The whole "swings like a 2 X 4" thing must be a highly personal one with respect to the Baikal guns that Remington imported until recently. People say the same things about Mossberg M-500 pump guns, too. And for most people, maybe they aren't the sweetest swinging guns on the rack. That doesn't mean that everyone is inclined to agree or even has too.
As an example, I've owned a New Haven Model 600 (house brand Mossberg 500) 20 gauge pump gun for 30 years this December. My dad bought it for me as a Christmas gift when I was 14. Now, with the 28" C-Leckt Choke barrel that it originally came with, it DID swing like a 2 X 4............
But, about 20 years ago, I traded an SKS for a friend's 24" Accu-Choke Mossberg M-500 barrel, put that on my gun, and its been sweetness and light ever since. The end result is a gun with perfect between the hands balance that stikes a nice compromise between dynamic handling, lead sustainting mass, and lightweight portability. My old Ugartechea 20 bore side by side was too light. Plenty of guns swing well but pack more lardy mass than I want to hump up hills chasing chukar. My 24" barreled New Haven, however, is just right.
I don't get embarrassed by shooting a "house brand" Mossberg at the gun club, either. Mine was stocked from the factory with a highly figured mahagony wood set. My dad was a sucker for wood and bought that gun because he thought it was pretty and figured (rightly so) that I'd be inclined to want to keep it that way because it looked so good.
Thirty years of use had kind of taken their toll, particularly with the finish of the alloy receiver. So this year, I spent more than my dad paid for the gun in sprucing the old girl up a bit. I had a local gunsmith refinish the alloy receiver and install a Limb Saver pad to the butt. I freshened the wood myself. I got a few extended choke tubes in skeet 1, skeet 2, modified, and improved modified. I figure it ought to be good to go for the remainder of my shooting life.
At the gun club, most people don't know its a cheap, department-store Mossberg, and don't belive me when I respond to their "Hey, what kind of gun is that?" questions. Not that I really care. I like it. I shoot it very well. That's all that matters to me.
Yeah, it weighs a little more than my Uggie did. Not enough more to matter in all-day field carry, but enough to make a big difference when playing the sporting clays game or swining on a flushing chukar. The pump action doesn't get in my way. The gun was pretty slick shucking when new and thrity years of pretty frequent use have only made it that much slicker. I don't think about shucking it. I call for singles, report doubles, or true pairs, and shoot 'em. I manage to grind my share into dusty black powdery poofs. Shooting a 391 Parallel or an MX-80 wouldn't change that much.
My Ugartechea, with its "British Game Gun" styling, might have made me look like the Lord of the Mannor but it didn't let me kill more upland birds or grind more clay than I can with my cheap department store pump gun.
So, what does my little saga have to do with the original question?
Just this: I shoot what I like. I happen to like my "cheap" New Haven by Mossberg pump gun. It doesn't matter to me whether anyone else is impressed with it or not, or whether anyone else would chose to shoot something substantively similar themselves or not.
If a Baikal trips your trigger, or a Stoeger Condor, or a DeHann, or a Yildiz, or an H&R Pardner, or a Perazzi, or whatever, then that's the gun to own, shoot, and enjoy. I wouldn't be embarrased to shoot a Baikal double. A friend of mine has one, and to be honest, I liked his gun better than the Uggie I had.
Which goes to show that one man's 2 X 4 could very well be another man's "magic wand."
-JP
