Steoger Field Test O/U 20 Ga

[454Puma]

Well yesterday was the first day of the Dove season! As you know I picked up a Steoger 20 ga for the wife , Like I figured she would be hunting so I took it out to finish the days hunt. Needed 6 birds to fill a bag limit. The birds were flying well- more then I had seen in a while. The weather had cooled down nicely so I think some Northern birds moved in.
 The Steoger chioke Mod.(Upper), Imp Cylinder (Lower) shooting 2 3/4" 7/8 oz 7 1/2's performed very well. Most shots were between 15 and 25 yds! Most were one shot knock downs as the shooter isn't used to the selector yet! The weight of the gun was a great asset as it made getting on target very fast a clean! Over all for the first O/U I've own this looks to be a great piece!

[454Puma]

Update day two! Well I have a problem Houston! After the second hunt -I noticed a problem with the upper tube-Seemed that when I should have had clean kills with modified I was getting a miss or weak kill! When I got home I looked down the barrel a found what look like a build up of wad at choke tube/ barrel  pulled the tube out and found that it was damaged! A quarter inch of the back of the tube was curled over !! This caused the wad to contact and I would imaging disrurpt the pattern causing the bad performace on the birds! Has anyone of you had this happen -I've never seen this with screw in chokes?

[Graybeard]

Boy are you about to get a lesson in just how poor Stoeger Quality and Customer Service are. Now mind you I'm going ONLY based on reports by owners on their own website but from what I read there quality is poor and customer service don't exist. I feel for ya rat now.

No I've never see it happen and it never should. Clearly there is a manufacturing defect and I'd never trust that gun again. I'm not sure but I doubt it can be satisfactorily repaired to prevent it from doing it with the next tube screwed in.

[454Puma]

Graybeard
   Actually I fixed it myself- Used a dremal to knock off the curl smoothed it out! Seems to work fine now -but I'm going to patern test it to see if it has effected the pattern. I'm also going to get a couple of spare tubes-Full another Mod. and Imp Cylinder. I've heard these are just generic Win chokes so I'll pop over to the gun shop and see if they can get me them! As for the cause I'm thinking it was just out of round at the base just a smig which was enough to cause the wad to catch!