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I bought the Stevens 350 today which was mentioned in the OP. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it anywhere at Academy, and I ended up buying it from the Cabelas in Allen. Their price was $249.00. I tried to finagle the Academy price. The guy said, "Academy still has them?" I said, "not in stock." He said the price was still $249.00.

I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet, but here are my impressions so far.....

LOVE THE SIGHTS! The ghost ring is adjustable for windage and elevation and is generously sized. You pick up the front sight, centered in the rear ring, very quickly. The front sight is a protected post type with a green fiberoptic insert. I don't have much experience with tactical type shotguns, but it is hard for me to imagine how much you could improve on the sights, unless you could put a giant express type tritium insert on the front sight blade. The fiberoptic insert is nice and bright, but doesn't really stand out in low light. Possibly having a tactical light mounted on the gun might fix that. But the sights are otherwise excellent, and surprisingly good for a $250 shotgun.

The forend/slide assembly seems just a touch flimsy to me, in that the rails that guide the forend seem to flex a little bit, and the fit of the forend seems a bit sloppy. But it doesn't bind at all and the back and forth motion of the forend is smooth. I don't really know if they all feel that way or not.

I'm not impressed with the trigger. I have a Stoeger Condor Competition over and under that has a pretty decent trigger for something that isn't a high end bolt action rifle. That trigger is light and crisp. The trigger on this Stevens is heavy and mushy. Maybe it will improve with some breaking in. We'll see.

The two controls are the safety, which is a cross-bolt type located at the rear of the trigger guard, right behind the trigger itself. The slide release lever is on the right front of the trigger guard. Now, I bought this particular gun because I am a left-handed shooter, and it is an Ithaca clone which ejects downward instead of right in front of my face. However the safety button pushes out the left side of the action when it is disengaged, so it slightly interferes with my the crook of my trigger finger. And because the slide release lever is on the right side of the trigger guard, although I can reach it with my trigger finger, it is not quite as instinctive as it would be if it were on the left side of the trigger guard.

I have no idea how it'll actually shoot, but we're not talking sniper rifles here. It's a shotgun with an 18.5" barrel. I doubt I will ever fire it at anything more than 25 yards away. However, for the price, I think it is a good buy. I also picked up three 10 round boxes of Hornady 2-3/4" Critical Defense 00 Buckshot. Each shell throws eight 00 pellets at 1600 fps.

Andy, next time you're headed out with yours, give me a holler. I'll tag along with mine and see how they compare.

I'd love to pick one up as an "upstairs shotgun". My wife said we spent that budget on ammo and P-mags for now.

AndyC wrote:I was wondering if you'd gotten it :)

What does the muzzle mike out at? We can roughly calculate the choke from that - cylinder bore is .729" and each choke is approx 5-thou' tighter (unlike Rog's, which widens to a blunderbuss-like .740"!)

Mikes out to .724.

AndyC wrote:I reckon they did it to add at least a little control to the pattern. On paper, pretty much a skeet choke then, same as mine.

Hey.... skeet choke.... are you thinking what I'm thinking....?

I'm thinking that it would be a LOT easier to swing ONE 18.5" barrel than TWO 32" barrels.

Magazine holds 5 rounds though, so I'm thinking that dove hunting is out.

On a side note: I used to shoot doves with a Remington Model 1100 20 gauge - with a skeet choke as it was my skeet gun.

I was laughed at the first time I took it afield. 20 gauge/Skeet choke, bwahaaaaa my fellow shooters said.

Until I was the first one to limit (and quickly) and left the field to the red faced guys who'd laughed and laughed...

The Annoyed Man wrote:
Magazine holds 5 rounds though, so I'm thinking that dove hunting is out.

Nothing a Marks A Lot in the magazine won't fix.

I wonder if one of those forends would fit on my new Stevens shotty?

AndyC wrote:I doubt it, but no harm in asking Magpul - or perhaps we could "make" one fit :)

By the way, do you have any slugs to sight in or buckshot you want to pattern today? Give me a buzz if so; I'm sure I can get the same section Rog and I shot in last time.

Man, that's tempting; but I have two commitments today already. My son and his BIL are coming over here and they should be here any minute. Then we're headed down to the rally in Dallas. After that, I've promised to take my wife to the range for one more practice session before her Monday renewal class.

Perhaps another time? In the meantime, I'm going to email Magpul and see if their forend will fit on Ithaca pattern shotguns.

been thinking about some magpul furniture on the house gun. But hard to spend more on the furniture than I did on the 500 when I picked it up used.