Our roundup of the best clay shotguns available at all price points
Caesar Guerini Magnus Sporting
The Magnus Sporting pulls off the trick of looking lithe while remaining a chunky gun to handle. The stock and schnabel fore-end are a pretty grade of walnut. The comb is high, accentuating the comfortable pistol grip. Ventilated, sporting, multichoke barrels feature a 10mm tapered, ventilated rib for target acquisition.
Metalwork on the receiver is decorated with scrollwork or a game scene. Caesar Guerini actions are known to be efficient, reliable and handsome, and this holds true of the Magnus. Caesar Guerini’s 10-year warranty gives total peace of mind.
Barrels: 28in, 30in, 32in, 34in
RRP £3,350
Anglo Italian Arms
01564 742477
info@angloitalianarms.com
Breda Zenith Sporter
Made by a small, family-owned firm in northern Italy, this gun has a low-profile action and long, tapered, ventilated rib to provide the best clay shooting sight picture, with rapid cooling to reduce heat haze. Available with a black or silver action, with or without an adjustable stock, and fitted with a non-stick recoil pad. Uniquely for this price point, the stock has a palm swell to improve grip, and a seven-position adjustable trigger for optimum gun fit.
Barrels: 30in, 32in
RRP £2,667
Viking Arms
01423 780810
vikingarms.com
ATA SP Black Sporter Adj
While not extortionate as it is, you can buy a similarly specced ATA SP Sporter but without an adjustable stock for about £90 less. However, set up correctly, an adjustable stock gives most of us a gun that fits better. What you get for your money here from one of Turkey’s leading gunmakers is a good-looking, well-finished, contemporary, single-trigger, auto-ejector shotgun featuring oil-finished Turkish walnut stocks and fore-ends with high-gloss, multichoke barrels.
Barrels: 30in
RRP from £689.99
Sportsman Gun Centre
01392 354854
trade@sportsmanguncentre.com
Fabarm ELOS N2 Sporting
For £1,425 you get a robust, forged steel, satin-black receiver sandwiched between a walnut stock and fore-end. Less artistic flourishes here but instead there’s a solid action, adjustable trigger, adjustable comb and interchangeable multichokes. Fabarm’s Tribore barrels are well regarded for being ultra-tough if somewhat unusual. Fabarm’s ‘hyperbolic’ chokes are longer than normal, too, to decrease friction and increase velocity.
Barrels: 28in, 30in, 32in
RRP £1,425
Anglo Italian Arms
01564 742477
info@angloitalianarms.com
Miroku MK38 Sporter Teague Grade 1
The Japanese call it ‘Monozukuri’, which translates as ‘making stuff’. However, Monozukuri recalls a long tradition of craftsmanship, a dedication to improvement, an obsession with detail and a pride in your work while remaining humble. The design of the MK38 owes a debt to Browning’s legendary B25. It features an adjustable trigger, to alter the length of pull slightly for optimum comfort, and Teague chokes. Tough, efficient, beautifully balanced and reassuring consistent, the Grade 1 offers incredible value.
Barrels: 30in, 32in
RRP from £1,645
ISB Ltd
info@isbrands.com
ATA Elegant Gold
The Elegant Gold features a beautiful, Turkish walnut stock and a gold-accented, game-scene engraved action with sideplates. This over-and-under is available in 12-bore and both Game and Sporter configuration. It has a steel action and chrome-lined, multichoke barrels. Dependable, attractive and built to perform, the Elegant Gold would not look out of place at the most up-market of shoots – it will certainly turn heads at your local shooting ground. And all for such a reasonable price.
RRP £1,000
Sportsman Gun Centre
01392 354854
trade@sportsmanguncentre.com
Kofs Sceptre SXE
This is another of the trio of guns from Turkish gunsmiths that all appear to share ‘too good to be true’ prices. The level of quality you get for your money is astonishing. The Sceptre has decent timber and a single selective trigger with automatic ejectors. The alloy action helps keep the weight down to 6½lb and has proved reliable. Fantastic value – it’s also impossible to lose much money on it when it comes to resale.
Barrel lengths: 26in, 28in, 30in
RRP £499
Sportsman Gun Centre
01392 354854
trade@sportsmanguncentre.com
Beretta 694 Sport
Beretta’s 686 Silver Pigeon is possibly the best-loved novice gun of all time. There have been various incarnations over the years but all are wonderful value and solid performers. Some novices will be fortunate to have a budget that wings north of the Pigeon’s £1,945 RRP, which is why we’re including the 694 Sport instead.
