Choosing a hunting shotgun

This article is intended for beginning hunters, not knowledgeable in weapons and faced the choice what weapons to choose. Many novice hunters for some reason think that the weapon should be chosen once and for all life. This opinion is fundamentally wrong. Because time does not stand still, and certainly progress does not stand still. In this regard, its worth considering the question: "Is it worth to buy a gun for 5-7 years costing for example 2-3 thousand dollars". Again, no means unimportant is material security of hunter, if he can afford to buy a gun for 2-3 thousand dollars or simply trust to domestic experience and purchase a gun for 400-600 dollars. I do not take into account shotguns, which cost is measured tens of thousands of dollars, because the article is aimed at the majority, not at the magnates, for which are not important performance characteristics of weapon, but its price and engraved brand. In one word for such people more important is status. Shotgun must be chosen for its qualities and apposition of the rifle to hunter's shoulder.
So, the basic stages of the choice of weapon.

Firstly, you must select the manufacturer. At this stage, for beginning hunters, I would recommend to stop their choice on the IZhMeh or on not too expensive Italian brands Fabarm, Effebi. By the way I would say that production of the Italian gunmakers is one of the best in the world.

Secondly, for learning the hunting craftsmanship I will recommend IZhMeh MR43E-1C, with horizontal soldering of barrels and IZhMeh MR27-1C, with vertical soldering of barrels. The only thing it should be noted, that these guns should be chosen carefully enough, checking the product on the zero defects of factory stamping. The defect may be in the casting of barrels or in their soldering. Such defects are easily detected. But before checking the barrels you should remove greasing from them. Sellers of hunting stores do not always agree to do this, so you should bring with you a cleaning rod and some clean rags. Once the barrels will be cleared from grease, they should be directed to the window opening under the top edge of window frame, and to look himself into the breech of the barrel. In the barrel it should be visible shadow, falling from a window in the shape of an isosceles triangle. Its foundation should lie in choke, and edges smoothly pull to the barrel breech. If one of the edges will have a curvature, thus, the barrel has a defect in this place. In this method, the barrels must be rotated to view the entire surface of the barrel. After checking one barrel, you need to do the same to check the second one. Worth seeing, the joint places of shotgun's bed with its breech. The bed should be adjoin snugly. Metal on line of joining must not have sharp edges and burrs, because while shooting such ledges will serve as a wedge. Because of this, appear cracks in the bed of shotgun. In the assembled state barrels should not be hanging out. Any backlash should be absent. Definitely you need to test shutter release system. To do this, take two empty sleeves, into which are inserted two capsules with no charge. Simulation of shot will leave traces of strikers on the capsules. The depth of the traces should be 1-1.5 mm.

Thirdly, apposition of the rifle to hunter's shoulder is also very important. If the apposition of the rifle to your shoulder is good, then you will accurately without problems hit the fowl from it. Otherwise, even an experienced hunter, who knows how to skillfully shoot will miss from this shotgun. It should be also noted that the same gun fit one hunter and did not fit the other.