Well I have been lurking for some time, but figured I would post about my new interest in all things related to clay games. We have a state run clay center not far rom me and it has trap and skeet and 5 stand, and also wobble trap. It is where I go most weekends.

So I wanted a better shotgun and found a Franchi Instinct SL. This turned out to be a unwise choice for clay games, so long story short, my wife got me a wonderful surprise, a Browning Citor CX

It is the 30 inch non adjustable comb model. As far as I know, it is the last one in the state of AZ.I took it out for the first time today and it is a great shotgun. I had a 20/25 trap game, and I had my best games of skeet and 5 stand clays yet. I find that if my cheek is welded to the comb, I have to pull my head back just a tad, and I get the trap style figure 8 bead alignment, and if I push my heaf forward a bit, I get the single bead skeet alignment. It is just that easy.

I took it to the patterning board, and the modified choke is a tad high, but this is OK, now that I know about it.

The wood on this gun is very nice, and the blueing looks as deep as a swimming pool. I wish the ejectors were a bit less powerful, I might do a spring change, but I am going to see if I can get used to this before I do that. Im not really used to catching shells out of over and unders, prior to this, I used my Beretta Xtrema 1 for most everything for the past 15 years.The only thing I am going to do is get more choke tubes. It only came with the 3 basics. I am going to get a few more.

This shotgun has a nice palm swell so you can a solid but comfortable grip on it.
In all honesty, I can not see myself ever hunting with this one, but it is steel compatible and it has 3 inch chambers so you could take it out hunting if you wanted to.

Thanks for posting. I just received my new CX also. It is intended to be 60/40. The CXS is 50/50 and the CXT 70/30.

I haven't been able to shoot mine yet, due to some medical issues. Hope to try it out in a few weeks.
Good Luck.

They are great all around guns.
I seriously considered one before going with the CXT.
My worthless unsolicited advice would be to not touch the ejector springs.
You will quickly learn to block catch them in your hand.
Or you can do as a friend of mine does and eject them straight up
into the air and catch them on the way down.

I love these guns. Have 3 now. 2 12s and a 20/28 combo CXS. The 50/50, 60/40 designations are silly. Totally depends on your physical build and how you mount/weld the gun. The 12ga stocks don't quite fit me so I had them cut for adj comb. The 20 stock is a tad thinner and comes up good on me and shoots very similarly to my 12s--about 3.5" high at 13 yards.

Enjoy!

In my opinion, that's the best O/U gun at a low to moderate price on the market today. You can pay a heck of a lot more for a gun that won't shoot any better or last any longer than the gun you bought. And I think it's a good looking gun too. It will take you as far as you want to go in this sport and shoot as well as guns costing 10 times as much.

I think you made a wise choice. Congrats. Enjoy.

I bought a CX Silver last year. Love it, handles great.

Congrats on the new Browning!

Good choice on the shotgun and good choice on a wife as well. Keep both and they will make you happy.

Litespeed, would it be fair to guess that you're a cyclist?

Yes my wife and I are avid cyclists. My only real hobbies are guns/shooting and cycling. And Yes, I have a 2004 Litespeed Tuscany with full Dura Ace running gear and Mavic wheels. It is one of six bikes that my wife and I have between us. Obviously you're a cyclist also or you wouldn't have caught the Litespeed name as most people wouldn't have a clue.

An interesting bit of Mars exploration history is that the Chattanooga bicycle maker Litespeed had a part in designing and building the frame of the NASA Mars rover Curiosity. So, a little bit of my bike's cousin may be still on Mars, roving around the Red Planet.

https://noogatoday.6amcity.com/chattano ... curiosity/

Have a good day, Kannoncocker. Ex-artillery man possibly?

Absolutely. My dog tag still says my blood type is OD, and my religious preference is Field Artillery.

And my bike is a Lynskey, so I ride your 'other cousin', maybe.

Last major event with it was the OATBRAN. Dumbist thing I've ever done.

Excellent. Our son was an Army Field Artillery officer for ten years. Two years in South Korea, two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. He was a company commander for two of those years. He loved the Army that he joined and loved Field Artillery. Still does. Although he isn't a political person he didn't love the significant changes in the Army under the Obama administration, so he left.

I'll guess that you and he were in some of the same places, certainly at Fort Sill. When he was a company commander during Iraq, he got to do the logistics to move his battalion to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California to train before a tour in Iraq. He said it was excellent training even if moving all their equipment from Fort Benning to there and back was a real headache.

Besides the Litespeed both my wife and I each also have a Lynskey. She had always ridden a man's bike and I wanted to get her something that fit well. The Lynskey family had sold Litespeed to a bicycle conglomerate with a "no compete" clause for five years, I think. After the required no compete time period had passed the Lynskey family went back into bicycle business under their own name. A local bike shop started to carry the Lynskey brand so I had them make an appointment for us to visit Chattanooga to have her fitted for a bike frame. We are in Northeast Tennessee right next to the Virginia line so it wasn't a long drive.

As they were just getting back into the business Dave Lynskey himself gave us a tour and did her measurements. When Dave came out to meet us my wife at first thought he was the janitor because he had on old work khaki shirt and shorts and ankle high steel toe work boots. I recognized him from internet videos. A gracious and real down to earth man. Lynskey has grown a lot since then and no longer do custom frames to my knowledge. My own Lynskey is a standard Helix frame.

When we got our frames from Lynskey I had the local bike shop build the frames up with my choice of components. We put our Lynskeys on the road at the Horsey Hundred in northern Kentucky a few days after they were completed. My wife now has over 22K miles on her Lynskey, more than either of her other two bikes.

OATBRAN is beyond what we're capable of at our age and probably beyond what I would have ever been able to talk her into trying at any age. She loves cycling as much or more than me, but 85 miles or more per day for six or seven days in a row is tough. I'll bet you had a lot of fun, made some new friends and the scenery must have been amazing. Would you ever go back to OATBRAN?

Enjoy your shooting and cycling in good health.

No, I'll never again go back to OATBRAN. it was just too much for me.

Isn't it interesting how both cycling and shotgunning are better and more fun when the 'device' fits well?

Thanks for the info about your son. God bless him!

I hope we aren't egregiously hijacking this thread (and I apologize if so) but I've enjoyed chatting with you.

I've enjoyed reading the biking conversation. It demonstrates (to me at least) that shotguns aren't the only thing that people are "nuts" about.

And here I thought oatbran was just a breakfast food to help keep things moving