After years of trying to get my wife interested in hunting she is all of a sudden gung-ho to go bird hunting. Seems she has fallen in love with my Lab and wants one of her own and wants to go bird hunting (ducks and pheasants).

So my question is this: What shotgun?

She has settled on a 20 guage. She really likes the autoloaders we have looked at and she loves the doubles. Being a woman she has very expensive taste and I have fortunately talked her out of the bank-busting doubles.

She really seems to want an auto loader over a pump. All my experience is with a pump so I don't know which way to go. I have found a sweet little Remington 1100 with an English style straight grip and 26" pipe for 350.00 (new). Is this a good deal? Is the gun reliable?

reverenddan, I have an 1100 that was my grandfather's. Was made in the early 60's and is still going strong. They are good guns just keep the inside of the reciever and trigger clean and you shouldn't have any problem with it. There isn't much difference between the 1100 and the 11-87 except shell length and the 87 is built a little stronger to handle the 3" and 3.5" shells

I have 2 1100's. One in 12 gauge and one 20. The only autoloader I have found that I like any more is the Browning Gold. I haven't had any problems with the Remington's and after killing many deer, rabbits and doves with them I would recommend them to anyone. The price of 350 seems fair, but its been a while since I've priced them.

reverenddan, picked up a 1100 classic 20 ga. at the local walmart about a year ago for the closeout price of 400, if memory serves. I thought THAT was a pretty good price and the 350 of yours for a new gun seems pretty good. It seems to have fairly light recoil and digests all the field loads I have put through it, only on quail and some 5 stand. It's a fine little auto 20 ga, but definately don't let her see the Beretta 391 20 ga. Oh what the heck. Buy her both and shoot the one she doesn't take that day. Good luck and keep that gal shooting! JP

JP

Was your shotgun the Sam Walton special with his signature on one side and his picture on the other?

I think the reason they are so reasonable is that there isn't the great shooting marker around here that there is in other communities. Our Walmart has a minimal gun department staffed by nose-pickers and I just don't think they sell a lot. The 1100's they have are three years old!

reverenddan, Nope, the 1100 20 ga. I bought was just the plain walnut, 28" barrel, 3 chokes, and the hard plastic butt pad. It had been about 500.00 when I first noticed it, and during the year was marked down at least twice. Was watching 1100's on GBroker and GAmerica and when it hit 400 at Walmart, I couldn't resist the lure and bit. I thought it was a very reasonable price considering what I was seeing on the auction houses. By the way; do those nosepickers commute every day? They seem to work at my local Wally too in their spare time. Others here seem to see a lot of different guns than I see at my local, but then
I do live in the cultural void of the universe. At the time they had two of the Sam Walton guns and were asking something like 800 or 850; a ridiculous price I thought. They came down too, but I don't remember how much as I wasn't too interested at the time. I think these guns were on closeout also, as I haven't seen them again at Walmart. Don't know how you feel about the doubles but once in while, esp.
on GunsAmerica, you can find a good used citori white lightning or even just a good citori in a 20 ga. for less than a grand. Sometimes a really good buy, but still a lot of money to a guy trying to turn a small fortune into poverty one bushel of corn at a time. Good luck on your hunting: in game and guns! jp

"Cultural void of the universe" HAH

Gillette isn't the end of the world but you can see it from here!

Seriously, this is good country to live in and I can't imagine being anywhere else. Unless I wanted to go bird hunting and then I would go to Kansas

I have given a lot of thought to what kind of shotgun to start my wife on and I have come to the conclusion that I need to be economical and practical, at least at first.

If she really shows an interest and will go with me then I have no problem springing for a nicer gun.

The more I look around at the 1100's priced everywhere else the more I think this Walmart special is a real deal. It will probably be under the tree at Christmas.

Reverenddan:

I can't advise you about the price on the Rem.1100 -but I can say that while I found the 1100 totally reliable because I used it for years - I did have one complaint about it. It has a gas ring that, in darkness of a morning,(I used mine for duck hunting) if you drop it, you will search in the grass or marsh and swearing at Remington engineers the whole while! Can't you get her to like a pump like a Rem.870? (Yeah, I'm a shill for pumps. As my father taught me as a very young teenager, using a pump "slows you down" so that you don't keep pulling a trigger)

An 1100 for $350 is a great deal and its a good gun.