Blaser/SiGArms F3

     Notes: This is one of the best over-and-under shotguns one can by “off the rack,” and is in real life quite expensive.  The F3 features a fine European walnut stock and high-strength steel metalwork with no stamped steel or pressings, as well as hand finishing and fitting of the parts.  The stock and receiver use a low profile to improve quick aiming and shooting.  The stock is also uniquely ergonomically-shaped.  The F3 uses a single trigger, with a barrel selector on the stock just behind the receiver; this selector also acts as a manual safety that blocks both the trigger and the hammer.  (This means that the F3 cannot fire both barrels at once.)  The trigger is adjustable for length of pull.  The locking area is heavily built to withstand the 3-inch magnum loads it is designed to fire, and the barrel is also strengthened to handle even steel or tungsten shot.  The F3 has automatic shell ejection when the gun is broken open.  The entire shotgun is designed to be perfectly balanced, and the center of the F3 can be placed on a support without it falling off.  The top barrel can have any one of several widths and heights of sighting ribs on it.  Touches such as engraving of the side plates, left-handed stocks, finer grades of wood, and stocks adjustable for length are available upon request; Blaser will even make a custom stock for a shooter if they want it!  The standard stock has a thick rubber recoil pad.  The barrels have a standard Cylindrical choke, but when one buys an F3, they also get two free screw-in interchangeable chokes of their choice, and the F3 can take any Briley Spectrum interchangeable choke, whether steel or titanium (however, note that one cannot shoot steel shot through the titanium versions of Briley Spectrum chokes).

     The F3, of course, comes in several models.  The F3 Game has a front bead sight at the front of its sighting rib; three barrel lengths are available.  The stock is a sporting-type stock with a pistol grip wrist and a Schnabel tip on the fore-end.  It is available in grades ranging from Standard to Imperial. The F3 Competition Sporting is very similar, but generally uses longer barrels and is heavier.  The Competition Sporting can also be equipped with Hi-Viz sights atop the sighting rib.  The F3 Competition Trap is also quite similar, but uses a Monte Carlo-type stock with a somewhat different pistol grip wrist shape, a rounded fore-end with gripping recesses on either side. (For game purposes, it is identical to the Competition Sporting.)  The American Skeet and American Trap are similar to the Game and Competition Trap respectively, but the barrels are modular, so that different lengths may be used, or even just the top barrel without the bottom (some competitions require that the shooter use a single-barrel shotgun).  With both barrels, they are identical to the Game and Competition Trap respectively for game purposes, but figures are given below for use when only the upper barrel is present.  (Both barrels must be the same length for them to fit together properly.)  The stocks are also shaped somewhat differently, to appeal more to American tastes.

     In addition to the versions listed above, the F3 comes in grades from Standard to Imperial.  There are also several special editions, including the Attaché and Baronesse, as well as several hand-engraved versions.  In real-world prices, the cost of some of these versions of the F3 could probably buy one a decent car!  However, for game purposes, they are identical to their standard cousins.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: The F3 does not exist in the Twilight 2000 timeline.

CZ/Huglu Woodcock

     Notes: This is an over-and under shotgun built by Huglu of Turkey in collaboration with CZ of the Czech Republic (and it’s US branch, CZ-USA).  It is a simple, easy to operate and maintain weapon, with a stock of Turkish walnut, a rounded semi-pistol grip wrist, semi-Schnabel fore-end, and a breech block finished in case-hardened color with very simple engraving (primarily with the name of the weapon and the manufacturers’ symbols).  It is designed primarily for skeet and sporting clay shooting, but is quite useful for fowling and other hunting.  The action has no automatic case ejectors, but instead has simple extractors.  The Woodcock has a full set of interchangeable chokes (Cylinder, Improved Cylinder, Modified, Improved Modified, and Full).  The trigger is single, but selective with a barrel selector.  New barrel selector/safeties can be a bit stiff, but the trigger pull is crisp and even.  The Woodcock has a ventilated sighting rib above the top barrel, and a ventilated cooling rib between the barrels. The fit and finish of the gun are excellent. 

     Twilight/Merc 2000 Notes: This shotgun does not exist in either timeline – in Twilight 2000, the weapon was simply never built due to the war, and in Merc 2000, the cooperation between the countries involved never took place.

EAA Bounty Hunter

     Notes: EAA (European American Armory) is a company that sells a variety of imported firearms to the US and other countries.  They do not actually make the firearms themselves, but act as a middleman for various European countries, particularly those in Eastern Europe.  The Bounty Hunter is a version of the Russian IZH-43 double-barreled side-by-side shotgun, modified by American gunsmiths to either fire 20-Gauge shotgun ammunition, or, with a barrel insert, fire rifle rounds.  Putting in the rifle barrel insert consists of removing the shotgun-barrel’s screw-in choke, adding a special bushing to make the barrels fire parallel (instead of the converging fire of the shotgun barrels), adding a rubber O-ring to secure the bushing, and then screwing on a cap to keep the whole assembly in place.  The extractors for the chambers must be properly aligned when the inserts are used, or when the action is closed, it will not break open again unless the weapon is disassembled!  The rifle barrel inserts add an inch to the barrel length.

