I'm a rifle guy and love them. I have a defense shotgun and grew up on pumps. I am looking for ONE shotgun that I can use for everything. I'm not wanting a collection of them like I do rifles or handguns. With that said from skeet to hunting what would you get and why?
Since you already have a defense shotgun, I'll go a little bit against the grain here and seriously suggest that you purchase an O/U rather than a semi-auto or a pump. Seems weird at first, but there's a fair few advantages to an O/U when hunting and shooting clays compared to a semi-auto with only a couple downsides.
Advantages: - Can use 2 different chokes (essential for sporting clays/doubles trap and surprisingly helpful when hunting)
- More in-line recoil (when you shoot bottom barrel first you have hardly any muzzle rise)
- "Smoother" recoil (semi-autos make your aim wobble as they cycle, can throw off your second shot in doubles without practice)
- If it gets dirty/dropped it only takes 30 seconds to "field strip" it and wipe it out with a rag
- In the same vein, wiping off the contact surfaces of the action/barrel with an oiled rag is 95% of the cleaning required, with the other 5% being the choke threads on the barrel and your chokes
- Doesn't care what shells you feed it so long as they're still 12ga (light/extra light target loads and a good buttpad do more for your shoulder than a gas gun)
- All around more attractive and satisfying to shoot than a semi-auto, plus you'll look like you belong on the skeet field at least until after you go 0/5 on station 1
Disadvantages: - You can load one fewer shell while bird hunting (remember, you can still only load a total of 3 in semis)
- Turkey loads will kick a bit more (but honestly normal game loads aren't a big issue)
As far as which O/U to buy, if you're on a budget I'd say go for a CZ. Avoid Dickenson, Pointer, Tristar, Stevens, and Stoeger because their reliability is garbage, but CZ makes the best (IMO) O/U shotguns you can buy for under $1,000. I've got one that I've put more than 5,000 rounds through in the last year and a half or so. I've never had an issue with it and it still locks up tight, and on my college shotgun team there are 6 other guys with CZ's and a combined 20,000 rounds or so that have the same story.
I've also heard good things about the Mossberg International Silver Reserve II O/U's as an option under $1,000, but I haven't had any personal experience with them to confirm that. It appears to be the same Huglu action though, so it's probably more or less identical with a different appearance and name stamped onto it.
If you've got a budget slightly higher than $1,000, which it sounds like if you're looking at a Franchi semi-auto, then you might want to look at some other options. You can start to find used Browning Citori's at ~$1,000 even or just under, along with the Franchi Instinct L right around that same price. If you're willing to stretch up into the $1,500 neighborhood then I'd say go with the Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon models, and honestly anything above that price point is paying for either a name (like if you buy a Benelli) or paying for adjustability/custom fitting (higher models from Browning/Beretta with adjustable ribs and cheek risers or custom guns like Perazzi, Krieghoff, and Kolar).