Designed with competition shooting in mind, the new shape of the 694’s action and stock – which has a tight radius and reduced shoulders – have been fashioned to increase field of vision. Features include redesigned ejectors, a robust trigger mechanism and clever fore-end latch system. An adjustable stock costs an additional £330.
Barrels: 30in, 32in
RRP £3,645
GMK
01489 579999
gmk.co.uk
Browning Ultra XS Pro Sporter Adj
The Ultra XS Pro Sporter is essentially a Browning B525 on steroids, a real clay-busting machine. The Ultra XS brings this pioneering gun up to date for the modern shooter. It sports an adjustable stock, eight Invector Titanium extended chokes, two spacers, three Inflex recoil pads and three trigger shoes. It can also be fine-balanced using Browning’s clever stock and barrel counterweight system. If you’ve shot Sporting today but want to shoot Trap tomorrow? No problem.
Barrels: 28in, 30in, 32in
RRP £3,725
ISB Ltd
info@isbrands.com
Perazzi High Tech Sporter
At the higher end of the market is the wonderful Perazzi—and a High Tech could be an excellent first gun for a very fortunate shooter. Think of it as a more planted, modern interpretation of the legendary MX8—it’s just a smidgen wider and a teensy bit heavier, with a lower centre of gravity. One of the joys of choosing a Perazzi is the Perazzi Experience—you get to visit the factory and make a Perazzi your very own. This takes care of gun fit, too.
Barrel lengths: 26¾in, 279⁄16in, 283⁄8in, 29½in
RRP from £10,500
RUAG Ammotec Ltd
01579 362319
enquiries.uk.ammotec@ruag.com
Blaser F16 Sporting
An over-and-under that’s up there with the best. The F16 boasts an exceptionally low centre of gravity, making it pointable and dynamic. This is boosted by the accentuated semi-rounded action design, devised using an innovative monocoque construction. The shooter feels the difference when picking up the shotgun. Besides the intuitive pointability, the newly developed tapered rib supports the pheripheral vision of the shooter and results in faster target acquisition.
Barrels: 28in, 30in
RRP £3,900 (adjustable stock)
Blaser Group Ltd
01483 917412
blaser-group.com/uk
Rizzini BR460EL
Flagship of Rizzini’s competition range, the BR460EL features the firm’s patented drop-out trigger mechanism with fully enclosed mainsprings, which continue to function even in the unlikely event of a breakage. The action is engraved with a deep floral scroll pattern and coin finished. The stock is grade 3 Turkish walnut and can be customised.
Barrels 30in, 32in, 34in
RRP £7,335 (+ £276 for 34in barrels)
Anglo Spanish Imports
01728 688555
a-s-i.co.uk
Yildiz
Like the other Turkish guns here the Yildiz is perfect for those on a budget or those who may not yet be fully committed to the sport. It may be priced as an entry-level gun but you’d be hard-pushed to guess the swing-tag doesn’t carry a figure a third higher. In particular, the walnut on the examples we’ve seen has been outstanding for the price.
The alloy action makes the gun super-light but the five-year warranty buries any fears about durability. It comes in ejector and non-ejector versions and all models have a single selective trigger with auto-safe. As such, the Yildiz is more of a crossover than a dedicated claybuster, but that’s no bad thing if this is your first gun.
Barrel lengths: 26in, 28in, 30in
RRP ejector £599, non-ejector £499
Raytrade
01635 253344
info@raytradeuk.co.uk
Zoli Z-Sport
The entire Z-Gun range is fitted with a forged, stainless steel, monobloc action that makes it possible to encompass a Boss-type lock system and an easily extractable trigger group. Interchangeable stocks are on offer, which are easy to disassemble; standard stocks are made from selected Turkish walnut and are finely chequered and oil polished.
However, the real asset of this range, as with all Zoli guns, is the barrels, which are silver soldered, thus affording a softer, more gradual recoil despite the extreme ballistic performance. These techniques are the outcome of more than 50 years of experience acquired in-house.
Barrels: 12-bore 28in, 30in, 32in or 34in; 20-bore 28in, 30in or 32in
RRP from £5,000
Edgar Brothers
01625 613177
edgarbrothers.com
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