Top 5 shotguns of all time?

[30-06man]

Remington 870, 1100, Browning A5, Winchester 1897, and any American double of you choice.

[shotgunner]

I would rate them this way;

Parker side by sides
Winchester model 12
Remington 32-K32-K80
Browning A5
Remington 870 - 1100

Yes I know the 870 and 1100 are not the same gun but they represent the move to stamped parts and a new age on manufacturing. Sorry greybeard but the 3200 is not a 32. I think the Browning superposed belongs in there some where, maybe #6 Shotgunner

[Graybeard]

Sorry greybeard but the 3200 is not a 32.

Yes I know I've owned four of them. It is a somewhat modified and arguably improved version but clearly internally is not the same.

[shotgunner]

I have a Remington 32 skeet gun, a Krieghoff 32 with trap and skeet barrels and tubes and a K 80 tube set. The 3200 had thin barrels and was back end heavy, the just don't swing the same as the 32s. I know they had fast lock time, but if they shot as well as the 32s they would still be sought after by shooters. It is too bad, it would be nice if a less expencive OU shot as well as the K 80s. I tried the 3200, it just didn't do the job. Shotgunner

[Graybeard]

Dunno about where you are but around here they are still very much sought after and used by shooters. I totally disagree about them being butt heavy as all four of mine had plenty of weight forward. Perhaps you're comparing a tubed gun with an untubed 3200.

I too have bought them all but have shot more 100 straights with a 3200 than with any other gun. I no longer own one but then I no longer shoot 12 or 20 gauge either. I now shoot only .410 and 28 and do not like tubed sets. If I were to run across one of the rare four barrel 3200 sets at a half way decent price tho I'd likely jump on it.

As much as I liked my K80 it was just too heavy with the tubes in and after I shot a couple of rounds my back hurt so much I was done for the day. Now with my Browning Citori White Lightning my back doesn't bother me at all and I'm turning in scores just as high as I did with the K80. If it had been a four barrel set rather than a tubed gun I'd likely have kept it but even with the 12 gauge barrels it still was heavier than I needed to carry around.

Such things are quite personal in nature and what works for one doesn't necessarily for another.

[shotgunner]

Greybeard

You are correct in that the swing of a shotgun is a personal thing. Remington redesigned the receiver to be wider and heavier, they used good looking, dense walnut in the stocks and especially in the target guns used light barrels. By the time you tube them to get the weight forward, they are too heavy. While some people still shoot them, they do not bring the kind of money that K80s do. I was tempted to buy another a few years ago, remington was selling barrels for $400 , I was going to make up a 2 barrel set. By the way, if you ever get a chance to come to north central PA, I have a beautiful skeet field, skyline background and the sun on your back. I am running a registered shoot on the 16th and have room for a couple of shooters if you would like to come. I just added 5 - stand and hope to build a second field and a trap field in the next year. It is not very fancy but a great place to shoot. Shotgunner

PS I shoot a Beretta 390 in the 12 and do not like the 20 much anymore. I did not let my kids shoot anything bigger then a 28 for many years. I think we would all be better off if skeet did away with the 12 and 20, less recoil and we all would be better shots.

[Graybeard]

Yup love my 28. I ran 50 straight with it this morning. Last time out I hit 47 so that's 97 of 100 my last 100 targets. It's too danged hot here to shoot more than a couple rounds in the morning or at least it is for me. When it gets cool again maybe I can shoot four rounds a day instead of two. Rat now even that second round isn't much fun it's so hot.

I had a K80 Plantation with the absolute most beautiful wood I've ever seen on a gun of any kind anywhere. I picked it up lightly used with a Briley tube set for $12,500 and held onto it a year or so but the weight was just too much for my arthritic body so sadly let it go. The wood on it had 100% figure from butt to end of fore end on all sides. That gun sure got a lot of stares and comments for sure.

I have a friend who lives somewhat NE of Pittsburgh I hope to one day make it up to visit. We've been writing each other since before the turn of the century and have swapped a lot of photos but never met. Perhaps one day I'll make it up that way.

