I shoot every couple of weeks. I'm a member of a great little club. We have a maximum number of 30 members but we rarely get more that 20 turn up. My eldest lad is getting the hang of it too now.
I used to shoot a lot years ago so today I went and brought a cheap semi to start again now just got to find out where the shoots are
Try the CPSA web site for affiliated shoots. Your local gun shop will know places too. I bought my lad a semi auto 20g when he was 10. He likes it and shoots ok with it but I find them overly complicated. I've never had a single mis fire with my o/u in the 8 years I've had it, and it must be nearly 30 years old now, but my lads semi auto has been back to the shop and the importers 5 times coz it keeps jamming.
The problem is the light load. However the gun was marketed as taking 24g cartridges but would jam on 24s. It worked fine with 28s but as he was only 10 I wanted to use 24s. We got there in the end though. I think the importer had to open up the gas ports to increase gas flow. Seems to have done the trick and it only jams maybe one in fifty shots now. I do have to clean it regularly as the muck that would normally exit the barrels is used internally to operate the mechanism and mixes with the gun oil to form a grey paste over everything. He fired my 12g recently with 28s in and coped quite well so I'll probably move him on to my gun soon, maybe with 24s, and sell his gun on. My biggest gripe about semis is that the cartridges go everywhere. Messy things, particularly in long grass.
It's a Hatsan Arms Escort youth model. They're cheap as chips - only paid £370 for it new. They're fairly well made and good value for money. It's not much more for a full size 12g model.
Thought they were made by Lada, not Ford.......or should that read Hatstand Arms? I stay right away from 20G stuff......seen too many accidents with 12G cartridges. AL
It's the other way round. A 12g cartridge won't fit in to a 20g gun, but a 20g will go in to a 12g. That's why 20g cartridges are yellow and no other size uses that colour. I've never seen an accident or come close to having one myself. If someone is dumb enough to put a yellow cartridge in their 12g then put another cartridge in behind it then I'm not convinced that they should really have a certificate. 20g was fine when my lad was younger but he's my height now. I can't wait to move him over to 12g as 20g cost 50% more.
Perhaps you should know that I have probably been shooting longer than you, certainly before 20G cartridges were only yellow.....in fact shooting when they were the same damn colour and make.....and it only takes one 20G cartridge to get in the bag of 12G, then load it on a roost shoot when the light has gone.... ...and I have seen plenty of nasties whether they are 12G or 20G guns being used, but at least four incidents from the sort of thing I describe.... If you don't like the gas auto action, go for recoil action like the Breda....you can get those fairly low cost now....purported to be Beretta under licence generally for military use (not UK military)......I had an eight / five round one for years, never failed or jammed and it was well used when I got it..........but you are right about the spent cartridges going everywhere...you would think WW3 had started when that was in use. AL
I shoot as well, mainly gamebirds, Mallard Ducks and Canadian Geese mostly, but the odd claybird shoot, I have several shotguns (plus a Remington .270 semi-auto hunting rifle,a Ruger semi-auto .22, A BSA Meteor .177 slug rifle, and 2 CO2 slug pistols), an old spanish Astra side by side, an SKB 1900 5 shot semi, a Franchi 612 Variopress 5 shot semi, and my favourite, a Beretta Xtrema II 3.5" kick-off 5/8 shot, it's a wonderful piece of engineering , shoots the lightest trap loads to heavy 3.5" 'cannon' shells with no adjustments necessary. Our gamebird season is 3 months long, and I try to get out at least once a week. I shoot approx. 500 - 650 rounds a season on the birds, only dismantle and clean the gun properly at the end of the season, never had a jam or misfire yet, you buy quality, you don't have problems.
Had a o/u 12bore for 25 years or so and used to go every Sunday for a few years but now I'm lucky to get out once a year and would like to have the time to go more often. Also got a BSA R10 air rifle with a "Tench reg." fitted which is a fantastic piece of kit after being properly assembed and set up, great for garden plinking and an efficient hunting rifle for rabbits, pidgeons etc.
