Greatest Shotguns of All Time: Top 100

Best Shotguns of All Time

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It came in every shape and form--from field models to riot guns to heavy waterfowl models--and in all gauges, but it was as a competition gun that the Model 12 was perhaps most dominant. For decade after decade, if you did not shoot trap and skeet with a Model 12, you were an odd fellow.

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The Model 12 seemed to lock on a target and stay there, and you could not wear it out. Serious shooters would put several hundred thousand rounds through their guns, have some minor rebuilding done, and repeat the process. I've handled one Model 12 trap gun that had had a million shells shucked through it, and it was in much better health than its owner. And it shot fast. Well-broken-in Model 12s had a slickety-slack smoothness that let you shoot them as quickly as an auto. Winchester's great exhibition shooter Herb Parsons used to hold five clay targets in his left hand, throw them into the air, and break them all before they hit the ground, pumping his Model 12 faster than the eye could follow.

The Model 12 has faded now, overshadowed by more modern guns, but in its time it was the repeater--indeed, the shotgun--against which all others were measured. Autoloading shotguns had been around for a long time by , but the new Model was different. Previous self-loaders were heavy and handled like sledgehammers. If they were recoil operated, they kicked like mules. People tolerated them only because they offered three or more fast shots. The , on the other hand, was sleek, moderate in weight, and handled splendidly. Most important, it had softened recoil.

Its gas-operated action spread the rearward thrust of the gun over a long period of time and took the sting out of shooting. Trap and skeet competitors bought s by the carload. New shooters, and people who otherwise would not be shooters, took to the as the one gun that would not beat the daylights out of them.

The was not perfect. It would jam if you didn't keep its gas system clean, and it wouldn't digest every kind of shell you fed it. Once you really began to pour the rounds through, an would break, but it was easy to fix. Not a "fine" gun like the Model 12, no marvel of fit and finish, the made extensive use of stamped parts. But it was, and is, a revolutionary gun. The Model 29 debuted in and is one of those rare firearms that force us to redefine what a gun can do.

The cartridge, developed by Remington, fired a grain lead bullet at fps.

It was twice as powerful as its nearest competitor, the. It was a handful to shoot and still is. Next to it, the. Both powerful and beautiful to look upon, the Model 29 was very accurate as well. If you didn't care to break your hand with. Dirty Harry was a vulgar sideshow. It is useful only at comparatively short range; it does not take to scope mounting; it is not accurate by today's standards.

Every attempt to torture it into something else has failed. But if you say "deer rifle," you mean the Model 94 lever action. Short and light, it kicks hardly at all, gets on target fast, is ultrareliable, and carries comfortably in the hand. Although the 94 has been chambered for half a dozen cartridges over the years, the overwhelming favorite is the. In fact, "thutty-thutty" and "deer rifle" are more or less synonymous.

It's hard to imagine now, but the. It was the first small-bore big-game load to utilize smokeless powder, and it fired grain bullets at the then sensational velocity of fps. A relic the 94 may be, but as hundreds of thousands of whitetails would testify, it's a very effective one. The two men realized that if the company was to survive, it could not make guns the way it had before The new generation of Remingtons would have to be far simpler and cheaper to make. And so they came out with a horrible-looking rifle called the Model It was cheap to make and looked it, but it was more accurate than any other factory rifle at the time.

In , after an intermediate generation, the morphed into the Model , which, although still a cinch to make, was a good-looking gun that retained all of its accuracy. The first minute-of-angle group I ever saw from a sporting rifle came courtesy of a Model 7mm Remington Magnum. Since its inception, the Model has been the foundation for more superaccurate rifles than anything else. Its sheer simplicity of design and wonderful trigger make it the first choice of anyone who wants to shoot small groups. Newton's first law of motion--an object at rest tends to remain at rest--drives the ultradependable Benelli action, which redefined autoloading reliability in the s.

The Benelli system consists of nothing more than a three-part bolt assembly--a bolt body, a rotary bolt head, and a short, stout spring between the two. As the rest of the gun moves backward under recoil, the unfixed free-floating bolt body remains in place, butting against the bolt head, solidly locking the action, and compressing the spring. When the rearward movement of the gun slows, the spring throws the bolt backward, ejecting the spent shell. The company's lineup today consists of well over model variations, from lightweight bird guns to magnum turkey-getters, all built around the same simple action.

Since the system doesn't bleed off expanding gases to operate, the gases and fouling blast out the barrel with the rest of the payload, leaving the inside of the gun clean.

