Hi all I am relatively new to the world of shotguns. I started shooting around around 2015 and started competing in 2018. I very quickly fell in love with competing and shooting my competition sporting clays shotgun. Over the years I have met some great people and have become very interested in stock making and gunsmithing. I have been looking to purchase an older gun that is not in the best shape and hopefully return it to great working condition. I'd love to find a gun that needs a fair bit of wood working done and am okay with doing mechanical work as well. My one problem has been not knowing where or what to look for. Since I have not been in the game long I don't know many older shotguns. I am hoping to find a good solid gun that is worth putting in the work for. If you guys could possibly offer some models or suggestion for me to look at I would greatly appreciate it. I am still in college and have a limited budget which has narrowed down my search. My budget is 1,000 dollars or less. I am hoping to buy something that will last and will be worth putting extra time and money into. I appreciate any and all suggestions. Thank you all in advance!

Best,
cseybert9

My entire clays career has been with 28 gauge o/u and s/s, none of which are Remingtons. I've always liked older Remington's, my youngest 870 is 20 years old. I just picked up a low mileage model 58 auto in 12 gauge, modified choke, 28" vr barrel for $350 delivered. It caught my eye because it was built right around when I was, and I've never seen one in the wild. It's a solid gun, not too fancy and shoots fine, looks ok, but what the heck I have the time and resources to freshen it up a bit. Soooo, the barrel is headed out to be threaded, and upon return the steel is going out to be done in a satin blueing. Titanium nitride bolt and trigger, I may add a modern aftermarket operating handle, Timony trigger kit, I'm still not sure where I'm going with the wood, either a refinish or replace with a higher grade. Of course it will receive a full going over of the internals. These are strange times in the gun world, I recommend find the make/model that calls to you and is within your budget and take your time, it's not a race, its a journey...

Any gun you can afford to buy is worth putting in the work to get a learning experience/education.

I would suggest your first attempt should be a fairly simple shotgun, like a slide/pump action shotgun - or, if you feel up to it, and older break-open single-shot.

You should be able to find one to work on for less than $300 - some, way less.

(I bought a Mossberg 500 pumpgun in a gunshop for $200)




IMO, the best place to find such a gun would be in older, non-big box gunshops and local gunsmith's.

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Good idea, I had not yet considered looking for a pump shotgun. I will have to check some local stores to hopefully find something that has been looked over. I appreciate your insight.

I have resurrected a couple model 12 Winchesters, lots of support from those who know.

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Good luck on your search - The several gunshop owners I talked to in the past few weeks all said the same thing:

New & used handguns and shotguns keep flying off the shelves - rifles, not so much.

Thank you all for your input and help. If I find something I'll be sure to post an update about it. Shoot well!