Youth Shotgun Selection

Eric Patterson

Moderator
Staff member
Thomas and I have been looking at shotguns and have narrowed the field down quite a bit. The two below are the leading contenders.

1187sportsmanyth[1].jpg

Remington 11-87 Sportsman Youth


48AL.jpg

Franchi 48 AL Youth

I've located a Franchi for under $500 while the Remingtn runs around $700. The Franchi weighs less than the Remington by about a pound and it's length of pull is 1/2" shorter. I'm leaning towards the Franchi because I've always wanted a 48 AL and can get a regular stock to go with it so I can use it for dove season.

Anybody have experience with these or have other suggestions? Right now is a good time to buy so I'd like to take advantage of the lower off-season prices I've found.

Thanks for your suggestions and advice.

Eric
 
I know which one I'd buy and it wouldn't be the 11-87, why start him with a clunker! What fun.

T
 
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The Remington comes with a 21" barrel and the Franchi with a 24". I'd go with the longer barrel. Thomas will have better success with it, and you'll be able to use it when he goes to a 12 gauge.
Rick
 
Tod

Clunker? I'll be honest, I've never paid much attention to Remington beyond the venerable 870.

Hey dad, you getting much rest these days?
 
Rick

Good point. That's part of the reason the Franchi can be restocked allowing it to do normal 20 gauge duty in addition to youth gun.
 
Eric'

I'm not familiar with either gun but from what you say I'd go with the Franchi for two reasons. The shorter length of pull and less physical weight. I would guess that this gun will balance and swing better (better fit) with Thomas's body size. I've watched my nephews struggle at times using the guns that my brother-in-law has gotten for them. I keep my nose out of it tho. :>) :>)

BTW how did your drill press rebuild turn out? I assume you have it all back together by now.
 
Clunker as in handels like something between a log and anchor. Every Frankie I've picked up felt nice or better.

As far as how we are doing, I got some real nice rest as Jen had Gus out of town with friends all week. We have actually been doing okay, I wouldn't pretend great, but getting by. I've been keeping busy, I just built a new shed and roofed it yesterday, I just need to side it before we can start stuffing it with shit.

T
 
Tod, gotcha. Boy I hear you on the stuffing part. My attic is about to explode with outgrown kids clothing. I marrried a packrat. Could be worse though, at least she's not a clinical horder :)

Dave, The lighter weight is a bonus but I wonder if that will result in significant recoil to little shoulders.
 
I think if he is gung-ho that recoil should be a non issue. Something I have found with the grandson..and wife...a longer barrel gives them a perceived "too heavy"..even though the the longer barrel gun is lighter. If the boys are taught how to properly hold, shoulder and point..then I'd say toss a coin. I'm starting to look at Franchis though and would grab a 28ga if the right circumstance popped up.Another plus for the Franchi would be that "dad has one"
 
I'd posit that the Frankie even though the barrel is longer would feel more sprightly than the Rem and less front heavy, there is a lot of weight forward on those 11-87's.

If the recoil seems too much try yelling "HEY YOU WUSS SUCK IT UP, WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE GUNS DIDN'T EVEN HAVE RECOIL PADS"! I been brushing up on my parenting by doing some reading.


T
 
Eric,

On the space issue, we are planning on getting a new place, probably start looking after the new year, so we need to get rid of some of the clutter. I have the garage and "rec room" filled with tools as a shop and hunting and fishing stuff storage and I need to get stuff shifted so that I can re-do the rec-room as a livible space again. The house is looking sharp, since getting here in '01 we have put on a new roof, new windows, new siding, new drywall in the downstairs, upgraded trim in the downstairs, we had the floors done. It looks pretty good overall, need to clean up a bedroom (patch and paint, plus some trim) and the rec-room (needs some sheetrock, trim and floor).

I am ready for a selfish all me project and that will be the Tollman Skiff.
 
Tod

Sounds like you have been busy with home repairs and improvements for quite some time. I can relate to that. When you start showing your house be sure to bake choclate chip cookies right before people come to look at it. Sweet cooking fragrances up your chancess with buyers.
 
