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Technically my name has changed from iwantadouble to inowownadouble. It isn't a rifle, though. And it is far from what most of the posters on this forum would want to hear. The new addition is a Stevens (Baikal IZH43) Model 411. I know the whole Spartan/Baikal rifle (and its horrible choice of 06 or 45/70) is a no touch subject, but the shotguns really aren't all that bad; for what they are.

The gun has no pretentions of competing with the upper echelon of shotguns, or even the mid-range group that finds Rugers, Weatherby Athena D'Italia, and the like. For the use I intend to give the gun (pheasant hunting), I have no doubt that it will perform ideally. It functions flawlessly, shoots great, and is more "accurate" than I could hope for, swings fast and shoulders nice. Not great, but far from the worst shotgun I've shouldered. (Lets just say that it shoulders on me about par with a Holland 12ga that I recently shot, but not as good as a Ruger. Which is paining for me to admit, given my opinion on Rugers.)

And the main importance of this little scattergun is that it has effectively killed me from ever desiring to use a pump again. I can only hope that when I do purchase a double rifle and can spend the time sending copious amounts of nitrocellulose powder through it that my opinion of magazine rifles does not follow suit.

Even though they are as crude looking as they may be, I have gained a very new (if not reserved) praise for the little Russian imports that are flooding the market these days. At least in shotgun form.

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500 is a nice round number, either followed by "Nitro Express" or by "cubic inch displacement".

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