Most durable O/U action

[Ltach578]

I say when it comes to durability the Citori is hard to beat.

 

[Doug3006]

As a Citori owner, my heart is with you on this. However, the folks who grind clay birds day-in, day-out….to the tune of thousands of shots a month….like the shooters in Olympic clays….tend to gravitate to guns like the Perazzi MX 2000 or the Beretta MX 8. Back when I volunteered to help at the 1994 Olympic shooting festival in St. Louis, I didn’t see a single Citori.

 

[leslie hetrick]

well they get free ammo and shotguns, around here you see more brownings by far than any other shotguns at the skeet-trap-sporting clays shoots. my pet singles trap shotgun is a bt-100 that i have fired over 40,000 shells thru it. i only have made one repair, replacing the firing pin myself at a cost of 28.00 including tax and shipping.

 

[Doug3006]

No doubt…world class shooters get their choice of hardware. They choose shotguns that won’t snap a spring during a competition and get them disqualified.

 

[Alistair]

I'd agree with @Doug3006

The guns that are designed to have a lot of shots through them are the top tier clay guns.

Some common ones would be the Beretta DT11, Perazzi HT, and Kreighoff K80.

Heavily built guns, lots of replaceable wear parts like barrel trunnions, ejectors, firing pins, very well built. Expensive and pretty specialized.

For more normal sporting guns, Browning seems solid, so does Beretta.

I used my Beretta Silver Pigeon as our club gun when I did competitive clays at uni. Looking back over the club expense tracker from that period: 125,000 and change cartridges purchased for club use 2015-2018. Plus maybe 5000 extra for my personal usage. Mechanical issues with the gun: 0.

 

[mark-hunter]

Browning is the most praised action in my clay shooting club.

 

[Russ16]

The outfitters in Argentina that rent guns for high volume dove shoots use Benelli auto loaders or Beretta 686 pretty much exclusively. These guns get thousands of rounds per week through them.

I have two Berettas a 686 and a 471 SxS that both have well over 10,000 rounds through them without a hiccup.

 

[RockSlinger404]

Krieghoff K80, built like a tank! You do however need an engineering degree to work on it...

 

[leslie hetrick]

the group of men i shoot with at one of out sporting clays shoots. three brownings, one remington and one CZ. both the men with the remington and CZ have gone to brownings.

 

[festuscat]

I still shoot Olympic Trap, and as mentioned in previous posts, almost all ot shooters use a Perazzi MX8 or variant, Beretta DT 10/11 or Krieghoff. I know of one Purdy but he has recently moved to a Beretta DT11.
Detachable triggers or a 2nd action for a Krieghoff are important.

Also many of the guns used will use different tubes for the top and bottom barrels. I shoot one gun with a P&V bottom and a Krieghoff top. Weight of barrels, poi, choke etc are adjusted while using the same monoblock.

We shoot a lot. For example I am shoot 100 rounds at lunch every day. Preparing for a shoot 3 of us will go thru a pallet of shells (111) flats a month.

Brownings are excellent guns and I have one set up for OT & box bird pigeons. There is no support tho. Perazzi made and checkered a stock for me in 3 hours while I was in Lanato, IT for the Beretta Cup.

 

[HankBuck]

The outfitters in Argentina that rent guns for high volume dove shoots use Benelli auto loaders or Beretta 686 pretty much exclusively. These guns get thousands of rounds per week through them.

I have two Berettas a 686 and a 471 SxS that both have well over 10,000 rounds through them without a hiccup.

@Russ16 - 10,000 rounds is less then One Year of shooting (practice & tournaments) for Sporting Clays competitors. I Love my Browning O/Us & Beretta 686 and think they are one of the Best “Values” in O/Us for under $5000 but they do Not compare with Kguns, Beretta DT11, Caesar Guerini Invictus, Perazzi, and a few others. But, Browning/Beretta makes a very fine OU that many people can afford - mine each have well over 75,000 rounds thru them and only an Ejector & firing pin has been replaced. Regarding Benelli — just a Great “Reliable” semi auto that rarely jams and parts easily replaced when needed….Love them too, agree with You they are a good quality AND value that hold up well because they are recoil (they call it “inertia” ) operated and Not gas. Lots of good guns out there in the $2000 to $4000 range and buying one Used can also save a person money.

