Where have the cool pump guns gone?

So many cool semi-autos and double guns coming out, but you never see any really higher end pump guns. Something like the old Winchester Model 12 clays guns. with beautiful wood, silky smooth actions

Oxymoron...there has never been a cool pump shotty (I know you love when people do that )

For the cost it would take to make them people would just buy a semi.

That’s like asking if there’s any good new Fanny packs on the market

Rock Island vpa 40. Cheap, seems reliable, and 19 round detachable box mags available

Pumps are antiquated. Good tech for the time but no reason to own one with todays semi-autos

I get it, Buzz. I don’t like the way semi-auto shotguns shoot. It only makes sense that there should be some nicer pump options out there. The reason that there isn’t is because the market doesn’t demand it. It’s that simple.

They all petered out after the Wingmaster

There are a few reasons to own a pump over a semi-auto, even with the quality semi-autos that are around today.

Cost is probably number one. Yeah you can get a cheap semi-auto, but yeah it's going to jam like crazy. Yeah I know everybody's got their $300 semi-auto that has never had an issue, but in reality the only thing I've seen that never has issues starts at about 700 or $800 for a Franchi and goes up from there


Versatility is probably number two. Pump guns you can go from mini shells to 3 in and maybe three and a half without having to do anything to the gun other than load up and shoot. There are several different semi-autos that you have to switch gas rings and such if you're going to go from two and three quarter to heavy 3-in mags.

Working well with low maintenance is probably number three. Even solid autos need more cleaning and such than pumps to work reliably. The nature of pumps just allows them to work with less maintenance



None of that is to say that autos or not very good guns, but pumps are pretty all right too

Mikey out with a strong contender for post of the year!

Agree, Judd has one in the OT that is fire too though.

He said "shotty"

Yeah, but at least he didn't say "running" a shotty.

I still like pump shotguns, but only 870 Wingmasters. Some of the slightly earlier 870 Express and tacticals were pretty good, but the later ones not so much.

Judd is so "street" ya know.

Just wait until you see the latest spun up barrel I've done

tan ?

Aw hell, I forgot...you can't see colors...it don't matter...they all look tan to you

Ithaca has tried to revive their model 37 a few times. It’s just not cost effective. If you want a pump buy a BPS otherwise buy a used gun, Wingmaster, M12 or M37.

Fan boys of their plastic stocked semis just never mastered pump shotguns. It's a fact some people have hard time walking and chewing bubble gum. I was raised knowing 3-4 men that could kill 4-5 quail
per man on the rise with model 12. But there was actually quail back then and it was a money game to them. I shot consistant 22-23 out of 25 on skeet with model 12 but still enjoyed my Browning Superposed.

well said

Same as what I shot with a Model 12. All the straights on the skeet course were with that Model 12

I shot pump guns growing up.

Nothing really to master. Had a couple 500’s, a couple 870’s. Had a wingmaster that I shot incredibly well.

I still prefer autos for waterfowl guns and O/U’s and SxS’s for upland work.

I’ve shot a lot of quail. Hundreds of them. I’ve never known anyone who could kill 4-5 birds on a covey rise. Calling bull on that one.

Once I found an O/U that fit me, it became the only shotgun I wanted to hunt with. I still have a deep appreciation for the smooth action of a well used pump.

Your group of 4 men would kill 5 birds each on a covey rise? That's 20 birds per covey. That sure makes for some short hunts.

Yeah, that’s the problem for sure

I have never seen more than one man take down five. However, In the 60's, 70's, and maybe early 80's before the end of quail in this area, Hopkins County & surrounding, I would bet that among conversation with the best quail shooters around here one name would come up. Johnnell was witnessed many times dropping five on the covey rise with a Remington 1100. I hunted and shot skeet with the man and he was the best.

His 1100 was cut off at 21" with a strip of white Band-aid tape running along the top of the last few inches of rib with no bead. Though he was tall and long armed the stock was about youth length. The man was fast with this gun. This 1100 looked real rough from many years of use, but I never saw it fail. I watched him on every hunt I went on with him hold down a barbed wire fence with the receiver of this gun to step over the fence. It was a tool. He might say that if you want them to stay pretty leave them at home. He had pretty guns at home.

This man was my mentor when it came to hunting and shooting. We shot thousands of hay pasture clays together. We played a race game by throwing one bird and see who hit it first. Every few birds one of us might not shoot to see if the bird was missed. On several occasions with two typical spring loaded throwers and a hand thrower we put five pigeons in the air and he about always got them all.

Jonnell is in Heaven probably sitting with Ace and Mack, two great bird dogs. RIP Jonnell.

Sad part of it was for the birds it wasn't short hunts. Money was their goal, $1 for bird on the ground, $3 for bird on the wing. They had access to land and their work they knew where birds were so they were scouted and knew where coveys were. They would crowd coveys together and it was game on. They knew every inch of the Johnson Ranch outside Odessa and I'm sure the hoped fences east of Andrews and anywhere else they found birds. Looking back it would have been wasteful and slaughter if they didn't eat them but it was all about the money to shooters. I use to hunt south of Greenwood just north of I20 and we would run covey of blues into some bobwhites and it was great mixed bag. My dad like to flush a covey and see numbers of birds and only take small percentage if covey could stand it, bad hatch we drove and bird watched.

I wish I was manly enough to know how to pump a shotgun effectively

Feel same way, My elders are so ashamed

I can shoot the chit outta a pump.


I still choose to shoot something else. Maybe if I was going to shoot crips on the streets of LA I would use a pump.

For everything else I like an auto loader or O/U. Only autos I have had trouble with were 1100’s with the O-rings. Easy fix. Beyond that, no issues with my beretta, Benelli or Browning autos.

And I still call b.s on guys killing 4-5 birds with as many shots with a pump on rising birds. Maybe if you got 3 with 1 shot and 1 on the others

I can shoot the chit outta a pump.

me too!

That's pretty funny!