What is the best firearm you ever owned?

[Stan Hillis]

For me "best" is a descriptive term for the gun that I have owned that has done it's job the longest/most with the least amount of repairs or breakdowns. With those as my criteria I would have to say that the 20 ga. Beretta 687 SPII Sporting would get the nod. Out of some 50-something doubleguns, rifles, and pistols it is the one that has been used the most, but with no breakdowns at all. It has done high volume shooting in Cordoba Argentina twice, and done domestic duty on Southern doves and quail for 19 years. It has never even hiccuped. The closest it has ever come to needing "maintenance" was having to take a few seconds to scrub the plastic accumulations from the chambers, with a tornado brush while shooting doves in Cordoba, because ejection of empties would become sluggish. No single trigger issues, no spring problems, no striker issues, no ejector problems, no misfires due to gun issues.

I know it's not a S X S, and it's not vintage but, it's just a little petite "tank". Credit where credit is due.