15-$20k P and K guns make up for it.   They don't, and it is a pleasure to see their asses kicked come tournament time.  

I'd wager that 95% of the shooters that I have met and shot with at Nationals, the World English and state shoots are good, decent folks.

sadly a quite bit more here. ain't got 3k in a gun poo poo.

I

WTH are you talking about?  

buddy, you have to remember big city boys and girls at these clubs. you ain't behind my house here buddy

you would probably drop right in with the boy's I shoot with. out in farm land here ain't quit so when you get into, bigger city clubs.

I will say I'd seen some of the finest guns in my life there I was a guest 2 times.

Is anyone else having trouble following this conversation?

I think someone is confusing trap, skeet, clays games with pasture clays and hand throwers.

no I ain't much up to speed. Don't eat a 75.00+ dollar lunch after bust'n clays

I'll just hang with a mess of boys who kill dove,duck,geese. I guess

put it in the dust boy's, can't put country into the city.

There is not a single $500 over under I would give $20.00 for.

Buy a used Browning if you want a budget over under.