Recently, My son and I have encountered some bad luck with two different Stoeger shotguns. My son's shotgun was the model 3000, and the barrel blew up like a peeled Bannana. I don't know what caused this, I don't believe there was mud, or a stuck wad. reason being, he had shot and killed a teal, and on the next flight, when he shot, that is when the barrel Blew up like a peeled bannana. Then, the next weekend, (this past), he takes out my other stoeger P350, which has only been used about 5 times, and the fore-end breaks on both sides rendering the gun useless until I get this repaired. Has anyone dealt with their customer service, and has anyone else had problems with their product? I also posted this in the guns forum, but wanted to share here in case there is some quality control issues with stoeger products.

What shells

winchester experts 3inch #2, also mod. choke.

I had one. And had nothing but problems with it

Anytime a barrel banana peels, there was an obstruction. I have had mixed results with Xperts at the pattern board, so I never use them, when one knocks the board over and blows a 3" hole in it, time to walk away.

I've been shooting one for the past several years with no issues.

I also had a semi-auto stoeger. It's been a few years and I'm not sure of the model but I had nothing but problems with it jamming.

If it banana peeled, it was clogged.

I have one that I used really hard for 7 years. And when say really hard, I mean I was in college and hunted virtually every day during the week and took weekends off to avoid the "Barnies". It worked really well for the first 6 and the 7th was a bit of a headache. It really just fell apart. I got it fixed for a fair price, but it's currently my back up/guest gun. It works well but it can't handle the abuse of an everyday gun anymore. On a college kid budget, it's was a good gun for $500. I can also say that I wish I would have just saved my money and got the SBE II I really wanted.

I just returned a Steoger LongFowler due to the firing pin not striking there by making my gun no go BOOOM!!!
First Steoger gun Ive purchased and my last !!

Stoegers have a very high lemon rate. Lots of people have had problems. The second issue where the fore end fell apart sounds like a gun issue but the blow barrel sounds like if could be a number of things...normally that's probably a user error. He set the gun down somewhere...it got something in the barrel. Or maybe bad shells that left crap in the barrel that caused the obstruction.

I've heard of a lot of firing pins breaking in their over/unders.

I am not a expert but sounds like to me it was clogged up with something.

Thanks for the responses. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out how there may have been obstruction. guess I'll never really know. I'm going to try to call their customer service tomorrow and see what they say. As for the fore end, I don't believe there is an excuse other than a bad product.

On a positive note, I hunt with someone that had the same issue with his pump from Stoeger, and when he called they shipped him a replacement.

Like you the gun was brand new and he's not had a problem since. I'd want to say that his gun is now 3 or 4 years old now.

Sorry about the semi-auto.

I feel for you troutmauler. It can be very frustrating buying products only to have them malfunction and not perform as advertised/expected. I bought a Browning Maxus a few years ago and have sent it back to them twice b/c of jamming issues. So far they've been very responsive and helpful.

Your story reminds me of a buddy of mine from a few years ago. He had been laid off a while earlier and needed a roommate to help cover some of his household bills. So he placed an ad in the paper or craigslist or wherever, to rent out a room in his house.

Well he ended up renting out the room to a very nice girl who happened to be a stripper. It seemed like a "great opportunity for both of them" I remember him saying at the time. Whatever. So, six months or so pass, and I'm talking to him one day, and he won't stop complaining about this girl, how she f'd him, blah blah blah.

I ask what happened and apparently she fell behind in rent by a few months, and then one day he came home and "poof" she was gone. Just moved out, didn't tell him, and didn't pay the rent.

Well he wouldn't shut up about it, and finally I had to just tell him and set him straight and I said look,

"SHE'S A STRIPPER! IT'S WHAT THEY DOOOO. THEY DON'T PAY THE RENT AND SKIP OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WITHOUT TELLING YOU, IT'S WHAT THEY DOOOOO. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? SHE'S A STRIPPER AFTER ALL. JUST BE GLAD SHE DIDN'T RIP OFF THAT CHEAP SURROUND SOUND YOU ALWAYS TALK ABOUT IN YOUR LIVING ROOM. YOU DODN'T EVEN HAVE A SUBWOOFER. COME ON MAN!, GET A SUB, AND OH YEA, SHE'S A STRIPPER, IT'S WHAT THEY DOOOO!"

Sooo funny, but seriously life is about expectations, is it not? Set them straight, and you're far less prone to disappointment as we traverse through this life.

While I feel for you troutmauler, it's a Stoeger. They tried and probably gave a decent effort, but alas, fail. You don't have a whole lot of room to complain unfortunately, but some, yes. And in my opinion there was probably an obstruction in the banana peel incident. Now for myself, I will be writing a very strongly worded letter to Browning should I have to send my Maxus back again. But seriously, not joking, I will. Browning, Remington, and Benelli, undoubtedly have better customer service than Stoeger. I don't even know who owns Stoeger, maybe one of the aforementioned, but I doubt it.

I recommend a Nova or 870 for that price range, for greater reliability.

Also for greater reliability I recommend: don't do business with strippers.

Good luck bro, try to sell the Stoegers and buy some good old Wingmasters, try and avoid the Expresses, but most people are very happy with them.

I'm glad no one was hut in the banana peel incident.

Gacman, Not all strippers are like that. The ones I've met were all hard working women trying to pay for college, LOL! The stoeger my son shoots was what he bought with his own money, earlier that year I had bought him an 870. The other stoeger with broken fore end I bought because it shoots 3 1/2's and wanted it for a goose hunt. with that being said, I doubt Stoeger will do anything about barrel since it would be hard to prove a faulty barrel, and I wouldn't expect them to either. The other though, I believe they should replace part. We'll see tomorrow when I Call.

Have a M2000 and shot Expert 2s and 4s, no problems even shoting ove loads.
The barrel splitting sounds like may the barrel was plugged or maybe the wad didn't come out.
Had a friend that had his stalk split, had it in the back seat and loaded stuff on it. Went to take it out and it was broke

Had a condor from the factory wouldn't shoot the second shot, sent it in and that's what it was. sold it as soon as I got it back.

Took my buddies stoeger pump out this season-wouldn't eject shells properly. Wasn't short strokin-just poor functionality--and cost me a couple birds. Won't ever buy one myself.

Stoger is a berreta product same as benelli franci tikia sako and im sure there are others

I see people pointing this out all the time but I'm not sure what the point is. Most of the time people are inferring that Berreta's and Benelli's are great so that means so are Stoegers. That's the wrong conclusion. Yeah they are owned by the same overall company but they are separate and made separately by different people and have different standards.

a Stoeger is the same thing as a stripper, thread over, move along

I would rather have a stripper

I have owned my stoeger 3500 for two seasons now. Fist season saw 200 rounds, second season is over 400. The only issue i had was a jam every once in a while. Upon further inspection i noticed that the extractor was rounded off on one side. I ordered a m2 extractor from brownells and replaced it and i have had another 100 rounds without issue, and i havent cleaned it since the extractor was replaced.

I personally dont see myself spending the money a B gun would cost to take it out duck hunting. But to each their own.

I may understand what the hype is with a B gun if someone would explain what makes them the best.