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"Again, you're talking about target shotguns, which simply isn't relevant to double rifles. You clearly have your head in target shotgunning and not in double barrel hunting rifles, or hunting guns in general. A competition target shotgun has no more in common with a game gun than a competition bench rest rifle has with an ideal hunting rifle.

If handling qualities are emphasized in target shotguns (like the K-80 for example), somebody sure screwed 'em up. Of course they aren't, only swing is."

But I'm not talking about "target shotguns" and never have. I am talking about the shotguns used in International Skeet competition, not American skeet or trap or down the line or Olympic trench. I am talking about competition where the shooter starts at low gun position and is not allowed to mount the gun until the target is visible outside the house.

Shooting under those conditions required not only a perfect swing, but also flawless gun mounting and trigger control. In American skeet, Station 8, where you stand in the middle and face the trap houses alternatively, is virtually the easiest station on the field. At International Skeet it is among the most difficult, since you have to react to a target moving roughly 100 miles per hour, shoulder your gun, swing with the target and release the trigger, all before the target gets past you. Add to this the variable delay of up to three seconds which occurs with every international skeet target shot, which means that the shooter must react to the target, not the target to the shooter.

Errors in stance and form become glaring under those circumstances and the ultimate in a well balanced and handling gun is required. Calculate the time required for such a target to pass station 8 and then subtract the minimum human reaction time, and what is left is how much time you have to perform these actions.

No exaggerated Monte Carlo stock or high rib is going to be of any use and the ideal gun to use is identical with the ideal hunting shotgun, which is why I prefer my Beretta SO3 in the field to every other hunting shotgun I own.

In my experience, the K-80 is something found chiefly on the international trap field, where the weight compensates for the recoil of the heavy load shotshells used, or in American skeet, where the multi-barrel sets are advantageous and the clumsy handling qualities are not a handicap, since the gun is mounted before the target is called for and, as you say, only swing is emphasized.

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