Higher grade guns are embellished with extensive engraving coverage coverage and fancy wood.

As in the Browning Superposed, the monobloc of the Blaser has an underlug that protrudes through the floor of the receiver and is engaged by a locking bolt emerging from the lower end of the standing breech. The face of the lug is easily replaced if years of wear require doing so. The barrels hinge on replaceable pins in the receiver. The hammer-forged barrels have three-inch chambers, are slightly overbored at .735-inch for the 12 gauge, have slightly lengthened forcing cones and wear a flat ventilated rip up top.

With industrial-grade chrome on the inside and plasma nitride on the outside, the barrels are not likely to rust on the worst of rainy-day duck hunts. All screw-in chokes are made for Blaser by Briley and nine different options ranging from Cylinder to Extra-Full are available. Another five chokes intended for use with steel shot range from Skeet to Full. Both flush-mount and extended styles are offered available.

Grades range from the basic gun with a gold-colored "F3" on its receiver to extensively engraved models with fancy wood that would require a visit to the bank for most of us. Guns configured for skeet, trap and sporting clays are available but since I am 99 percent bird hunter and one percent clay target shooter, the F3 Game is the gun I'd rather take home--with one exception. I would have the dealer swap out the schnabel forearm for the standard forearm.

Nominal weight of the field gun is 7.5 pounds in 12 gauge and 7.2 pounds in 20 gauge. Barrel length options are 27, 28 and 29 inches for the 12 and 28 inches only for the 20-gauge gun.

Standard stock dimensions are a pull length of 14.6 inches (with the trigger blade in its mid position) and drops at comb and heel of 1.6 and 2.2 inches. Those with longer arms can specify a pull length of 15.4 inches at no extra charge and the same goes for drops at comb and heel of 1.5 and 2.0 inches, respectively.

The stock has a bit of cast, 0.12 inch at comb, 0.24 inch at heel and 0.32 inch at toe, or so say the specifications. A left-hand stock with those same dimensions is also available. The good news for southpaw shooters does not end there--the top lever can also be ordered in a left-hand version.

The F3 handled quite nicely in the field.

The Blaser F3 will surely prove to be as popular among those who sell it as those who buy it simply because its modular design along with the ultra-precision machining of parts makes each and every one of its component parts completely interchangeable. Rather than the owner of a gun shop having to stock all the various styles and models of hunting and target guns, he can stock one or two along with various parts that will transform them into whatever the customer might be looking for.

If his customer is a bird hunter, the barrel length and rib height he prefers along with a field stock and forearm are fitted to the receiver of his choice and he walks out the door a happy man. If the next customer who drops in is interested only in a gun to be used for shooting trap, skeet or sporting clays, barrels, stock, forearm and the top rib are switched in order to come up with a gun built just for him with no long wait for a special order from the factory.

The customer also has the option of doing his own parts-switching later on and the trap gun he bought is easily modified to make it better suited for other activities whether it be pheasant hunting or skeet shooting or a dove shoot with good friends. Even the top lever can be switched to left-hand opening, something those who shoot a gun from the other side will never want to be without once they try it.

I examine so many new shotguns each year it takes something really innovative to get my attention and no shotgun has impressed me more lately than the F3 from Blaser. Its quality is beyond superb. More technical information is available at www.blaser.de (click on the American flag icon at the right to switch the homepage to English); or to find the location of the dealer nearest you, contact Blaser USA Inc., 220G Log Canoe Circle, Stevensville, MD 21666 (Tel: 410-604-1495).