[shotgunner]

I had arthritis in my right hip. I had a new procedure called resurfacing, a year ago Easter. It has saved my life. I am shooting, riding my horse, kayaking and baling hay. My hip feels like it is 20 again. Maybe not the rest of me, but I am much better off then I was. I feel for you because I know what it is to live with pain. Hang in there. I mean it when I say to come for a visit, I will throw you the nicest skeet targets you have ever seen. Shotgunner

[aimhard]

H&R single
870
Model 12
auto 5
1100

[Mack in N.C.]

1. ITHACA 37.......light and bottom eject...also great deer gun with deer barrel

2. WINCHESTER 37A...solid built

3. IVER JOHNSON CHAMPION

4. H&R SINGLE SHOT....can you tell i love singles?

5. DONT LAUGH...HIGH STANDARD FLITE KING DELUX...
5a..savage 311

[gooser]

well, IMO, .....I would say
ithica 37
winchester 12
remington 1100
Greener double 
browning A5.....i think it was the A5......
with honerable mention, LC Smith doubles.

[brasskeeper]

#1 remington 870
#2 winchester model 12
#3 Browning Auto 5
#4 Remington 1100
#5 Winchester 37 Single shot

We could make seperate lists for Semi's, pump's and Single shots and keep going.

[SHOOTALL]

brasskeeper , they all came after 1900 . show we look back farther ?

[Swampman]

#1 Remington 870
#2 Winchester Model 12
#3 Ithaca Model 37
#4 Browning Auto 5
#5 L.C. Smith

[dukkillr]

brasskeeper , they all came after 1900 . show we look back farther ?

Most every shotgun picked should have come around or after 1900.  Modern autos owe their roots to the A5 (Designed 1898) and modern pumps to the Model 97 (1893).  Before and since there has been very little innovation, comparatively speaking.  In fact many of the guns on the list actually aren't innovative but rather just wide spread (the 1100 and 870).  In all honesty there isn't any real improvement between today's choices and the A5 or M12.  Some of the more modern guns are more reliable than the A5 and most are easier to work on than the M12, but only in a matter of slight degree.  Certainly nothing revolutionary (despite Benelli's claims).  Perhaps the only real improvement in the last 100 years has been interchangable chokes, which allows one gun to meet almost all needs. 

Before that, and continuing that, shotguns are simply barrels, chambers, hammers, and chokes.  That's why I didn't pick a double or single shot.  There really isn't any defining gun among them because they are functionally unchanged since chokes came on the scene in the late 1800s. 

[SHOOTALL]

the A-5 might have been 1901-04 but it could have started earlier, The  Black Eagle rotary bolt in the Winchester 1400 in the late 50's early 60's .
I was thinking more along the line of early fowlers , or the first with choke etc.
then some would go with sales , should we say % of total sales or just numbers ?
The 870 had a larger market than a parker in its day .
I picked my favorites .

[sonofafish]

I have to say my top seven
model 12
1100
11-87
870
auto 5
citori
model 37

[ratgunner]

Parker,A.H. Fox,L.C. Smith,Rem 870/11-87,Ithica 37. Yeah I sneaked six in there.

[coyotejoe]

Here's my 2 cents worth
#1  The flintlock fowler of whatever make and nationality was the first successful shotgun and held sway for nearly 200 years.

#2  The percussion side by side was the first really practical double. Flint doubles were made but the flintlock made for a bulky and awkward gun if larger than 20 gauge. The best English percussion doubles set the standard for stock dimensions, balance and handling qualities which have never been improved.

#3  W.W.Greener's side by side. Greener didn't invent choke boring but did bring it to a state of perfection. Choke boring is by far the single greatest improvement in shotgunning, actually doubling the effective range of the cylinder bore gun.

#4  The 1897 Winchester, the first really practical repeating shotgun, and aside from its weight is still as good as any.

#5  The Browning Auto Five, the first really practical automatic shotgun, and the one most people agree belongs somewhere on the list.