The 50 Best Shotguns Ever Made

Benellis, therefore, keep on shooting under conditions that strangle most gas guns. They make the very short list of models South American outfitters keep as "house guns" that will cycle more rounds in a season than most guns shoot in their owner's lifetime. Hunters praise their Benellis for reliable performance, but slick handling qualities may be the guns' best feature.

Because it has no springs or pistons around the magazine tube, a Benelli auto is lighter and slimmer up front than any gas gun. Finally, Benellis are fast, spitting out empties and chambering fresh rounds more quickly than any other auto. For average hunters, however, speed isn't a critical issue; function is. And the Benelli keeps on plugging long after other guns fall by the wayside.

The Benelli recoil system is simplicity itself, consisting of a bolt body A , a bolt spring B , and a rotary bolt head C. As the gun recoils, the bolt body remains in place, compressing the spring and locking the bolt head. As recoil eases D , the spring releases and ejects the empty shell E.

There's no gas system to worry about or clean, and Benellis will handle any kind of shell you feed them. The development of handguns has progressed in a series of seismic jolts. One came in , when Remington announced the XP, which looked like a prop from a Buck Rogers movie. It was not so much a handgun as a one-handed rifle. To make the gun, Remington utilized the bolt action from its Model carbine, a Zytel stock borrowed from the Model Designers didn't stop there, though.

They also cooked up a red-hot varmint cartridge called the. The result was historic: For the first time, varmint hunters could pound pasture poodles without a rifle, and handgunning had taken on a whole new dimension. Think of it as a Winchester Model 12 that is easy to manufacture. The Model made its debut in as one of the first of Remington's "new generation" of guns that did away with the complex machining of the past.

And it may be sacrilege to say so, but the plebian is probably as good a gun as the aristocratic Model It pumps just as fast, points as well, is just as reliable, and is unbelievably long-lived. The late shotgunning great Rudy Etchen put 4 million rounds through his with just some minor parts replacement to keep it going. The is still with us, made in every configuration known to man, and it will probably be around for many years more.

Then came the Browning Superposed, and all that changed. Browning design, the Superposed was made in Belgium and was introduced in , two years into the Great Depression. This should have killed the costly Superposed, but it was so superior an arm that it survived and thrived. It was made in all gauges and in four grades and became a mainstay of hunters and competitive shooters alike. More important, for decades on end it was the definition of a "fine" gun. If you shot a Browning Superposed, you were shooting something special.

This may well be the most popular rimfire rifle in the world, and it is probably the most cobbled on. But at some point it was discovered that if you installed a heavy target barrel and a custom trigger and replaced the factory stock with a high-combed target model, you'd have a rifle of uncanny accuracy that you could compete with and win. It is called the Humpback and gets this unlovely name from its unlovely receiver, which forms an abrupt angle where it joins the stock. Browning designed this recoil-operated autoloading shotgun, which debuted in the United States in , was discontinued that same year, and then was reintroduced in , this time to stay for 50 years.

The Humpback had one glaring fault: Its bolt came crashing back with enthusiasm. But it had one great virtue: In an era of swollen cardboard shells that would stop any other gun, the Humpback kept shooting. Besides the Model 98 Mauser, this is the only military arm to make my list. The '03 Springfield is a slavish copy of the Model 98; Mauser sued the Springfield Armory for patent infringement and won.

This aside, the '03 is the most graceful military rifle ever made, and one of the most accurate. It earns its place here because it changed us from a nation of lever-action shooters to a nation of bolt-action shooters. The Dough-boys who were issued Springfields during World War I decided that the '03 was the way to go.

Thousands upon thousands of the rifles were converted to sporting use, or their actions were used as the basis for custom rifles. The very first Springfield sporter was made in for President Theodore Roosevelt. As a military and a sporting arm alike, the '03 was an aristocrat. But the immensely strong, very expensive Model revolver is surprisingly easy to shoot, considering how powerful it is.

You want it, the Model can drop it for you, from deer to Cape buffalo. The 's cylinder A holds five shots rather than six and employs an unusual ball detent that actually uses the force of recoil to hold the cylinder in alignment. In size D and weight the Model dwarfs a Model Unglamorous guns need love too, and there are few more utilitarian arms than Mossberg's bread-and-butter pump, which made its entrance in It figures not in verse and song, but it's affordable, and it works, and that is enough for thousands and thousands of shooters who swear by the Like all hugely successful designs, it has been produced in many configurations and is in current use by the U.

When your Purdey balks and your Parker doubles, turn to the Mossberg , for it will not fail you. It's quite possible that our acceptance of synthetic stocks is due to a. It was called the Nylon 66 and had a stock made of a high-strength DuPont material called Zytel. It weighed only 4 pounds, held 14 rounds in a tubular magazine in the butt, and was offered in brown, black, or green. And it was unstoppable. I never cleaned mine and used it in below temperatures, and it never failed me.

