16ga.com ~ View topic - new citori lightning 16

Gentlemen:

Sunday afternoon before Thanksgiving I was browsing gunbroker.com for a new toy for several friends (not - 16s Sad

) and out of habit searched for Browning 16. Needless to say I was surprised to find two listings for 16 ga lightnings - one 28 inch and the other 26 inch with box. Pictures looked great and the bid started at $1.00 ( Very Happy

). I already have a grade 3 citori 16 with 26 inch barrels so I bid $1000 (max auto bid) on the 28" gun and promptly got busy and forgot about placing the bid. WELL, on Tuesday before Thanksgiving there is an email in my mail box after lunch stating I had WON the auction - for $976 plus shipping. Shocked

I hustled up to the bank, got a money order and sent off the ffl and paperwork Wednesday morning. I also called Briley and ordered skeet and IC extended chokes for it - invector barrel Wink

Shotgun was delivered to ffl Friday and I got it today at the gun club. VERY good shape - a couple of carry dings on the wood and needed a cleaning. Shot well (missed about 10 birds out of 100 today, but in my defense it was 26 degrees and lightly snowing). This will be a great pheasant gun. Hopefully in January in Kansas it will get a work out.

Wonder if the 28 inch barrels will fit the grade 3 - hmmmmmm....

fantastic.....

Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 124 Location: Kansas City

Hope you enjoy your new 16ga., I won the bid on the "like new" 26" Citori. I'm still waiting on mine my ffl didn't get mailed until last Monday. I fell in love with a 26" 16ga Citori I saw at Cabela's, but by the time I went back it was gone. The weight is perfect for a good swing and quick pointing. I checked out a couple of F.A.I.R but for me they were to light. I also like how the 26" Citori balances on the hinge. My Citori will be my going to Kansas and skeet gun. For my Missouri brush hunting I'll stick to my old chopped 16ga Flues.

Hi Mattkcc:

I had fun with my new citori today Very Happy

- it will get a good cleaning tonight. And a place in the safe it can call home (for a long time) when it is not out smashing clays or pounding pheasants.

I stopped at WalMart and bought a new front bead this afternoon - I like the green flourescent and have one on the grade 3 citori so they will match.

Let us know when you get yours and how you like it. I love my grade III 16 ga citori in 26 inch - I bought this one with 28 inch barrels as it's mate.

I do like the briley extended X2 chokes in these guns. I shoot skeet with sk and ic chokes and when in Kansas last month I used LM and LF to great success with 6s and 5s.

good shooting....

I also own a Grade III Citori 16, but mine has 28 in barrels. I had a great time with it yesterday. It accounted for 5 quail and the first woodcock I have ever shot. Beautiful bird, photos of woodcock don't do them justice.
Enjoy your Citori.
Paul Dwight

Welcome to the club. I think very few people on this site don't realize how much I think of these guns. You now own one of the best 16 ga. guns ever made regardless of price. Consider yourselves fortunate too. There probably will not be any more made.

Either barrel length works well. I just happen to favor my 28" guns and exactly matched the balance and weight of both. The gun naturally has that great balance and nice between the hands feel and is as good in this point as any other double ever made. Plus its weight is about ideal for the gauge. The gun pivots around its center beautifully and swings as smoothly as if it was mounted on greased rails. It is a smooth, quick gun in the hands of a solid wingshot. Some guns might be a tad lighter, but none swing better in my opinion.

To top it off, these guns are rugged too. The steel in them is among the best in the industry. Standard maintainance of cleaning them, keeping the bearing surfaces greased, and drying them out well after wet weather use are all that is usually required to keep them shooting for many years. They will take a steady diet of hunting and recreation loads and will keep on shooting long after many of the more delicate best guns have been back to the shop for repairs.

The Citori's proven record of long trouble free service on the trap, skeet, and sporting clays fields across this nation is very well known and highly thought of. It takes many hundreds of thousands of rounds to wear them out. I have friends I shoot with every week who have easily put 300,000 rounds or more through their guns and are still shooting them every Saturday or Sunday without a hitch. The most that has ever been done to any was having the coil striker springs and the firing pins replaced after the first 200,000 rounds. To me, that is amazing. My Perazzi trap guns require more frequent service than that and cost at least 5 times as much.

And don't let the two trigger SXS guys give you any grief. The Browning safety/selector system is at least as quick and foolproof as any if you practice with it enough that using it becomes second nature. I've owned well over 30 guns with this system including WIN. 101's, Charles Daly/Mirokus, Browning Superposed's and of course, Citori's. None of the safety/selectors of these various guns has ever ever given me cause for complaint or let me down. With time and practice, you will be able to have two birds down in the grass before the other guy would be slapping his second trigger.

Like I said, welcome to the club. you are both lucky and smart to have bought one. now go shoot them and have a ball.

Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 1 Location: wisconsin

As a kid I started shooting ducks with my dad's model 12 16ga. Last year I decided I needed a 25 year wedding anniversary present (my wife got diamonds), so I got a 16 ga citori white lightening 28"bls. 100 pheasants later, my other guns sit in the safe, as I continue to shoot my fun gun.I have hunting buddys at the gun club scouting for 16's, finding they are no longer on the back shelf or the closeout rack. last week someone asked me why I was shooting a 16. Before I could answer, one of my friends yelled out "because they are "cool". I had to chuckle. I have my stuff in the truck for tomorrow morning's pheasant hunt, along with my "cool" 16.

They are so cool, they are hot. And they will steadily get hotter as the rest of the gun community wakes up...as usual, a day late and a dollar short. Laughing