MGMorden:
My buddy the duck hunter really swears by his Beretta auto. 390 family, but I'm not sure which one. He has frozen it, dropped it in the lake and fished it out, etc. Never any reliability problems. (He did have to thoroughly clean and dry the gun when he got it drenched under water, but otherwise he doesn't do a lot of maintenance. Just routine cleaning.) It's a more expensive auto, about $1000 I think, but he says it was worth it. Most of his other guns are cheapos, but he put more into this one to solve various problems. For a while he was using a single-shot because he couldn't trust his other duck guns, so he finally got this Beretta.
Yeah - a friend of mine has one that he likes. He did have to send it back to the factory once to get it right (kept snapping on live rounds), but he has been happy with it after it returned. My brother is shooting a Stoeger (Turkish made subsidiary of Beretta), which he had a devil of a time with - same issue, but first trip didn't fix it in this case. Sent the gun back 4 times before he basically demanded a replacement. The replacement gun has worked flawlessly though, and he loves it, despite the initial problems.
My two autos are a Browning A5 Magnum and a CZ-712. The Browning - ugh. Hate that gun. Not only is it heavy, I'm convinced that it mysteriously EATS shot somewhere down the barrel. The pattern is just non-existent at usable distances. The CZ - it doesn't always return to full battery after a shot at which time it'll snap on you. I contacted CZ-USA about the issue and they basically just shrugged it off. Took months to respond to my first email about it, and when I responded back with my info (twice) they never even got back with me. Though I tend to not have a manufacturing bias on my products, I've just had and seen a lot of problems with shotguns that weren't US manufactured.
At this point, IF I can get the money for it, I'm truthfully looking hard at either a Remington 11-87 (Remington shotguns have always done well for me), or possibly a Mossberg 930. I like the fact that the Mossberg doesn't use the rubber o-rings (I don't like the thought of something that flimsy being an integral part of the design), but I gotta admit that I have more faith in Remington in this market sector.
