My first post, thanks for having me and being a source of information I looked to multiple times when deciding on my first sporting shotgun. I thought it would help others who are in the search I just finished if I posted a review.
A little background first. I'm 33, did a fair amount of dove/quail shooting growing up, always with my fathers hand me down sears pump 20 gauge. I got a Remington 870 just before college, and that has been my go to gun ever since to drag through the woods or shoot an informal round of clays with my brothers at our farm. We have recently started visiting a sporting clays club, and I enjoy it a lot and started a few months ago to search for a new gun better suited to this.
My personal criteria was I wanted an auto loader dedicated to sporting clays of high enough quality that it will be handed down to my son one day, and he will be proud of it. A 30" barrel, nicely finished wood, and a beretta were also preferences, one of my brothers and my father shoot beretta 391's and they seemed to perform well.
I rented an A400 xcel at the sporting clays club to try, it shot great and felt very comfortable to me. The only thing I didn't like was the kick-off, maybe this gun has seen so many rounds it was worn out but to me it felt like the gun moved around after a shot more than I wanted, kind of bump-stockish. I also disliked the blue receiver.
After a bit of research I discovered the a400 is made in the black edition, the obvious difference the receiver but had a few other subtle improvements. It took a couple months to find one locally I could touch and feel that did not have the kick off stock, but when I found it I took it home. I have never owned what I would call a "nice" shotgun, and this one is exactly what I was hoping for.
I have put 6-700 rounds of 1 1/8 oz and 1 oz target loads so far and it shoots like a dream, no jams or failure to ejects yet. To me the recoil is negligible, I have done a few days of 2 rounds of 100 and no fatigue/redness/bruising. I would like to try 7/8 oz loads but haven't seen them on the shelf around here. I'm 5'10", 170 lbs and the 14 1/2" LOP the gun has out of the box seems to fit well, I haven't felt the need to adjust yet. On that note, on this stock without the kick off it seems like you only have a very small, maybe 1/8"-1/4" window to go shorter, you could add whatever spacer to go longer. I would knock it there if I were shorter.
For my level of shooting, I feel like this was a good choice of gun. Is there better for more serious competition people, I am sure. Better value, yes. For me, if I could return it and start the search over knowing what I know now, I can't think of a gun I would buy instead, I am very happy with it.
A little background first. I'm 33, did a fair amount of dove/quail shooting growing up, always with my fathers hand me down sears pump 20 gauge. I got a Remington 870 just before college, and that has been my go to gun ever since to drag through the woods or shoot an informal round of clays with my brothers at our farm. We have recently started visiting a sporting clays club, and I enjoy it a lot and started a few months ago to search for a new gun better suited to this.
My personal criteria was I wanted an auto loader dedicated to sporting clays of high enough quality that it will be handed down to my son one day, and he will be proud of it. A 30" barrel, nicely finished wood, and a beretta were also preferences, one of my brothers and my father shoot beretta 391's and they seemed to perform well.
I rented an A400 xcel at the sporting clays club to try, it shot great and felt very comfortable to me. The only thing I didn't like was the kick-off, maybe this gun has seen so many rounds it was worn out but to me it felt like the gun moved around after a shot more than I wanted, kind of bump-stockish. I also disliked the blue receiver.
After a bit of research I discovered the a400 is made in the black edition, the obvious difference the receiver but had a few other subtle improvements. It took a couple months to find one locally I could touch and feel that did not have the kick off stock, but when I found it I took it home. I have never owned what I would call a "nice" shotgun, and this one is exactly what I was hoping for.
I have put 6-700 rounds of 1 1/8 oz and 1 oz target loads so far and it shoots like a dream, no jams or failure to ejects yet. To me the recoil is negligible, I have done a few days of 2 rounds of 100 and no fatigue/redness/bruising. I would like to try 7/8 oz loads but haven't seen them on the shelf around here. I'm 5'10", 170 lbs and the 14 1/2" LOP the gun has out of the box seems to fit well, I haven't felt the need to adjust yet. On that note, on this stock without the kick off it seems like you only have a very small, maybe 1/8"-1/4" window to go shorter, you could add whatever spacer to go longer. I would knock it there if I were shorter.
For my level of shooting, I feel like this was a good choice of gun. Is there better for more serious competition people, I am sure. Better value, yes. For me, if I could return it and start the search over knowing what I know now, I can't think of a gun I would buy instead, I am very happy with it.
