Three 20-Gauges Duke It Out On the Sporting Clays Field

Serious sub-gauge clay-bird shooters have two choices available to them when it comes to guns. They can either use tube inserts in their main 12-gauge gun, or they can pick a separate firearm. Tubes certainly have distinct advantages—cost and familiar handling characteristics to name two. But many of us want a separate gun, so we wanted to see if any of today’s sub-gauge sporting clays firearms were up to the task.

Clay-bird shooters who want a second gun for sub-gauge work will find three choices we tested to be able and willing competitors. Top is the $2950 Beretta 687 Silver Pigeon II Sporting No. J687435 with 30-inch barrels; middle is the $3850 Caesar Guerini Magnus Sporting with 30-inch barrels; and, bottom, a Browning Cynergy Classic Sporting No. 013245726, $3235, with 32-inch barrels. All three were fine choices, but we dinged the Silver Pigeon II Sporting for its lack of fiber-optic front sight pins, extended choke tubes, and the option for 32-inch barrels. The Caesar Guerini Magnus needed porting to counter muzzle rise, and the gun’s stock pitch caused our shooters to miss high. The Cynergy Classic missed getting a straight-A grade for sloppy checkering, lack of a hard case, and thin choke-tube selection.