Caesar Guerini / Browning 825 / Beretta 694 sporting clays demo in SF Bay Area

[Drew Eckhardt]

As a birthday present, I'd like to upgrade from my old Baikal IZH-27 to a nice sporting clays gun with a ~$6K budget including taxes.

The candidates are a Caesar Guerini Summit Sporting, Browing 825 Pro Sporting, and Beretta 694 Sporting with an adjustable comb to get my fit right.

Is there any place I could demo them in the SF Bay Area?

I can visit family in the Colorado front range and demo the Caesar Guerini there, but haven't managed to track either of the other guns down.

[Bakerloo]

I don't think you're going to find a demo for any of those three. I called around (the So Cal sporting clays courses) a few months ago (before the 825 was introduced). Nobody had them to rent. They had 686s and 525s but no CG. I think your only way to handle all 3 without actually shooting them would be to make a road trip to Pacific Sporting Arms in Azuza. It's a long way, but absolutely worth it. They have anything you might want to see. There's nothing like it on the west coast. It was a 4 hour trip for me. I felt like a 5 year old going to Disney Land for the first time. Make the trip, buy a gun and have it shipped to your FFL.

[mygeaux]

The gun room at Wing & Barrel is pretty sweet, lots of high end shotguns. I don't know what they have available to demo, if anything, maybe worth checking out. I go as a guest. Membership is too rich for my blood.

[Ducky's Dad]

Re Pacific Sporting Arms, I bought a new semi-auto from them last spring, and it turned out to be a lemon (not their fault). Would not cycle five different types of ammo, so they sent it to their gunsmith. He couldn't get it to work properly, so they offered me an exchange, full credit, or a full refund. I took the refund, but I'm only posting this because their customer service was so good. .Full endorsement from me.

[squeeze]

Try the sporting clays place a Coyote in (Morgan Hill???) they used to rent CG's