[fabsroman]

I don't know where to start. I was shooting shotguns when I was 6 and didn't shoot a centerfire rifle until I was about 20. Most of my dreams about hunting/shooting involve a shotgun.

As far as high dollar guns are concerned, I like them. The only argument for not liking them is when you cannot afford them, like me right now. With that said, my first shotgun was some beat up POS .410 single shot with a hammer, that my dad still has in his gun safe. We were actually just talking about it tonight when I was over there. I said that in 5 or 6 years my son, my dad's grandson, would be coming with us hunting. My dad said he could use the .410, to which I remarked that he would still be too young for a shotgun at 5 or 6. We'll see what his maturity level is.

I've shot skeet's K gun, and probably the exact one that he is referring to in this post. It is a nice gun, but for some reason I just really like my Berettas for clays, especially my 391 Teknys Sporting Clays gun.

I thought I would always love the o/u guns because of their "snob" factor, but after shooting them for 10 years and then picking up a Benelli SBE for hunting, I found that I did better with the SBE than the Beretta 686. Then, when the Teknys came out I bought it as soon as I saw one on the shelves, and shot a 48/50 in sporting clays the first time out with it. Never hit that many with the o/u.

As far as shooting and hunting after a wife and kids is concerned, it does put a damper on it. However, I'm going to try my hardest to get out there this year. My dad, brother, and I are supposed to go clay shooting in 2 weeks and a friend wants me to shoot with him this weekend.

GOB - you can buy 40 of the 870's for the price of the K-gun. You could also buy 3 of the 870's for what I paid for the SBE. With that said, if I had three 870's in my possession, I would gladly trade them for a SBE. I've shot a friend's 870 and absolutely hated it. In the end, if you enjoy what you are hunting with, that is all that matters.

As far as a Mercedes being twice as good as a car priced at half as much, I think that is a bunch of BS. My Taurus has 200,000 miles on it and it is 12 years old, knock on wood. It cost me $16,500. My cousin's Mercedes AMG cost him $100,000 and he has had a bunch of problems with it and it is just over a year old. Sometimes, there is the exclusivity factor. In other words, people are willing to pay a lot for something not because it is better, but because it is very exclusive. If Ferraris cost $50,000, I'm willing to bet over time more people would buy Corvettes and Vipers than Ferraris if the performance was anywhere similar.