We are ready for my sons first shotgun and during the shopping process the gun that he liked the most at the store was the TriStar Setter. He's interested in trying bird hunting and joining his school's trap team and that is about it for the boxes that we need to check for it. I'm was thinking of a Benelli M2 as you can pull off the youth stock and put on an adult one for as he grows (or I would have a new 20 gauge if he didn't stick with trap as a hobby) but he was luke warm on that one when he handled it.

The Setter wouldn't have been on my list of ones to look at due to it's really low price (not to be high maintenance but I usually ignore the option of anything that I'm buying that I want to last if it is drastically cheaper than the rest of the market) and due to not having heard a lot of feedback about the brand. However, he felt like it fit him the best and even when I shouldered it, even though I'm bigger than him I felt like it pointed pretty nicely. I suppose getting one that fits comfortably is half the battle so there is that.

The million dollar question for me is will this thing be breaking after a few months and/or will I be able to find parts for it?

I used to work for a company that sold a shitton of TriStar shotguns,

they are quality peices, semi auto, O\U , while some had some peculiarities, (a few of the autos were , according to customers, good bird guns or good deer guns, but never both,) the O\U shotguns in any caliber were universally liked,



as far as reliability, in 5 yrs, we only sent back one or 2 TriStars for repairs, and the Settler was not one of them,

I have a 15 year old or so Tristar semi auto, more of a tactical style with 18 inch barrel. I don't see that particular model on the Tristar site currently. I bought it as a home/bear defense gun for a second home we have in western North Carolina because it was cheap and recommended by the local gun store owner. Never used it for either home or bear defense, but I take it out to the range about once a year and have maybe 200 - 300 shells through it, so not shot all that much. But FWIW it feels solid and has been absolutely flawless. Don't know about parts availability because I haven't needed any.

Tristar's are decent gun but keep in mind you get what you pay for. In this case we have a Field gun designed to be used for Light Hunting and shot perhaps 200-500 times a year. This means the wear surfaces are basically Light Duty and it is quite light in weight for it's gauge. If you are only going to shoot it 5 or 10 times that light weight means it's easy to carry for a mile or more and the recoil will be tolerable for a small number of shots.

Now the problem, your son wants it to shoot Trap. Which means he'll be wanting to shoot 1 or 1 1/8 ounces "heavies" in a 3 inch shell. In a 6 lbs. gun that is going to hurt, especially after a 4 box competition. It will also hurt to practice.

I would suggest that you go straight to a 12 gauge with a good weight for a Competition gun. The Browning BT-99 is a rather famous Starter gun for Trap because it's an excellent choice for trap singles and as a result there is a wide selection of used BT-99's available with prices ranging from about 700 dollars up to 1500 or a bit more. For price Condition is King with the really pretty ones fetching high dollar. However this is a Browning Action and I do not believe that there is a more Durable action joint than the Browning design. Basically it will take 2 or 3 LIFETIMES to wear out the joint on a Browning. So if a gun is a bit ugly from heavy use odds are very good that in mechanical terms it's just getting broken in.

I have a Viper gen 3 bronze. Bought it on a whim; I really wanted the wood. I'd definitely buy another, but I'd highly recommend buying a replacement shoulder pad as the one that comes on it is garbage, and actually put me in physical therapy with an extremely angry brachial plexus after 25 of the Winchester Wallyworld special bird shot loads on its maiden voyage out to the farm. I ended up having to do a grind to fit Limbsaver pad as the ready-made option that was supposed to fit, well, didn't.

I echo Scooter's point that this was a LIGHT shotgun. Great for running around, probably not so much for competition.

I've got one of these in red. https://www.tristararms.com/se...orting-synthetic-red

It's probably got 1K though it shooting clays. It's been a great gun with zero cleaning or maintenance. Just keep shooting.

I wanted a clay gun on a budget that looked different than just a steel and wood gun. My buddy named it "Jessica" after Jessica Rabbit form Who framed Roger Rabbit due to the red color.

Also for what it's worth they are made by Armsan in Turkey. You can also find plenty of reviews on Armsan from guys shooting clays in UK.