Thanks for the feedback @rookhawk. Unfortunately, my pocket is not deep enough for the custom versions. I do dream of one some day. Actually, I dream of one day living in a state where I don’t need a slug gun. Unfortunately that probably will not be until retirement. Again, I think your “fugly” gun is one sharp looking slug gun. Best of luck.
@Finprof
Some really ugly guns on this thread - Mossberg with plastic stock ranks right up there, I have a Mossberg 835 ultimate mag 12 ga and it is “tie” for the ugliest gun I own —— right next to my H&R single shot 20ga slug gun with laminated wood stock and matt finished black metal, either one could be voted “Pig at the Prom”....makes all my other guns look like “Miss America”.
20 ga slug as “back up” for bear? Is that to follow up wounded bear or as an alternative weapon if the bear is out-of-bow-range? Unless someone doesn’t own a 12 ga - there is no advantage in a 20 ga regarding “stopping power”....accuracy maybe, even penetration “might” be argued but the heavier slug from 12 ga and larger frontal area trumps a 20 ga for stopping or anchoring a wounded bear (inside of 50 yrds)...at least in my opinion and interpretation of ballistics. Guides I’ve used for bear in Maine carried handguns in .44 mag or .460 and one used 12 ga w/buck shot for tracking wounded bear. In Canada - no handguns allowed for hunting so shotgun or rifle makes sense and more power anyway. I certainly Think a 20 ga is adequate but not superior to a 12 ga.
@HankBuck
NJ has a longer deer season in many of it’s “Zones” - Bow opens 2nd Saturday in Sept. and runs into mid February. Also in that time frame is shotgun, MZ, Winter bow, permit MZ etc.. Good State for deer and some areas offer unlimited does but they grab you for a lot of $$ with all the permit & zone fees. It use to cost me more each year to hunt Deer/waterfowl/Turkey in NJ as a resident then NY as a non resident (and NY included Bear).
Yes Yes Yes, and I’ll just say that my Prom date was “smart & good personality” —-all 200 pimply pounds of her !
@HankBuck
Thanks Bob, for details on Australia and now I know where I can go for late season “everything” - it’s a bit of a drive from VA but sounds worth it.
Ugly for sure and as out of place at a skeet club as a Hooker in Church....but in a duck blind that is an “honored gun”. As a kid , my friend got a Belgium browning 12 ga for Christmas (1971) — the envy of all of us....as We all had whatevver old double was in our family and happy just to have a gun. He also shot it well and used that gun exclusively until mid 1990s when he bought a Benelli. That Browning never jammed, rain, cold, & snow - it cycled well (as did my Rem 1148). The Browning was as reliable as any semiauto I saw back in those days - I would say most Benelli’s today are also. Did you replace the original wood stock with that plastic-fantastic or is it a newer model? Either way would guess it serves you well.
I replaced the wood. As great as they were/are, the A-5 had two design flaws that neither John nor Val Browning fixed, and both were wood related. The barrel recoils during cycling but the barrel ring around the magazine that guides it slams into the top end of fore end at the end of the cycle. The wood invariably breaks down from constant pounding. At the other end the stock is held on by a tang screw through the pistol grip. The wood is prone to cracking through the thinnest part of the stock. Remington fixed both issues with their 11-48, which replaced their A-5 clone Model 11. The 11-48 stock is attached by a bolt at the end of the action spring tube and a metal tube lines the fore end channel so the magazine cap absorbs the pounding of returning barrel ring.