In , over a period of 14 days, Remington's exhibition shooter Tom Frye shot at , wood blocks thrown into the air, using two Model 66s. He hit all but six and had no malfunctions. Prior to , all light bolt-action hunting rifles began as heavy factory guns that were chopped, gouged, and hacked into svelteness. The first bolt gun that was born truly light was a. Melvin Forbes, a West Virginia gunsmith, enlisted the help of two friends to create a Kevlar stock that weighed only a pound, and then he designed a barreled action that did not have an extra ounce in it.

The result was so light it seemed like a toy, and it was as accurate as much heavier guns. That is probably more than you will shoot through one. Few guns are more fun that a. Few are more revered than the 2nd Issue Colt Woodsman. Unlike other Woodsman models, this incorporated a style magazine release button instead of the European-style heel release. Lightweight, accurate, and reliable, it was a winner.

Utterly reliable, nail-driving accurate, and possessing an exquisite trigger, it dominated NRA Outdoor Pistol competition until the manufacturing costs of the required hand-fitting severely curtailed production. Those that own them today cherish them. The Winchester was a significant improvement over existing lever guns, but marketing was key.

Chambered for the same cartridges that fit the popular Peacemaker revolver, frontier "logistics" were solved. It is likely the strongest lever action rifle ever made, and lead to modern designs. It took lever actions out of the pistol cartridge class and into the Big Bore world. As the most widely used military rifle in the world, the AK is legendary for its reliability, ease of use, and ability to function in the harshest environments.

There is not much one can do to make one stop shooting, other than run out of ammunition. Adopted by the U. One of the most inherently accurate semi-auto rifles yet designed it is a favorite with competitive shooters, and can also be chambered for many popular hunting loads. Designed shortly after the Korean conflict to replace the M-1 Garand, it offered a high capacity magazine and the ability to effectively mount a sniper's scope.

One of the best. The primary battle rifle of the German forces in WWI and WWII, the rugged and reliable M98 bolt action has formed the basis for a significant percentage of today's bolt action sporter rifles. The controlled feed design is especially favored by those hunting dangerous game.

Our primary battle rifle of WWI, it was consider one of the most accurate rifles of its day. Untold numbers of surplus guns were sporterized by custom gunsmiths, and was largely responsible for the popularity of bolt action rifles among American hunters. This graceful little rimfire, exposed hammer, pump action rifle, was one of the first designed to shoot the.

It was the most popular rimfire repeater of its era and a favorite with shooting gallery operators. The logical evolution of the Winchester , the Model 94 Winchester in. It remains in production and is a popular option today for deep woods hunters. No single shot centerfire rifle has achieved the popularity of the elegant Ruger 1. Available in all all popular calibers from varmint rounds to dangerous game loads, it remains the standard for single shot rifles.

One of the most enduring bolt action rifles currently in production, the Remington Model is available in a wide range of models and calibers. Introduced in , and temporarily discontinued in hence the pre designation it earned the nickname "The Rifleman's Rifle" for its smooth operation, three position safety, hinged floor plate, and an improved stock design. It became the standard by which bolt action sporters were judged, and demand prompted its re-introduction. The first successful internal hammer lever action rifle, it was for many years the only lever action capable of handling the breech pressures of modern cartridges.

Over one million have been sold, and it is still going strong after almost years of service. Most agree that it has the best trigger of any rimfire semi-auto. Although it's been around less than 20 years, it has achieved elite status. Competitive shooters, however, took advantage of its semi-modular construction and turned it into the premier action sports rimfire with a wealth of aftermarket parts that allow stocks, triggers, barrels, and other key components to be tuned for maximum performance. In the realm of economical, reliable, and easy-to-use.

It's not the fanciest rimfire on the market, but legions of American shooters have made it a favorite "working gun. Price has always been a factor in a firearm's popularity, especially if it can be combined with top performance. That characterizes the Savage One of the most inherently accurate bolt action rifles on the market, it's always been easy on the wallet, and remains a top choice for many. Introduced in , the made the transition from black powder to high pressure modern cartridges, and it's side ejection and solid receiver top made scope mounting a snap.

In , Smith sold out to Hunter Arms, which made the L. Smith double in a dozen grades, from plain to princely. The high-grade Smiths built by Hunter Arms from until the imposition of cost-cutting measures in have some of the finest engraving and the most pleasing lines of any American gun. Inside, the Xtrema is a marvel of simplicity. The gas system consists of just three parts, and the return spring is located on the magazine tube, where it's easily accessed.

