My new shotgun is here! My new shotgun is here!

I’ve only been waiting for this thing since June so I guess I’m just a little over excited. When I first got into this sport I purchased a Ruger Vaquero in .45 colt. I then bought a Rossi Puma 92 in .45 colt. Jose got a Ruger Vaquero and a Norinco 97 pump shotgun. For the first several matches we shared guns and that worked pretty well for getting started and keeping the cost down. Pretty soon we were both ready for a complete set of our own guns and we both finished off with another Ruger and he bought a 92 carbine and I picked up a Stoeger Coach Gun. It’s a double barreled shotgun, and I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit.

I used the gun for almost 2 years. Jose worked on it and disconnected the automatic safety and honed the chambers. I decided I needed a little practice with the gun so I picked up some dummy shotgun rounds from Jose and did about 10 minutes of practice a couple of times a week in preparation for the Indiana State Championships. So one day in early June the shotgun wouldn’t close. It felt like something was binding up. I messed with it a little bit, and then finally took it over to Jose. After taking it apart we found that the locking lug on the bottom of the barrel was broken. This part is not supposed to break…ever!

So I contacted Stoeger and explained the problem. After having to repeat myself twice (I thought the lady on the phone didn’t understand guns at first, but she knew what was going on and was just as surprised about the break as I was) they said that even though the warranty was expired on the gun they would repair it under warranty because that part isn’t supposed to break. I was pretty happy with that so I packed up the gun and sent it back to Stoeger. Three months and a week later Stoeger sent my gun back…kinda.
Stoeger looked at the gun and decided it was unfixable so they sent me a brand new gun. Not to shabby even though it took forever. Now I just need Jose to slick it up for me before the Main Match on the 15th!