Westward

Yes, agreed. The artist's grade part polymerized linseed is the best unless you can find pure teak oil, but it has to be pure, not the stuff they call 'teak oil' for your garden furniture. Pure teak oil gives a real glow to the wood and is by far the best oil to protect the wood against water.

Teague mark their replacement Mobil chokes as Beretta/Benelli so I'm sure they're interchangeable. Look up Teague's site for compatibility info.

Rizzini or Sabatti, one or the other.

That's a good price. Are they available in Euro 8s which is equivalent to UK 7.5?

This isn't a problem with the cleaning process but I would strongly advise against using WD40 inside the action. It's a very poor lubricant and leaves a residue which you really don't want to get into the trip rod holes and the inertia mechanism. I've no knowledge of Brunox but the WD in WD40 stands for water dispersant which is what it was designed for. It's okay for cleaning the bores and it offers some rust protection but that's about all. If Brunox leaves a residue like WD40 and it gets into the trip rod holes or inertia system you'll be in problems again.

With all due respect the 'fashion' for 30" (and longer) barrels on sporting O/Us has been around for many years and isn't going away in our lifetime. I'm not saying 28" is no good, but for clays in particular, 30" is usually better whilst for some 32" is better still and the reason for buying them is rarely fashion.

I can't quite see why this would call for re-hinging unless the hinge trunnions are heavily worn, in which case they should have been sorted 1st time. The theory presumably is that the barrels are bouncing off the breech face due to worn hinges and causing the locking bolt to back out. Well I'm not a gun smith I can't say for certain that's BS but previous experience with Mirokus, which use exactly the same locking method, is that replacing the top lever spring is a short term fix and eventually a replacement locking bolt is needed rather than re-hinging.

The MK70 is identical in everything except engraving to the Browning 425. It's rugged, reliable, durable and fairly well made. A good all rounder but I'd say make sure it's got 30" barrels.

Hi Liz Another possible derailment but does your field of work overlap at all with neuroplasticity? I'm wondering if a flinch could sometimes be trained out by reprogramming neurons rather than by de-layering the subconcious. (Just another interested amateur)

Yep. AKA label remover from office supplies shops. It softens the sticky without harming anything else. Jam makers use it to remove labels from jam jars so it's pretty safe stuff.

I don't bash Beretta, GMK or indeed anyone else unless it's called for. By the same token I also don't suffer from blind loyalty to brand X or supplier Y. The whole point about real customer service is that it should be automatic for all customers all the time and in all aspects of the business. Here's something to think about: I shoot sporting clays and Beretta has a new-ish sporter in the form of the 690 sport. I know of this gun because it's been on dealer websites and guntrader for several months. If I wanted some information such as barrel length options, available versions or overall weight where would I go to find it? Surely the obvious place would be GMK's website. Well it wasn't on there back in December when I was shopping for a gun, even though there were some around with the dealers and it isn't on there now, over 3 months later. I didn't buy a 690 for (numerous) other reasons but the fact that GMK can't even be bothered to put it on their site must be costing them business.

Why don't you ask them to fit a standard grade 1 stock so that you can use the gun until the right wood arrives? I'm sure the new, improved, customer focussed GMK would be very keen to do the right thing.

It's more than likely that they've finally got someone monitoring the forums. Let's hope the new improved GMK warranty service is not just a one off.

Mick, read my post #37 where I accept that Beretta guns are relatively trouble free. I've had 3 and none went wrong in 7 or 8 years of use. But I maintain that the quality of the finished products is not what it was and whilst I don't have figures, I'd bet a healthy sum that their market share has fallen and is continuing to fall. As for your ridiculous comment that I suggested they have a call centre providing daily updates I did no such thing. Have you ever heard of Email or SMS (text messaging). Alternatively, since this is the 21st century, they could easily have a tracking system accessible to the customer who has been previously given a job number. I had a similar system 25 years ago ( pre internet) where anyone in the company could look up the progress on any job going through the workshop. The one thing that peeves customers more than anything else is being kept in the dark and you can defend GMK all night long but they need to learn that fact and realise that without happy customers they don't have a business.

