My wife has a walnut furniture one in 20 ga. Works well, goes bang when it's supposed to. I "borrowed" it to shoot my turkey last spring and it's fairly handy to pack around. Fit and finish is very reasonable for how cheap they are.
There will be some who have never used a Tristar but bad mouth them but I have an O/U and an auto loader that work flawless. They may not be as refined as my Browning's but I actually shoot them better and would have no issues saying go for it if fits your needs. My Viper G2 Bronze is nice looking as well has never not fed.
I have one, for what it costs, I've been very happy with it. Never had a ftf with it, but I've jammed it twice on fast 2nd shots, one of which I distinctly remember the shell that jammed being not 100% pushed into the feed tube when I loaded it, due to dropping it in the snow and getting some crud on it. Was easy enough to clear, and 2 minor jams out of probably 300-400 rounds is just fine for me. I looked hard at it and the Stoegers that are $200-300 more and couldn't find enough difference to justify the more expensive gun, other than slightly better fit and finish on the Stoeger. I am a casual, once or twice a year upland hunter.
thanks guys, I use to quail hunt hard, then waterfowl hard, every weekend and more. but nowdays I turkey hunt a couple days an waterfowl a couple days a year and maybe shoot trap a couple times. I have an amazing sx4, prob the best shotgun Ive ever owned. But, I need to give it to my son cause I gave my daughter a sx3 and I wanna keep peace in the family. I dont want to buy a 900-1200 dollar shotgun for 4 hunts a year. hence the tristar. I had a stoeger a few years ago, had a few ftf with it but overall a nice shotgun, but man would it kick the snot out of you.
My daughter uses the Tristar Raptor 20g for waterfowl/Turkey its been 3 seasons and this season we started having feeding issues. Im going to replace the o-ring and hope for the best. Its had a bunch of shells through it with no issues prior
I recently bought one in .410. Not impressed so far. Have had jamming and cycling issues from the outset. Spent shells not ejecting from chamber and have to disassemble to remove it. Tristar says you have to "break in" the chamber by putting 2 cases of magnum loads through it. You know how long it takes to put several boxes of ammo through a gun that has to be disassembled after every shot due to a stuck shell in the chamber?? Also, if you look on their website, there are several brands of ammunition that are not "approved" for use in their guns. WTF?? Who makes a firearm that can't shoot factory ammo?
Have one in 28ga. For a $500 gun it’s been solid. When I bought it I compared it to the weatherby. Same gun, but cheaper under the tristar name. Now I have heard that different gauges are different mfg, so look at reviews of the gauge you want.
I have their O/U in 28 Ga., and a couple buddies have the vipers in 28Ga. They all work fine, but are definitely not going to last like a better made gun. If you can use a pump, I would look at the Benelli Nova- for the money about the best shotgun I have ever used.