Given time to establish a track record, it may turn out to be the best waterfowl gun ever. Randy Fritz, its inventor, reasoned that if a slug gun was going to shoot like a rifle, it had to be built like a rifle. So he built one accordingly. His creation had a glass-bedded action, a free-floating barrel, a McMillan fiberglass stock, and a rifle trigger. The Tar-Hunt can produce minute-of-angle groups, although five shots under 2 inches is more common.

By shotgun-slug standards, that's revolutionary accuracy. Don't let the hardwood stock, plastic parts, and wooden magazine plug fool you. Mossberg made its reputation producing a good gun at a low price, people don't give the company the credit it deserves as an innovator. It introduced the first production cantilever-rifled slug barrel; the first completely closed muzzleloading, primer--firing barrel; and the first factory stock with a comb insert that could switch out for a higher one--all accessories for the The Ithaca 37 was essentially the Browning-designed Remington 17 built after its patent expired.

Bottom ejection made it a favorite of duck hunters and left-handers. Bird hunters liked its light weight. I can take the 37 or leave it alone as a gun for wingshooting, but the Deerslayer version is one of the best slug guns ever. So many hunters carried the 37 in the s, '60s, and '70s that today's hunters remember it nostalgically as Dad's or Granddad's gun.

The high price of building the complicated Model 37 keeps driving Ithaca out of business, but it apparently has a catlike number of lives. Winchester's John Olin didn't want to build just any side-by-side; he wanted an unbreakable one. His Model 21 fit the bill. During its development, he gathered best guns from around the world and subjected them to a proof-load test, firing each until it broke down or blew up. Only the 21 survived. Winchester made it in all gauges and grades. Even the plain-Jane field guns were good looking.

The high grades made by the Winchester Custom Shop took your breath away twice: Remington's first side-ejecting pump, the "ball-bearing" repeater was silky smooth out of the box and got better with use. With its low profile, fast lock time, and simple, strong sliding top latch, the short-lived 32 may have been pause, look up for lightning bolts a better gun than its contemporary, the Browning Superposed.

Only about 6, were made before the 32 was discontinued.

Best Shotguns of All Time - Guns and Ammo

Remington's next version, the , is bulkier but treasured. We know Belgian gunmakers as the craftsmen behind Browning's best, but they can do much more. With its locks mounted on the trigger plate, the round action can have a tiny frame, making this one of the slimmest and most graceful doubles ever made.

A favorite of quail hunters and skeet shooters, this scaled-down Model 12 is the gun to have if you must hunt with a. Franchi put John Browning's long-recoil A-5 design inside an aluminum receiver and made a superlight auto beloved by uplanders. Almost 50 years after the 59's debut, gunmakers still haven't matched the light weight and strength of its barrel: Ultimate proof of the Japanese skill at copying, these beautiful reproductions had parts that interchanged with the originals and barrels tough enough for steel shot. Since we won't be shooting lead forever, I would almost take one of these over an American Parker.

The oddly beautiful, highly durable Darne doesn't break open; its receiver slides back. I don't lust after many high-grade hunting guns, but the Darne is so different I would love to have one. Beautifully machined, very reliable, all steel, soft shooting, and designed to have the feel of a Model 12, the X1 was wonderful, but it simply cost too much to produce.

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If, like me, you're depressed by the plastic and alloy trigger guards on modern repeaters, get yourself a used X1 and bliss out. This BSS was perhaps the greatest gun bargain ever: The public stayed away in droves. Now it sells for three times what it cost new.

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Me, I was tapped throughout the '80s or I'd have bought a 12 and a An autoloader that holds two shells makes no sense--until you pick up a light, sweet-handling Twelvette and shoot it. Earlier this year I wrote a column about my dream inheritance gun; the Double Auto was my real inheritance gun. When my grandfather left me a few hundred dollars, I blew it on a used Twelvette, which I adored and, later, inexplicably sold.

Made in Japan meant "junk" in the '60s until the Daly and the started changing our minds. This neglected gauge was ahead of its time years ago, most slug hunters still wanted cheap guns that held lots of shells and shot fast. They're all made by the Rizzinis of Brescia, which include the three Rizzini makers I. Rizzini , Fausti Stefano and, most recently, Caesar Guerini. For me, a gauge with inch barrels for doves and targets, please. A used is a better bird gun for half the money.

It had easy-to-swap tubes called "WinChokes" that screwed flush into the barrel--the first commercially successful interchangeable choke system.

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