 

[Red Leg]

There is a very meaningful dollar gap between very good and the best when it comes to OU guns - particularly those designed for national or international competition. They are not the guns one normally sees at the neighborhood clays course. Rather like comparing a Swaro Z8i to a Leupold VX 5. Both are quite serviceable in the field, but the Swaro is built to a different standard.

Pigeon competition is another place where the best shooters use the best possible guns. A single lost bird due to a malfunction can cost a great deal of prize money. Twenty years ago the big K-gun reigned supreme. Today it is likely the Perazzi or DT11.

For a dependable clays and hunting gun for most of us, something built around a 686 action is hard to beat.

 

[rookhawk]

I say when it comes to durability the Citori is hard to beat.

The Beretta 686/687 is the most durable O/U for wing shooting purposes in my opinion. We can spout off on trap and clay actions that make for 9lb-10lb guns, but the 686 can be made into a semi-custom that is very light weight.

My son shoots a 6lb Orvis Uplander in 20 gauge with an english straight gripped stock. While it looks far more refined than a beretta labeled 686, it still has that action that can handle a million rounds and can be repaired with off the shelf parts.

 

[Russ16]

@Russ16 - 10,000 rounds is less then One Year of shooting (practice & tournaments) for Sporting Clays competitors. I Love my Browning O/Us & Beretta 686 and think they are one of the Best “Values” in O/Us for under $5000 but they do Not compare with Kguns, Beretta DT11, Caesar Guerini Invictus, Perazzi, and a few others. But, Browning/Beretta makes a very fine OU that many people can afford - mine each have well over 75,000 rounds thru them and only an Ejector & firing pin has been replaced. Regarding Benelli — just a Great “Reliable” semi auto that rarely jams and parts easily replaced when needed….Love them too, agree with You they are a good quality AND value that hold up well because they are recoil (they call it “inertia” ) operated and Not gas. Lots of good guns out there in the $2000 to $4000 range and buying one Used can also save a person money.

I agree the Beretta DT series is a better gun as are the Perazzi and Kguns. But, I think the 686 series is under rated and in my opinion much more durable than the Citori. I was trying not to make it about me when I said well over 10,000 rounds, but I averaged close to 1000 targets a week with mine for 7-8 months of the year for several years when I was dabbling in competitions. I finally stopped doing anything competitive because I like hunting way more than shooting so I would essentially quit any competitive shooting during hunting season so I was putting a real ceiling on myself and missing some of the bigger shoots around here.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

I really like the Fabarm Elos Deluxe action.

 

[mdwest]

Around here the DT11 seems to be the most trusted/used gun among the really hard core shotgun shooting sports types..

Among the more casual competitive shooters the 686 is probably the most common gun seen.. although there are certainly plenty of brownings, zoli's, and guerinis, and others floating around..

My wife shoots a 686.. its served her well.. she hasnt put a ton of shells through it (yet)... but it sees somewhat frequent use.. and its never so much as bobbled on a single shot..

I shoot a pair of Webley and Scott O/U's.. the 20 ga has been 100% reliable through thousands upon thousands of shells.. I havent had as much luck with the 12 ga.. Ive had to take it to see the gunsmith on two different occasions to get it tuned up.. that said, its a "field" gun, and its probably seen 20,000 rounds between the field and various clays games.. so its gotten a good bit of use before having to take it in.. and the problem has never been the action itself.. its been the internals..

 

[Tanks]

My clays instructor uses a DT11, he has won multiple State championships over the years. I got an Invictus III Sporting Limited by Caeser Guerini, it has a lifetime warranty and according to them they have solved the issue of O/Us eventually going "off-face" with their actions.

More info here:

Catalog - Caesar Guerini USA

To request a printed copy of our catalog by mail click HERE.

gueriniusa.com

 

[Ross Reamy]

Most of the top end brands have been listed, but I have to give a shout out to the Blaser F3, fantastic action with the ability to get sub-gauge barrels that have the same weight/feel, and do not have to be fitted..

 

[franzfmdavis]

I’m going to second the Perazzi MX action. I have an MX14 Lusso that has been perfectly reliable and accurate with springs that can be replaced in the field.

 

[Rubberhead]

I don't know how many clay rounds it takes to equal one 3" 1,550 fps steel load, but I'm still trying to wear out this 1987 Citori...

This old girl has traveled a lot of mile by car, plane and boat and has never shied away from rain or the salt marshes. I have had to replace the retaining latch spring once. Other than that and a wipe down every now and thing, she'll still kicking.