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Looking at buying a double barrel

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DenmanShooter:
So my wife misses her old double 20 gauge.  It was old and dangerous and I sold it to a collector a couple years ago.

Looking into whether I should get her a side by side or a over/under.

The old one was side by side with double triggers.  Every time you fired it on the rear trigger the front trigger would bite your finger. Many times with a bloody finger and it becomes not fun anymore.

I found the Stoeger Coach gun and the Stoeger over/under are about the same price and would fit the bill.  The coach has the double trigger and the over/under single trigger.  I always have preferred pump guns over doubles.  The wife likes the doubles.

What are the advantages of one over the other?

Is anyone familiar?

ILoveCats:
FYI, the Lincoln Scheels store has had some Franchi "instinct" shotguns on sale lately. They're on an end cap over by the gun safes.  The "SL" ones with the alloy receiver are some of the lightest shotguns I've ever handled. They're in 12 and 20 gauges.  Worth checking out. 

I've owned a Franchi before and it was OK. Cheaper than Beretta, better than Stoeger.  YMMV. 

Some on the Internet claim that CZ has some of the best value double guns out there nowadays.  Never handled one myself.

Mudinyeri:
My Stoeger Coach always goes bang but the craftsmanship is average at best.  Is an automatic ejector important to your wife? 

mott555:
I don't know about Stoegers, but I have a Savage side-by-side 12-gauge with two triggers and I've never been bit by the other trigger.

Side-by-sides tend to be a little more reliable because they have completely separate trigger mechanisms, if one breaks or fails you still have the other. Most have different chokes on each barrel so you also have the choice of which choke to fire first. And you can fire both barrels at once if you really want to.

Over-unders are a little easier to operate because you don't have to remember to switch triggers, but the mechanism is slightly more complicated and you can't choose which barrel to fire first.

And I'm not sure if this is generally true, but the over-unders I've operated had ejectors which completely eject the spent shells, but my side-by-side does not and I have to pull them out by hand, so the O/U was quicker to reload.

tstuart34:
Stoeger, Franchi, and Benelli are one gun loving family. They are your Chevy, GMC, Cadillac of cars. I have been following Stoeger auto loaders closely since its on my purchase list.

I know that Stoeger has alot of mixed reviews out and about but they are doing a lot of changes to try and fix issues that they have had in the past. And so far the improvements are turning there guns into reliable lower cost guns.

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