Breaking in a double barrel?

[Mike215]

I recently bought a stoeger coach gun supreme on my birthday. It's a bit stiff while breaking it open. I've oiled it, It's much better, but It's still really damn stiff. Any way to make it looser like some other double guns? Or is it just a breaking in process? Thanks

-mike

 

[Numidian]

Shoot it

 

[wyomingboy]

That gun, or a Baikal will always be tough to open and close. By simply shooting it, the gun will loosen a bit, but not much. There are a few things you can do. First, pull the stock off and clean the action. Most of these guns are so rough that metal shavings are often left in the action and that alone can bind things up. So, clean it, lightly lube with RemOil and use a grease on all bearing surfaces. Next, you can do a little spring cutting. The cocking springs on these guns are much heavier than they need to be and that's what causes most of the stiffness when opening. The springs can be cut, but I would hesitate to cut more than a wee bit at a time, testing for ease of opening & reliability as you go. There are probably some step by step instructions posted on shotgunworld.com. Be advised that you can make it better, but it will never be as easy to open or have a smooth opening and locking feel of some other guns.

 

[T-Bone]

I recently bought a stoeger coach gun supreme on my birthday. It's a bit stiff while breaking it open. I've oiled it, It's much better, but It's still really damn stiff. Any way to make it looser like some other double guns? Or is it just a breaking in process? Thanks

-mike

******************************************
I know what ya mean about the stiffness Mike. I've had my "Baikal/Spartan/Remington SPR220" for 10 years now and its still nowhere as easy as my old Harrington & Richardsons. T

 

[Cochise]

you get what you pay for. A new Purdey is about a hundred grand, a new Kreighoff gun or Perazzi gun around 10 grand, a new Browning or Beretta gun 1 and a half grand. You pay some for a name and a good design, most for quality like good materials final hand polishing & fitting of parts. If you buy Russian or Chinese they are slapped together from a bin and most parts usually sort of fit.

 

[Numidian]

you get what you pay for. A new Purdey is about a hundred grand, a new Kreighoff gun or Perazzi gun around 10 grand, a new Browning or Beretta gun 1 and a half grand. You pay some for a name and a good design, most for quality like good materials final hand polishing & fitting of parts. If you buy Russian or Chinese they are slapped together from a bin and most parts usually sort of fit.

And they all can make a clay target disintegrate as long as you hold up your end of the deal...

 

[wyomingboy]

Coach Gun

"And they all can make a clay target disintegrate as long as you hold up your end of the deal..."

Not really. When cheap or improper guns are used for targets, the shooter usually is at a loss, especially when the gun is not configured to shoot targets. This is true for rifles, handguns or shotguns. Heavy triggers, poor regulation, short bbls, fighting to open and close and slow lock time a target gun does not make, no matter how hard you try to hold up your end of the deal.

With regard to this particular gun, it is far from a clay target gun... it's not even close. It was designed for one game - Cowboy Action Shooting. As such, it needs to work better in order to open and close with ease and speed. It is a low end gun, retailing for under $400. As with most cowboy shooters, little is spared with pistols and rifles, yet they buy the cheapest shotgun they can find for this three gun shooting. I would think if a cowboy shooter would put as much time, effort and funds into the shotgun as they do with their other guns, they would win more matches.

 

[trickg]

Silly me - and all this time I've been thinking that it's the shooter, not the gun!

 

[K31]

You should break it in at the McDonald's Drive Thru apparently:

http://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=17446

 

[K31]

Just kidding.

 

[aquaman]

"And they all can make a clay target disintegrate as long as you hold up your end of the deal..."

Not really. When cheap or improper guns are used for targets, the shooter usually is at a loss, especially when the gun is not configured to shoot targets. This is true for rifles, handguns or shotguns. Heavy triggers, poor regulation, short bbls, fighting to open and close and slow lock time a target gun does not make, no matter how hard you try to hold up your end of the deal.

With regard to this particular gun, it is far from a clay target gun... it's not even close. It was designed for one game - Cowboy Action Shooting. As such, it needs to work better in order to open and close with ease and speed. It is a low end gun, retailing for under $400. As with most cowboy shooters, little is spared with pistols and rifles, yet they buy the cheapest shotgun they can find for this three gun shooting. I would think if a cowboy shooter would put as much time, effort and funds into the shotgun as they do with their other guns, they would win more matches.