Presumably 'fruity' missed the paragraph in the warranty terms that excludes lower priced models from having to be merchantable quality.

It's aways been my experience that trying to solve a problem before it happens usually ends badly. Since you've got 2 guns already, let her try them both out and at the same time she can get some familiarity with the weight and feel of guns generally. Guns feel much lighter to a novice after the first couple of outings. There are loads of women of all shapes and sizes shooting 12g O/Us with 24 or 28gm shells. Like WW points out women (and youngsters) don't seem to be any more recoil sensitive than men. Gun fit can be more tricky though and some women prefer trap stocks.

As I recall you had a technical query which was handled well. Where it seems to turn sour is in providing a satisfactory service to people with warranty problems. We spend significant sums on our shotguns and when they go wrong within the warranty period GMK should understand that it's vital to keep the customer informed. Instead, according to the complaints I hear about, all goes silent until the customer gets agitated and asks for updates whereupon they often get fobbed off. See above! By now PeaceFrog should know exactly what's going to happen and when.

Anyone could be forgiven for thinking GMK exists in some far away place where time stopped in 1955. Someone please tell them it's 2015 and that there is something called service which even the banks give to their customers.

Apart from the Fabarm STL HR there's also the Bettinsoli X8, but the most popular HR guns are the CGs. Most of their models can be supplied in Ascent form which is a fixed medium high raised rib and adjustable stock or in Impact configuration which has an adjustable high rib and adjustable stock. I've shot both CG types but if I had to have a HR I'd choose the Ascent.

It really seems a shame to have to wish you good luck but as you've probably realised on PW and other forums, getting satisfaction on warranty issues from GMK may prove to be quite a test of your resolve - but I genuinely hope not. Be interesting to hear how it goes.

No one can guarantee that a mechanical device won't ever break down but all the main 4 makers in the mid price range produce reliable guns. The Grade 1 Mirokus & Brownings are good value and firing pins/springs are cheap and easy to replace, but IMO the higher grade ones are ridiculously overpriced. Despite the ever growing numbers of complaints about Beretta build quality, the 686/7/2 guns are usually reliable and durable with no real weaknesses. In the £2 - 3.5K bracket CG leaves the others standing in almost every respect, with build quality, fit and finish being the most evident, and you can scour the internet as much as you like, you won't find any history of serious mechanical issues. Don't be put off by the 'experts' down at the club, take a close look at the CG Summit, you'll be amazed at how much gun you get for the price.

I think the jury is still out on fibre wads with overbored barrels. I've shot a lot of fibre through a standard Optima HP barrelled Prevail with 5" cones and apart from a bit of leading in the bores they worked fine. CGs have a nominal bore size of .735" which is 3 thou more than Beretta and when shooting the exact same shells I noticed a few where flame was coming out of the muzzles so I immediately switched to plastic This is presumably the dreaded blow by and something I won't be risking again. I store shells upstairs in the house so it wasn't temerature although these were a couple of years old.

Quality is not a given, even from the major makers of factory produced guns. On every forum and in every clay club we hear tales of woe about faults that should have been spotted at the QA station. But when all's said and done most of them do what they're supposed to and don't give trouble and even if the standards of fit, finish and attention to detail are often less than stellar people don't seem to notice. At least until they look closely at a CG and realise what a poor job the others are doing...

Your father's 10 year old 686E - like mine - was built in the custom shop by gunsmiths, alongside the 682 and DT10. In all probability it will last forever and give no trouble. The current ones, which are a look alike product designed to cash in on the original's reputation, are built in the main factory by assembly workers and you cannot expect the same level of build quality. Inspection by an independent gunsmith sounds like a very good idea as I suspect you have a battle ahead of you to get a satisfactory outcome.

Senior moment... Sorry...