Its extremely thin and shallow reciever makes the 20 gauge Blaser F3 very comfortable to carry with one hand while afield. All photos by Layne Simpson.

Seems like somebody somewhere introduces a "new" over-under shotgun each time the sun peeps over the horizon and while there are often nice guns among them, they all too often are very much alike. Then occasionally a truly new and different gun such as the Blaser F3 comes along and it causes great excitement among sportsmen who both enjoy and appreciate the finer things in life.

From a distance the F3 might appear to be just another gun with one barrel resting atop another but closer examination reveals design details that set it apart from the rest, not just for the sake of difference but in a successful attempt at making it better.

Better known for its switch-barrel hunting rifles, Blaser (pronounced Blah-zer) is located in Isny, Germany and is headed by Bernard Knobel. The fact that Bernard was previously employed by Krieghoff for a decade or so explains in part why Blaser is now building its first shotgun.

The 20 gauge F3: what a wonderful quail gun!

Under development for several years, the first F3 guns were unveiled in Europe during 2004 but it was not until 2005 that I got to shoot them on a sporting clays course at Flint Oak in Kansas. Target guns with barrel lengths of 28, 30 and 32 inches were on hand and after trying them all from the low-gun start, I concluded that the longest barrels were for me.

This brings up the first really interesting feature about this gun. At the factory, barrel wall thickness is varied so the barrels weigh the same regardless of length, which means that the 28-inch barrels weigh the same as the 30-inch and 32-inch barrels. This is done to position the balance point of the gun the same regardless of which barrels it might wear, but even so, the guns I shot felt much more responsive in my hands when they wore the longest barrels. I won't attempt to explain why except to say it was probably more mental than physical.

As over-under shotguns go, the F3 receiver is both narrow and shallow enough to make it comfortable to carry with one hand. The 12-gauge receiver is 1.60 inches wide and 2.40 inches deep compared to 1.45 inches wide and 2.35 inches deep for my 20-gauge Browning Superposed. I have not measured the 20-gauge F3 receiver but I have hunted with one of those guns and it felt comparable in size or perhaps a bit smaller than the Superposed.

Interchangable chokes in both extended (shown here) and flush-fit are styles offered from Briley.

A removable plate at the bottom of the receiver allows easy access to internal parts. Unlike the typical over-under with its internal hammers, the F3 has linear strikers and due to captive mainsprings, the gun will fire even if a spring is broken. Should the gun be dropped with enough force to release the strikers, safety catches prevent them from moving forward to strike the firing pins. Locktime is an extremely quick 18 milliseconds.

The single trigger is mechanically reset and an inertia block prevents involuntary second pull, or fan-firing as it is also called. The trigger blade can be moved to adjust length of pull. The ejector springs are cocked only when the gun is fired, preventing spring fatigue when it is in storage, a design referred to by Blaser as the Ejection-Ball-System. The two-position safety slide can be set for manual or automatic operation. Trigger pull weight is specified at just over three pounds and it is without a doubt the smoothest, cleanest-breaking trigger I have ever tried on any shotgun.

From a hunter's point of view, the one fat fly swimming around in this particular bowl of soup is the barrel selector. Located just forward of the trigger, it is great on a clay target gun but there are better designs for hunting guns (the one worn by the Remington 3200 tops them all). To heck with barrel selectors--I'd like to see the F3 offered with two triggers, something rarely seen on over-unders even though they make as much sense there as on a side-by-side gun.