********, my cheap 'plastic' Mossberg 9200 breaks just as many targets & definitely kills more waterfowl/deer than any of those $5,000 Italian guns. if you can't shoot i don't care what you have. its a shotgun, he is not engaging targets at 600 yards, no need for a high dollar rig. any shotgun will work fine once you learn to shot it well. those cheap Russian doubles work fine, my gramps shoots geese with his and they fold just the same as my uncle's Benelli.

 

[Cochise]

actually a cheap gun wont work well for much of anything. There is a point (mossberg) where function is guaranteed and balance is OK, but thats not a really garbage gun its a lower middle kind of gun. At a certain point you are paying for better wood and engraving and maybe a name.
Wyoming boy is correct though, I wouldnt plan on winning any bowling pin matches or bullseye matches with a Jennings or a High Point either.
You do get what you pay for most of the time.

 

[Numidian]

"And they all can make a clay target disintegrate as long as you hold up your end of the deal..."

Not really. When cheap or improper guns are used for targets, the shooter usually is at a loss, especially when the gun is not configured to shoot targets. This is true for rifles, handguns or shotguns. Heavy triggers, poor regulation, short bbls, fighting to open and close and slow lock time a target gun does not make, no matter how hard you try to hold up your end of the deal.

That interesting because I have an $800 Browning 12 ga shotgun in my safe next to a $75 single shot break action Iver Johnson(I think thats what the buttstock said before I broke it pounding pegs into the ground ) I will break 7-8/10 clays with the Iver Johnson and 3-5/10 with the Browning....

Yep an expensive gun sure makes me a better shooter

With regard to this particular gun, it is far from a clay target gun... it's not even close. It was designed for one game - Cowboy Action Shooting. As such, it needs to work better in order to open and close with ease and speed. It is a low end gun, retailing for under $400. As with most cowboy shooters, little is spared with pistols and rifles, yet they buy the cheapest shotgun they can find for this three gun shooting. I would think if a cowboy shooter would put as much time, effort and funds into the shotgun as they do with their other guns, they would win more matches.

Where did he say anything about Cowboy shooting? It's a coach gun so it has to be for cowboy shooting? I guess you also think that AR15's and AK47's are only for killing people and anyone who has one must kill people?

And my comments were directed at this quote anyway, which has nothing to do with cowboy shooting or coach guns imo... Go on google and do a search for Perazzi coach gun... Or a Krieghoff coach gun... The only things that come up are people who are saying they're going to talk to their coach about their gun

you get what you pay for. A new Purdey is about a hundred grand, a new Kreighoff gun or Perazzi gun around 10 grand, a new Browning or Beretta gun 1 and a half grand. You pay some for a name and a good design, most for quality like good materials final hand polishing & fitting of parts. If you buy Russian or Chinese they are slapped together from a bin and most parts usually sort of fit.

 

[wyomingboy]

Some of you guys should remain silent and be thought the fool rather than opening your mouths and removing all doubt. The lack of knowledge along with an unwillingness to learn seems to be uncommonly common with some. Plastic Mossberg you say? Pounding pegs? 7/8-10? Well there's a good test for 'ya.

 

[Numidian]

Some of you guys should remain silent and be thought the fool rather than opening your mouths and removing all doubt. The lack of knowledge along with an unwillingness to learn seems to be uncommonly common with some. Plastic Mossberg you say? Pounding pegs? 7/8-10? Well there's a good test for 'ya.

I shoot clays maybe 4 or 5 times a year... If I got out every weekend shooting clays I'm sure I'd be hitting a lot more...

And yes pounding in pegs to hold my claythrower down... I forgot my hammer, so I used what I had... It didn't hurt the actual shotgun, just cracked the hard plastic buttplate, which I replaced with a much nicer rubber pad. I'd do it again if I were in the same situation... Sorry I don't treat my weapons with kid gloves... Guns are tools and I treat them as such. I don't cry if I drop them or get a scratch on them.

