Two years ago I wanted to get an O/U for my daughter but couldn’t really afford the $1,200-1,500 that most “brand name” O/U’s cost.
So I started researching affordable doubles. I looked at Lanbar, Yildez, Charles Daly, Baikal and many others before narrowing the choices down to the Stoeger Condor Supreme and the Remington Spartan SPR 310. The Remington Spartan is the same gun as the Russian made Baikal IZH27. Baikal manufactures them for the Remington Spartan line.
I read some critical reviews claiming failures to fire and other mechanical problems on both guns. I have also read many reviews of owners who love their "economy" O/U's.
Cabela's in Hamburg had a Condor in stock and put a 10 day hold on it for me. Then they had a Spartan shipped from Texas so I could handle both of them and do a side-by-side comparison. I went up and looked at both guns. The Stoeger Condor Supreme had a much nicer fit and finish; it had barrel selection on the tang safety (like my Remington and most other expensive doubles) and had a second bead on the vent rib. It felt and handled nicer than the Remington SPR 310. Chokes for the Stoeger are compatible with Mossberg, Winchester and Browning chokes among others and it was also $ 90.00 cheaper than the Spartan.
The Spartan was blocky and clumsy to handle, especially for a 20 gauge. It only had one bead and it was tiny. There was no barrel selection that I could see and the manual didn’t mention anything about it. The action was much stiffer than the Stoeger and I didn’t like the limited aftermarket choke selection (Colonial Arms or Trulock) or the fact that RemChokes are not compatible with this gun (it’s a Remington in name only).
I went to the store leaning heavily towards the Remington, because I love Remingtons, but after looking at both and weighing all my research…I bought the Stoeger. The Condor comes in two grades. You definitely want the supreme. The regular Condor is only stained (no finish) wood and very plain. If you’re looking for an affordable O/U the Stoeger Condor Supreme seems like a good choice. One thing I didn’t like, like most modern O/U’s, the Stoeger has an auto safety (safety resets every time you open the action). I want my daughter and whoever else uses the gun to stay used to physically resetting the safety after each shot(s) and don't want her getting used to the gun doing it for her. Also, it would be a big pain in the butt when trap shooting (most dedicated trap guns have no safety at all). Fortunately, the auto safety feature is fairly easily disabled. I did the modification myself and later found a Stoeger forum online and a guy emailed me the procedure (was the same thing I did).
Best of all, I added a ladder stand and some ammo to my purchase to bring the total to $500.00 and Cabela’s activated a $150.00 cash card. Flirting with the sales babe that walked me and my new shotgun out to the front of the store was just icing on the cake!
Here is a link to the
Condor
I bought the31020 model (20 gauge with 28” barrels) and paid $399.00 for it.
Hope this helps…