Do-All gun for the wife.

My wife is getting into hunting and right now she has been out for turkey, deer(slug zone), and pheasant. Shes been using my 20 ga. 500 pump, and I’m looking to get her into a 20 ga. semi-auto that wont break the bank. Also from a company that makes a reasonably priced rifled barrel (preferably with a cantilever scope base). Stoegers and mossbergs are pretty big and bulky, but in the right price range. Just seeing if anyone else knows of any thing else that would meet this criteria. This gun will potentially be used for slug deer, turkey, pheasant, and grouse.

Thanks

Browning A5 maybe? I like the old models, but they also have released a new model in recent years. Most gun shops have 1 or 2 used ones on the rack.

Look around for a used Remington 1100. Can be had for a reasonable price, soft shooters.

It doesn’t come in a 20 g, but if you think she can handle a soft-shooting 12 g, I would highly recommend the Beretta A300 Outlander.

Alex,

I have a Franchi Affinity 20 gauge that my son used before I upgraded him to a 12ga. Now my 11 yr old daughter uses and I would highly recommend. Price competitive and cycles extremely well. Also super easy to clean.

Ben

Franchi Affinity 20 ga for my wife as well. It’s extremely light and I find myself using it a lot. I was pushing her towards a Montefeltro but she preferred the raised rib and camo synth of the Franchi. I consider it a poor man’s M2. She was drawn to inertia driven shotguns because the bolt is so much easier to pull back than in gas driven… something to think about if your wife is lacking upper body strength.

I don’t think there is slug barrel available from Franchi. The slug barrel is going to really limit your options in auto loading 20 gauges.

Really isn’t an all purpose shotgun out there that is gonna fit all those needs. You would want power for turkey hunting, a rifled barrel for deer hunting, and light weight for upland hunting. I wouldn’t want to carry around a turkey gun if I was grouse hunting. Just my 2 cents

Winchester sx3. 28” barrel.

Remington Tac 13 to add an element of home defense.

x2 on the Beretta A300

my wife started with a 20 nova. It was a bad idea. We got her a Winchester sx3 compact. We both liked it so much I got a sx4. The sx4 is a cheaper gun but is nice dependable.

X2 on the Franchi Affinity 3, but I don’t think they have rifled barrels.

Take a look at the Winchester SX4 20 gauge with 28” barrel.

TC Encore, buy the barrels you need, be a nice setup.

Benelli has M1 & M2 20 gauge rifled barrels available.
I don’t believer the winchester SX3 has a 20 gauge rifled barrel option.
Rem 1100 has 20 gauge rifled barrel options, at least from hastings, if not factory as well.

Overall for a 20 gauge semi auto, I’d stick to Benelli, beretta, franchi, winchester SX3. SX4 is just a cheapened version of the SX3 with more plastic and MIM parts.

Affinity is a great gun for the price. Browning A5 is tremendous but it’s more expensive.

If recoil is a big concern, the gas guns are softer. The inertia driven kick harder. I have an
M2 (12ga) and an Affinity (12 ga) as well as an 1100 (20 ga).

suzuki wrote:

If recoil is a big concern, the gas guns are softer.

For sure. My Beretta shoots way softer than my BIL’s Benelli.

For a lightweight 20 gauge in the budget category, it’s very difficult to do better than the Stoeger 3020. Trim, light, excellent handling, simple Benelli-style recoil-actuated, reliable, and available in a variety of stock options including a very nice looking wood/bronze Upland Special. Street price is around $500, excellent value.

Winchester’s SX4 is the next worth considering. A gas-operated auto design, the SX4 will soak up recoil for a much more comfortable shooting experience. The SX4 also has a highly adjustable fit. I believe street price is around $900.

The Beretta A400 20 gauge is a significant step up in price, starting at $1300 and rising depending on stock material and finish. However, what you GET for that is Beretta quality and one of the softest-shooting autos on the market. The gas-activated Beretta system soaks up so much recoil. Also, Beretta has stock shims to adjust the stock drop, another big plus in terms of being able to customize fit.

A Remington 1100 I feel is not a fit for a one-gun solution because the 1100 requires a separate barrel to shoot 3-inch shells, they could not shoot 2.75 and 3-inch shells interchangeably. Unless you could find an 1100 so cheap that the extra barrel could be justified, of course.

The big hurdle here is the rifled slug barrel. Very difficult to find a lower-price-category 20 gauge that has a slug barrel available, I don’t believe any of the above options has one. You may have to pursue a 2 gun solution here. I personally would not want to give up the trimmer, lighter, softer shooting 20 gauge. I’d look for a used slug gun that is already set up.

A 20 is plenty for turkeys, obviously, like any hunting, the skill is in bringing the birds in close enough.

Grouse.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I’ve been looking at pretty much every gun company and really cant find any 20 gauge autos with slug barrels (expect benelli but I’m not paying that much for a gun then spending $600 bucks on a barrel). I have an M2 and love it, most of my friends have stoegers, and for that price they’re pretty hard to argue with. I’m a big fan of the inertia actions and I’ll probably just have to get her a bird gun then a separete slug gun. Which I’ve ben looking for an excuse to buy a savage 220 anyways. And when I say tukey gun I think I have a different definition than some people. For me a turkey gun is anything I can put a full choke in lol. She shot her first one last spring with a basic wooden 500.

Alex Roers wrote:

I’m a big fan of the inertia actions

For what it’s worth, the gas system in my Beretta is leaps and bounds cleaner than the couple of Rem 1100s that I have, and there is no rubber o-ring or loose piston seals to lose/break/install backwards. It’s been extremely reliable, too.

I’ve heard a lot of the new gas systems are WAY better than the old ones. I’ve shot a couple of berettas and they’re pretty nice cycling guns from what I can tell. The older gas guns just left a really bad taste in my mouth, that I’ve had a hard time getting over. A lot of it is just personal preference of what types of guns you like in the collection. I know 870’s are great reliable guns too but I prefer and own 500’s and probably wont ever get an 870. I’m kind of the same way with Inertia actions over gas guns.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

A 20 is plenty for turkeys, obviously, like any hunting, the skill is in bringing the birds in close enough.

When I turkey hunt I want maximum range and maximum power. That means using a 3.5 inch magnum shell in longboard XR. The feathers on those things are like body armor.