Parker

Most Browning's ARE cool. (There, I said it.)

Howa's have been around for years and have an excellent reputation. (In the past, Smith & Wesson and Mossberg have put their name on Howa rifles.) Weatherby's Vanguard line has been produced by Howa since the 70's. Even the Weatherby Mark V's components are manufactured by Howa today. Because of the Weatherby name, you pay a bit more for essentially the same Howa rifle.

The A-5 has a special kind of cool to it.

There is nothing wrong with an 11-87. They are good guns, just a bit nose-heavy. No, the A-5 was never envisioned by John Browning to be a 3-gun competitor. Then again, its speed-loading feature is something pretty unique and was ahead of its time. I see they've carried that over to the new A-5.

Pick the one that fits you best, and then pick the one that can be accessorized the best for your intended hunting purposes. The A-5 (or cheaper Savage or Remington) is a great gun, but not the lightest recoiling and some find them temperamental with some loads if switching from light clays loads to heavy hunting loads. (Often it's user-error and just a matter of switching the friction rings around in the recoil mechanism.) If you are going to shoot slugs, the A-5 is tough to scope, and specialized slug barrels aren't cheap, and not as easy to find anymore. A used 1100 would be a better option vs. new, and there are after-market parts galore for it. The Beretta is a nice gun, light to carry for upland birds, but check for the same options as an A-5: deer barrel for slugs and scoping it if you prefer.

Agreed. But is there really anything better than an old A-5? (Just don't take one completely apart, that's all.)

"New shotguns every year?" You have four basic types of autoloading shotguns: long-recoil, short-recoil, gas and inertia. The Benelli is one of the newer designs out there, and that's already forty-seven years old. Some of the newer Turkish guns share the same system as the Benelli. The Beretta's have shared a common gas system that keeps changing for the better since the 60's. Long-recoil shotguns date back more than a century, while short-recoil autoloading shotguns date back to the 50's. All the modern gas autos share a similar design, just newer, lighter (and cheaper) components and different methods to bleed off gas are seen today. All are being designed for that encompassing quest to shoot 2 3/4" shells up to 3.5" shells without swapping or switching springs, rings or making any other adjustments. That's a mighty task to ask and accomplish it well. They may be new in name, or new in looks; but there is not much new about their designs.

This is a good article for those choosing their first competition shotgun. There are some brands cited in the article that will surprise some when it comes to reliability and "speed." http://www.multigunmedia.com/speed-shotguning.pdf

The Maxi-Ball® has been around since 1970. It was part of a "movement" along with a successful line of innovations developed by Thompson-Center beginning in the early 60's.

If you go to their website, they have a schedule for tours of the facility and also hikes on the various trails, which are extensive.

Ithaca Flues were made from 1908 to 1926. The Ithaca NID was introduced in 1925 to replace the Flues and continued in production until 1948. You can check the serial numbers here: http://ithacagunrepair.com/IGSN/IGSN.html Tough to find a schematic for this one. And the Flues and NID differ internally a bit. Like most doubles, the disassembly starts with the trigger guard and then the trigger plate. If it's a Flues, you can start reading about it here: http://www.google.com/patents/US1070441?printsec=drawing#v=onepage&q&f=false

Newtonian, Did you check out Skylands Manor in Ringwood as well as the botanical garden while you were there?

Trout, bass or panfish?

You were listening to shotgun music courtesy of Thunder Mountain. http://www.thundermt.com/ PS - Hunting is also allowed in Ringwood State Park.

The Sullivan Act, implemented by the oligarch's in 1911, has withstood the test of time for more than a century. Being it's New York, I suspect the SAFE Act will follow suit and endure the same test of time.

The only people I know who have registered any longarms are competition high power shooters.

I was in SA in Paramus around Christmas and they had them then. Sad to hear they've redone their outdoor section and removed them.......again.

She stands in for the Governor at the annual Governor's Surf Fishing Tournament at Island Beach State Park each year.

$29.99 for 20 MaxiBalls? Yipes!

Flood his inbox: http://shop.engagearmament.com/index.php/contacts/index/

Agreed. Only when I started, there was no such thing as "availability of ammo." It was always readily available. The turn-on was bettering the factory loads and tailoring them to your centerfire arm, turning an acceptable arm into often a very accurate arm. Tweaking shotshell loads or creating ones that were not made was another advantage. The limited popularity of certain gauges (like the 16 ga. that has faded over the years,) justified my continued need to reload. Now, when ammo is not readily available, it seems I am ahead of the curve.

Dad's workshop; early 60's. Began loading paper shotshells back in the days of felt and carboard wads, and first-generation plastic shotcups. Dad drew up diagrams with cutaways of shotshells and posted them on the reloading cabinet for us with dimensions, load data and wad pressure seating for each load. All loads were from Hercules, Alcan and Winchester manuals which were available free from the powder manufacturers at the time at a local store or if you called them on the phone or wrote them a letter in the mail. (Wrote them a letter, what's that?) The internet makes things so terribly easy these days. An 8-lb. tub of both Green Dot and Red Dot were always available in that workshop. Began metallic cartridge reloading in the 70's when I bought a centerfire rifle that came with a Lee handloader, some '06 brass, a can of 3031 powder and some .30 cal. bullets. A centerfire revolver shortly after also prompted the need for more equipment. After that I read lots of magazine articles, books and reloading manuals and five presses later, I can and do make anything I need today.

I hear ya' Dave. I was initially against change, but the reality is we have all accepted the same type of change in a variety of areas in hunting. Remember when longbows and recurves made way for compound bows? Remember how folks howled at the advantage and the death of traditional archery? Then the compound ("upright") bowhunters complained when the crossbow was accepted for legal use? Iron sights made way for scopes on muzzleloaders, and there are now states that allow smokeless powders in ML's provided they are loaded from the muzzle. I know someone who shoots this rifle in another state south of here. BTW - Is this is a muzzleloader? http://www.badbullmuzzleloaders.com/ With hunter numbers down, it has been the logical move for Fish and Game officials to keep pace with growing income needs for continued license sales in addition to addressing deer management numbers in areas deemed necessary. Someone once opined to me that "all good things must come to an end." We see that every day in every area of life now. I think we will continue to see progressive change with regulations. (Something new this year during New Jersey's Spring turkey season: coyotes can be taken incidental during your turkey week.) Progress. PS - I am happy with my caplock Renegade.

Very nice O/U. Best of luck with it. The FN 101 design is more Beretta than Winchester or Browning. The FN receiver utilizes locking pins and trunnions like the Beretta, a low-profile boxlock design that allows for the barrels' monoblock to sit low in the receiver. It is a design that has been around in different Beretta model variations since the mid-fifties. It remains unchanged to this day, for it is an excellent and simple design. The Invector-Plus tubes and over-bored barrels on the FN will provide good uniform patterns and the barrels are flared so they are thicker at the choke tube threads and muzzle end for strength; a take from the Browning Citori Invector barrels in design.