doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Citori rant

I thought I would share my experience with a brand spanking new Citori 20 ga Feather. This is one of only 3 shotguns I have purchased new. More on that later. I understood new Brownings are nothing special. I just wanted a shooter, steel shot, any-load compatible gun.

On the FIRST skeet round the top barrel would not fire half the time. Pull the trigger and nothing. Bottom barrel would fire [i]more consistantly. Oh, and the trigger pull weight must have been 7 or 8 pounds. Yes, I mean 7 or 8 lbs, no kidding! Being stubborn we fire 3 boxes thinking something will change. Of course nothing changes.

Back to the dealer. Dealer says "he will send the gun back to Browning for evaluation." Fine. Several weeks pass. Place a call to Browning to ask what's up. Browning rep says he has not received the gun! I'm getting a bit bent.

Call dealer. Manager confirms they did not send the gun, blames some employee, and is apologetic. Fine, just send it!

Browning calls several days later. Rep says the queue in front of their gun smiths is approximately 6 to 8 weeks long. Fine, just figure it out and call me when you know what is wrong.

Gun comes back 6 weeks later. Browning rep does call and claims internals have been polished. Trigger weight still atrocious. Both barrels now fire "most" of the time.

Call Browning and tell Rep that in my view the gun will forever be a piece of crap. They offer to replace it. Fine I guess. I don't really want it now. Replace one piece of junk with another pice of junk.....who cares really?

I am disappointed but, maybe this is the norm for new O/U manufacture? My experience with a Red Label is not much better (it lasted about 2000 rounds before busting internal parts and jamming shut). The third new O/U, a Sig Arms Italian import seems solid.

From this point on, I think all my guns will be pre war. Any new shotgun will be an import from Europe. Any new gun will get as thorough inspection as a vintage gun. Browning and Ruger honored their warranties, but that is not the point.

You guys are right on with your old doubles. My old Fox and Zoli have proven more dependable than two new guns.

Ryan,

Bummer!! I'll bet between my shooting buddy and I we've had 50 Citori's with no issues. All have been used. I guess everyone get's a lemon sometime.

No complaint with the oldies...except wait till a part breaks on one of them......no warranties to worry about......you may really be frustrated then!

Ken

We get the similar version of this story every now and then, here, and, I've seen it at other sites, as well. My casual observation is that it's usually a Browning O/U that is being discussed, followed by a Red Label. I can't remember seeing a Beretta complaint, other than folks bitching about how it fit (why did you buy it?)
You usually get what you pay for. You can eliminate 99.9% of any complaints you might have, by simply buying a gun with double triggers, and learning to use it.
The single trigger is a bug-a-boo, and it is not always the triggers fault-I've met people who believe their gun should be able to fire everything from the latest 3" magnum store bought load, to some mouldy stuff grandpa loaded back in the 1950s. It usually doesn't work like that, and they can't understand why.
Best,
Ted

I have a Citori with an aluminun receiver and have had no troulbe with it. Over on 16ga.com there have been several discussions about Citori firing issues. First time I have heard someone complain about trigger pulls on one.

I have to say that the Beretta 680 series has to be one of the best guns ever made. There must be tens of millions of them out there and they just keep on shooting and I can't remember reading or hearing a single complaint. They are the Honda of modern shotguns I guess. I have had two and both operated flawlessly.

The Citori Superlight Feather, by the way, is one of my favorite game guns. 6pounds, 2 ounces.

Best,

Mike

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. The last two brand new guns I bought were both custom Berettas from Cole Gunsmithing. They were both done right the first time and have performed flawlessly. Don't give up, there are good new guns to be had. If you ever consider a new O/U again contact Rich Cole at Cole Gunsmithing. IMHO, they know more about Berettas than the folks at Beretta USA know.

http://colegun.com/

Hope you don't give up on it. A 16ga SLF has been my primary live bird gun for years. Before that a Standard Citori 16ga. Very satisfied with all fuctional aspects of Citori.

Ryan,
Sorry to here what happened. But IMO, it is the exception, not the norm. I have been around a lot of Citoris as I should a lot of sporting Clays. They are workhorses. Go to any big sporting clay shoot and you will see the guys with the expensive guns running to the gunsmith for repairs. (Why do you think they encourage you to buy two triggers with every Perrazzi). The Brownings guys just shoot they targets and relax. Beretta is right there too.
You just got a bum gun, too bad. I don't see that to often. The real problem with any Browning is their repair department. I can tell you many horror stories. I am told that last year they cleaned house and it is better. We will wait and see. It went downhill after Art left.
Rugers are typically okay mechanically, the problem with them and why you don't see many in competition is because they insist on only the factory working on the gun and will not sell parts to most gunsmiths. Most competitive shooters do not want to send their gun away for a long time. The Rugers usually don't match the workmanship on a Browning.
Many production O/U come from the factory with bad triggers. My Citori was Okay. My son's Beretta was terrible. I had a local gunsmith fix it, because you can't tell what will happen when returned to the factory for a heavy trigger.
Don't give up on your Browning.

Jerry

Sorry about your experice. I have had 3 citoris no problems.

Come on guys. Just because you own one and may have put a 1000 rds a year through it does not make it the best gun in the world.

I go to the World skeet shoot every year and there are a lot of Perazzi shooters and not that many Citoris. I don't remember the Perazzi shooters running to get theirs fixed!

I see a lot of Citoris at small shoots and the local Sporting shoots that I go to. They seem like a good mid level gun.

I do not think that there are tens of millions of Beretta 680s ever produced!.........that would be 20,000,000. I am, however, glad that you like yours.

I've never been able to get past the name. Why in the world did they call them Citoris? It would be like naming a new car a Vgina.