Eric, if you are not committed to new there are quite a few very nice skeet grade 20 ga lightweight 1100 and 11 87s on sites like auction arms and gunbroker. nicer finish than the parkerized 20 ga youth. If the NEF works out and john likes shooting we will be looking that way. The Rem action is excellent at soaking up recoil and parts can be had including a very nice youth stock from Wenig.
I just had the Franchi in my hands on Friday at a local shop. I think I would look for a Rem 20 ga lightweight over the previous. If going all out spend the dollars on a Beretta. But they are spendy.
Have a handful or 3\4 oz loads in the box and I hope to get out tomorrow night to the range.
Good luck with your search
 
My vote goes toward the Franchi. Longer barrell, shorter LOP and the balance is much better.
Also the Franchi use the spring recoil instead of gas. They tend to lengthen the time of the impact resulting in less percieved recoil. Lastly it a hell of a lot better looking:)
 
Eric,

My choice when buying a first shotgun for my oldest son was Beretta 391.

I chose it because I believe in fit, and since he was right-handed/left-eye dominant I sought out a weapon that would allow adjustment for cast on. And, being able to adjust drop was a plus. The hidden PLUS was that Beretta CS GAVE me a blemished stock (to hack off for LOP) for the cost of shipping, only. The safety was also easy to switch over to left.

By the way, I checked his eye dominance when he was about 3, and I taught him to shoulder a weapon left-handed from the first toy nerf gun on, rather than fight cross dominance.

I selected a 12ga, because at 12 y.o. and about 115lbs, the instructor at my club thought my son was large enough.

I also picked a gas-operated SA, because I thought it would lessen recoil and avoid the clanging sound of an inertia system.

Lastly, I figured that with light 7/8oz target loads and the slight extra weight of a 12 over a 20, this too would reduce recoil. I learned how to reload and rolled my own, just for that.

My son was/is a pretty gifted athlete with pretty good hand-eye coordination. In five boxes of shells, he was hitting both high and low house from station 4 to the tune of about 20/25, and hit about 60 out of the last three boxes. But, I put most weight on FIT.

I like Beretta for all of the reasons stated above, I liked the 12 gage because the gun will last him until he decides to by another when he is out of the house on his own, and we have NO safety issues with 12 and 20 gage shells in our blind.

I understand that your situation may not be identical to mine, but at least this is some of the logic that I used for the critical "first weapon", including waiting a lot longer than most fathers (including my own).

Good luck with your decision.

Best regards,

Bob ... who by the way learned how to duck hunt at age 40 based on some advice that you provided on this site several years ago... I hope that this is as helpful to you as yours was to me.
 
The 1187 is a pain to maintain IMO. My Dad hunts one and all the little washer and steel rings are things that can be lost when field dressing a gun or go bad over time. My Dad and his bud both have the same gun and both have had problems.

This coming from a guy who has owned 3 shotguns in his life (870, Beretta, current Benelli) so take it for what it is worth.

Mark W
 
Eric,

I saw one of the Franchi's in a gun shop, loved it, and bought it.

But, I would try like heck to find a way for him to shoot both before I bought one. Two summers ago I bought a Franchi AL48 in 28 ga. I shot 4 shots through it, my dad shot one, then I shot one more and got rid of it. Maybe we are both wusses but that gun was painful to shoot. We were shooting heavy 28 ga loads but they were still 28's. I bought the 1100 the next week and love it.

One other thing I hated about the Franchi was loading it. I don't remember the exact details other than that you had to push a button every time you wanted to put a shell into the gun. I think that you even had to hold the button down while loading but can't remember for sure. I was a REAL pain in the rear.
 
I reah an article in Waterfowler or Delta a while back about a guy who bought a Charles Dailey youth model 20 for his kid to learn with. He had nothing but praise for it. My buddy bought one for his boy based on that article and it has been a good gun so far. You might want to check it out.
 
Just a few thoughts.
The lighter weight of the Franchi will increase perceived recoil.Some kids dont care. My daughter has shot a 12 guage gas auto since age 10.My friends son, is very recoil shy and prefers his dads 1100 12 guage over his own pump 20 guage because of recoil.

The 11-87 is NOT difficult to maintain. The last one I shot had OVER 7000 rounds through it before replacing the O-ring or the metal gas ring.You do have to use high pressure O-rings, not hardware store ones. You also have to be careful not to nick them when cleaning them.That said I would but a used 11-87 premier or youth 1100 before I bought that 11-87 sportsman.The finish is much nicer, and I bet the action is smoother too.

Most important to me is fit. If you can, let your child shoot both, then listen to him. It will be his gun.My daughter told me she wanted a 12 so she could shoot geese.I listened. She loves her gun. I NEVER shoot it.She still does and she is 19 now.
 
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