 

[trickg]

Some of you guys should remain silent and be thought the fool rather than opening your mouths and removing all doubt. The lack of knowledge along with an unwillingness to learn seems to be uncommonly common with some. Plastic Mossberg you say? Pounding pegs? 7/8-10? Well there's a good test for 'ya.

Some might be thinking the same thing in regard to some of the comments you have made in this thread. Just a thought.

I grew up with guns. My father was a gunsmith, a trophy winning competition shooter (name it - trap & skeet, rifle, pistol, etc) and avid gun "accumulator" - the man probably forgot more about it than I'll ever know.

He owned a couple of moderately expensive guns to include an L.C. Smith SxS double, but the bulk of his collection was comprised of guns that were more moderately priced. He felt that all other things being equal, a high price tag did not necessarily equate to a "better" gun. Heck, one of his favorite .45s, due to the fact that it just shot very well, was a gun he put together out of parts. That was the one he used when he got into timed steel disk shooting in his later years and he tended to outshoot his friend who was using a very expensive, tricked out .45.

Again, just a thought.

 

[wyomingboy]

Numidian,

This is from the Stoeger Web Site:

The Stoeger Coach Gun was developed in response to the demand for a value-priced, short-barreled scattergun for use in Cowboy Action Shooting. The sawed-off shotgun has been romanticized in hundreds of Hollywood Westerns as the stagecoach guard’s weapon of choice, and this one is as handsome as it is affordable.

Of course you can use this gun for other things, but it was designed for a specific use. Most folks buy a specific gun for a specific use. This is not always the case, but it's usually the case. A coach gun would be about the last shotgun anyone would buy for clay targets. This does not rule out its use by the occasional shooter for occasional targets or other things. It simply means there are better choices. There are better choices for pounding pegs too. A gun is a tool, but it ain't no hammer!



trickg,

Sounds like your father was/is a wise man and a good shot. As a competitive shooter in several disciplines for many years, our paths might have crossed. What's the name? I'll leave you with this truth.... A good gun does not make a great shooter, but a great shooter with a good gun will rise to the top of his game and will often beat a great shooter with a lousy gun. Observe the winner's circle.



aquaman,

What got your shorts in a knot? What I wrote is perfectly valid. I said nothing about Mossbergs vs $5K Italian guns. BTW, who is it that hunts waterfowl or deer with a "$5K Italian shotgun"? No one who I hunt with does that. Read that post again. If you really think that a Baikal in the hands of a good shooter is not a disadvantage, then you have a whole lot to learn. Yours is the old and tired Indian vs the Arrow logic. One must remember that the Indians lost.

All.... I don't want this to be a pissing contest. If you don't want to learn anything, don't reply and continue to do things your way. Adios

 

[trickg]

WyBoy - You may have run into my Dad, but I kind of doubt it. Most of his competitive shooting days were in the 60s and early 70s in Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado - mostly Nebraska, but his name was Bill Gleason - if that rings a bell.

I'm not saying that you don't have a point regarding the expensive shotguns - they are certainly going to perform if the shooter does their part, however, in terms of accuracy there comes a point of diminishing returns where more money spent doesn't equate to more accuracy.

When this thread came up and the subject was a "coach gun," I was thinking sawed off SxS double - no choke. Is this a gun that's designed for any kind of accuracy other than a general point, shoot and blast?

Dad had some economy guns over the years that ended up being good shooters, but then again, he knew how to adjust things to make them a bit better than they were when they came stock, FWIW. Translation: in the case of this coach gun, he'd have it taken apart and he'd start working on things to smooth out the action.

 

[sergey]

I feel that there is some resentment against $5000 italian shotguns. And it is a shame. I am sure they are beautiful guns that are well worth the money. I suspect that the only reason many feel this way is because Joe Biden owns them.

 

[trickg]

I feel that there is some resentment against $5000 italian shotguns. And it is a shame. I am sure they are beautiful guns that are well worth the money. I suspect that the only reason many feel this way is because Joe Biden owns them.

That's funny!

I think that some people resent the really high dollar shotguns for the reason that they simply can't afford to have one. Believe me, if I won the lottery, or if I all of a sudden became rich and shameless, you can bet your bottom dollar I'd own a few of them myself - what's $5000 to someone who has millions?