Curious as to what kinds of guns others have taken to Argentina / Uruguay for high volume shooting.

I've used both lodge-owned Beretta 391s and taken my personal Beretta 687s and Benelli Cordoba 20s.

What have you used?

Maintenance / malfunction issues?

I have been down there probably a dozen times. For the most part we have taken a variety of Benelli's. Generally, they have worked well. They do need cleaning and lubricating after each shoot.

The Cordoba was an early model which did have some issues. It had to be sent back to the factory.

We have taken Super Black Eagle 11's, M-90's, Legacy's and a Cordoba.

My advice would be to stay away from the RD shells. They are dirty, real dirty.

I think the berettas are about the most reliable, with benellis coming second.

Also the berettas shoot lighter loads without cycling issues.

K

As you know i shoot birds daily ,we use Berettas -excellent performance-brownings silver camo -oustanding-and now we are testing the new berettas a400 with incredible results ,we use RDs ,and never have a problem ,i believe in the future the a400 will be THE SHOTGUNS here ,now there are many a390 ,and a391s.
By the way larryshores next time ill take you to hunt red wing partrige ,bush partrige ,and martinetas partriges .

Any modern day shotgun should be able to cope with 1000s of cartridges being put thru it w/o spring, pin or other failures. I guess it boils down to what you are comfortable and confident with. I recently shot 500 pigeon in SA with my 1986 Browning 325 12 bore Sporter w/o any problems whatsoever.

Hi ,Charlie ,sorry but i disagree with you ,very few shotguns are designed to shoot in Argentina ,here you can shoot 1000 shells in a mourning and 1000 shells in an afternoon sometimes in a hot climate .The shotguns barrel are red ,and the parts are exposed to a ver fast ciclying.You will only see berettas ,benellis and brownings in the dove hunting ranches,i believe the new franchis would work well but we need time to test them.
We used some remingtons 870 for the hunters who ask them -we experimented a few parts broken-and some auto remigtons with very good result .
Regards Juan

jaunpozzi and the others who run these operations for a living know exactly what guns will and won't take day-after-day, rapid, hot firing of several hundred rounds per session. They cannot afford to have their customers frustrated by broken or unreliable shotguns. Neither can they afford to constantly repair and replace arms that are not robust enough for that kind of use. They make a significant portion of their income from the sale of shells and they want their customers to be able to shoot as many as possible. That's not a bad thing because most of their customers are there to shoot as many birds as they can squeeze into a short stay.

Still, you may choose to take a favorite shotgun to enjoy for some lighter shooting. For example, I took an H&H Paradox gun to Argentina and used it one day on a couple hundred birds. I paced my shots to keep the gun from getting smoking hot. I enjoyed shooting doves with my favorite gun immensely. For the rest of the shooting I shot one of the "house" guns, a nice little O/U 20 gauge. With the O/U I shot over 1000 birds one day but I found that was more work than fun. I preferred shooting a few hundred birds in the morning followed by the same number in the afternoon. That left time to enjoy what I was doing and more time to relax and do other things between shooting sessions. Shooting an auto is less tiring than shooting a double, at least when you are talking about high volume shooting. I have and shoot autos but I just enjoy shooting doubles more, especially when they are stocked to fit me. I don't see why someone couldn't take their own auto to Argentina as long as it is one that can take the abuse.

Most of the clients that came for a second ,third or 10th safari-like billinthewild-prefer to shoot ous or doubles ,or combine doves with pidgeons ,partriges or ducks .The guys who want to broke records are using 20 gauge berettas beause they can shoot more with little recoil ,they use a303 -stronger-a390 ,a391 and the news a400 you can shoot more with less effort .
We have some 20 ,16 and 12 ous as for example larry sellers want them ....and not the autos ,gatogordo wants the 870 ...we have every type of shotgun for every type of client .

quote:

Hi ,Charlie ,sorry but i disagree with you ,very few shotguns are designed to shoot in Argentina

No problem to disagree Juan. Beretta, Benelli, Miroku, Perazzi and many more are all extremely robust guns and my view is that that you can shoot them in Cordoba or at a clay ground for practice or in RSA putting 1000s of cartridges thru them and you SHOULD not have any problems with them. Whether the shooter can handle the recoil and the metal heat is another debate.

Classic guns from the early 1900s - Hollands, Purdeys, Woodwards, Boss and the likes were not designed / built for high volume bird days as there were none in the early 1900s and so they are certainly not an ideal gun for any high volume shooting.

I do know however that if I am going out to put 3 or 4 boxes of 28g cartridges through a shotgun, I will usually reach for my 325 Browning

btw by boxes I am referring to 250 cartridge boxes and not 25 !

Charlie with that shotguns you can shoot anywhere and any number of shells ,i was speaking of some cheaper autos and ous that many years ago i bougth and didnt last a season ....

Juanpozzi, what type of lube do you use as getting everything so hot certainly challenges the lube !

After shooting 50,000 shells a year in south Africa for the last five years, the only guns that have not failed were a beretta semi auto, a purdey self opening side lock, and an 1883 Damascus hammer gun that is going out for the 5th time this year.

Browning OU's are good and I use one myself, but they all fail under stress, either with cracked wood, trouble with the actions or ejector issues.

I have found the biggest mistake to be hunters at tHink good maintenance is about greasing the parts well. Any oil will combine with dust and form a past that blocks and erodes surfaces. The result is failure in some form.

Incidentally failure does not always mean the gun in inoperable, simply that it is not fully functioning.

Just my observations as an amateur in comparison to some on here.

K

"50,000 shells a year" is noteworthy experience, to be sure.

Grenadier,

Thank you. I don't consider myself an experienced person in terms of high volume shooting simply because there are lodges in Argentina getting through five hundred thousand to a million shells per month!!

My little effort keeps my freinds & clients happy though!!

I do think that with regards to this thread, less guns would have issues if local conditions were taken into account more often. I barely grease my guns anymore on any of the contact surfaces and find it creates less issues.

Rgds,
K

Gentlemen:

Many times I have used my 6 lb. AyA No. 2 28 bore with 28" IC/Mod. barrels.

The only change I made was after the gun's first trip, I added a recoil pad to the gun.

I have had several 1500+ bird days for dove and/or pigeon using this gun with no issues.

To me, the 28 bore offers the best compromise between easy of handling, recoil and effective power. It is quite adequate for all birds out to 50 yards if I do my part.

Just my thoughts, but there are certainly other options that work as well.

I took a Browning XS Skeet 28 ga in 2009 to Santiago del Estero and shot 8250 shells. I got a Browning Citori 28/410 set with 30" pipes, had a airline case made and haven't made it back to try it out. I have shot a bunch of decoyed collared doves with this combo in both gauges and I love it. Take what you like to shoot and enjoy.

There are a lot of lubes on the market but I still like TW25B for a grease type lube and Militec for a wet lube.Any sylicone lube is good .They send me many lubes to test in my shooting school and dove hunting farms most of them are good ones.