Need Advice...

[B. Dudley]

Especially if you are at an event such as the SxS, do not be afraid to have a gun you are considering purchase of looked at by someone more knowledgeable.

Buy a good gun. Anything that is not fooled with and has some condition woukd fall into this category. A gun can have condition and still be a shooter. If well taken care of, it will remain with the condition it holds. Or a quality restoration would also fit the bill. If you do this, you are sure to have made a good investment and also avoid headaches that come with buying a bad gun.

[Opening Day]

If you are starting out and on a limited budget, I would look at a 12 gauge because the price is much lower and you can shoot really light loads 7/8 or 1 oz loads or beef it up for plains hunting to 1 1/4oz (if need be). You can find nice shooting Trojans in 12 ga that's a shooter for under $1000 or near that if you look but a 20 is probably going to be close to $2000. I have seen guns with little case coloring, nicks in the stock, blueing fading but the gun is tight and on face because it's been well taken care of, and I've seen guns that look in nice condition that have problems. When looking at a gun if you can have a second set of "eyes" looking at the gun they may pickup something that you missed. If you are unsure pay a hundred buck to have Brian or Bachelder look at the gun and do a general strip and clean. The more guns you look at the better.