EAA Bounty Hunter II

     Notes: This collaboration of European, Russian, and American weaponsmiths was built for some time in Russia before EAA (European American Armory) brought it to Western Europe and the US.  One of the uses it got was as the shotgun used by Val Kilmer, an actor playing Doc Holliday in the 1993 movie Tombstone.  The Bounty Hunter II is a “faux replica;” it is a weapon designed to look like an Old West double-barreled shotgun, but is not actually modeled after any particular Old West weapon.  It purpose was Cowboy Action shooting, not to be used in a historical movie.  As a result, it has no automatic ejectors, and it is chambered for a 2 3/4-inch shell instead of the huge magnums often used in modern shotguns.  It has double triggers; one or both barrels may be fired at once.  To comply with modern regulations, it does have a safety, something not generally present on real weapons of the period. 

Huglu/Armsco Bobwhite

     Notes: This side-by-side double-barreled shotgun is a Turkish shotgun that is almost exclusively sold in the US, and to a lesser extent, Canada and Latin America.  It is a target/clay/field shotgun that is designed for beginners and experts alike, and is often appreciated due to its low recoil.  It is considered an attractive weapon, with fine Turkish walnut stocks and decorated stainless steel boxlocks.  They are equipped with rubber recoil pads on the stock.  They have double triggers set one in front of the other, so one or both barrels may be fired at once.

Stoeger Coach Gun

     Notes: This is a short-barreled magnum-capable shotgun designed primarily for Cowboy Action enthusiasts.  It is a double-barreled weapon with twin triggers and twin partially-shrouded hammers, and uses 20” barrels.  The stock is walnut and the metalwork is brushed stainless steel.  Overall, it is an attractive weapon, and fully SASS-legal, though it is not an actual reproduction of any specific weapon.  This version has fixed chokes and it is a plain, no-nonsense weapon able to use both modern and blackpowder propellants.

     A more modern version is also made; this version uses higher-quality wood and cannot use the very short shells the SASS Coach Gun can use.  It is also not designed for blackpowder propellant shells.  The external metalwork is blued, and the stock has a rubber recoil pad. The chokes are fixed, with either Improved Conventional or Modified chokes being available.  There is a front brass bead sight. A Supreme model of this version is also made; it is identical in game terms, except that it uses higher-grade wood and can take screw-in choke tubes. A double-trigger version of the Supreme is also built; this is also identical in game terms, but the finish can be had in blue, blued barrels with a stainless steel receiver, or polished nickel.

     The Stoeger Double Defense is sort of a Coach Gun on steroids.  It is of thoroughly modern construction, with a matte black hardwood stock, a rubber recoil pad, MIL-STD-1913 rails atop the twin barrels and under the exposed length of the barrels at the end, and a hardwood fore-end.  Nonetheless, the basic action remains the same, and operation remains the same, with the single trigger firing whatever barrel is chosen by the oversized selector/safety atop the tang.  The matte blued barrels are 20 inches long and ported to reduce barrel climb.  The barrels are joined by a single spacer between them, with a flat top, and the end of the barrels has a green fiberoptic sight. The receiver is also blued, and the whole gun is non-reflective.  The break-open action is spring-loaded for quick reloading, and has features to make them fit together tightly and securely.

Stoeger Condor

     Notes: The Condor is an over-and-under shotgun designed both for hunting and for competition.  Like many other Stoeger shotguns, the Condor is built in Brazil, marketed by the conglomerate that includes Beretta, and aimed and sold primarily in the US market.  The Condor uses high-grade woodwork (the wood depending upon the model) and a blued, highly-polished steel exterior metal finish.  A rubber recoil pad is found at the butt. The Condor comes in several gauges; the 16-gauge and .410-gauges have fixed chokes of either modified or full in the case of 16-gauge or full in the case of .410-gauge.  The 12 and 20-gauge models have screw-in variable chokes of virtually any sort of choke available.  The Condor has a single trigger; the first pull fires the top barrel (if the chamber is occupied), and the second fires the lower barrel. Sights consist of a ventilated sighting rip and a brass bead front sight. The Condor and Condor Supreme are identical in game terms except for the quality of their woodwork (AA for the Condor Supreme, and A for the Condor).   The Youth model differs primarily in the shorter 22” length of its barrels, while the Field Combo has removable barrels to allow the use of either 12-gauge or 20-gauge ammunition. The Supreme version has automatic shell ejectors; the rest have extractors instead of ejectors.

     The Competition Model is a Supreme that uses 30-inch barrels and has a stock with an adjustable cheekpiece; however, it does not have a recoil pad.  If comes in both right and left-handed models, and the barrels are ported to ease recoil.  The Condor Outback is essentially a very short-barreled Condor, with barrels of 20 inches. The Outback also has a rifle-type notch rear sight and blade front sight, and has no barrel rib.