One of the newest shotguns being offered by Caesar Guerini is the Summit Impact Trap Combo. This turns the extremely successful Summit Impact into a shotgun which is optimal for all clay-target disciplines.
In the spirit of full disclosure, when I joined the Pro Staff of Caesar Guerini, I chose the Summit Impact as my shotgun because of the multitude of adjustments it offers (i.e., adjustable comb, adjustable rib, adjustable Length Of Pull), thereby allowing the shotgun to be adjusted to the shooter rather than forcing the shooter to adjust to the shotgun. Since getting this shotgun, I have adjusted it to fit me perfectly and, as such, have shot championship scores in all clay-target games. My only desire would have been to have a 34″ single barrel to use for singles and handicap — with the introduction of this model, this barrel has been included.
The Caesar Guerini Summit Impact Trap Combo came in a red Negrini hard plastic case with black and red velvet inside. The bottom of the case has three compartments: one holds one barrel with forearm attached, one holds the stock and receiver, and one holds the black plastic choke tube case. A choke tube wrench, stock wrench and Allen wrenches are held in specially-made cut-outs in the case. In the top compartment of the case is the second barrel. Both barrels along with the stock/receiver come in black and red sleeves with the Caesar Guerini name embossed in silver. The case has four latches, two of which have combination locks.
The Summit Impact Trap Combo is assembled as expected for a break-open shotgun. When assembled with two chokes installed, the over/under weighs 8 lbs. 6 oz. The unsingle with a choke installed weighs the same. Using two snap caps, I saw this shotgun utilizes an inertia-trigger system. Both the top and bottom barrel have a very crisp 3.4 lb. trigger pull after a very slight take-up. Upon opening the combo, the ejectors in both barrels tossed the snap caps well past my shoulder on the ground behind me. Measuring the bore diameter of the Summit Impact Trap Combo showed all three barrels measured at .735.
The Summit Impact Trap Combo comes with five MAXIS competition choke tubes (Light Modified, Modified, Improved Modified, Light Full and Full). The choke tubes are 3 1/8″ in total length, and 7/8″ of that extends beyond the end of the muzzle. On the outer ring of the extended part of the choke is the mark designating what choke it is. The Caesar Guerini MAXIS chokes are made of the same metal consistency as the barrels. Therefore, when the shot is fired and the metals flex, they do so together. This minimizes pattern inconsistencies and deformities.
Just behind the top lever is the safety which moves forward and backward. The barrel selector is integrated on top of the safety lever and moves sideways to select which barrel will fire first. When a single red dot is showing, the under/lower barrel will fire first, and when two red dots are showing, the over/upper barrel will fire first. In order to move the barrel selector from one side to the other, the safety button has to be pulled back (where the letter ‘S’ is showing above the button). This feature of having to pull the safety back to change the barrel selector prevents a shooter from accidentally changing it while opening the top lever or repositioning his/her hand. After the barrel selector is on the correct first-firing-barrel, the button can be pushed up into the firing position.
The Summit Impact Trap Combo sent to me for this review had a 32″ non-ported over/under barrel and a 34″ non-ported unsingle barrel. A Monte Carlo stock is standard on this gun as is the 4-way adjustable comb (up/down for Point Of Impact [POI] height and left/right for cast). The firm rubber recoil pad is ½” thick and has a very slight concave curve to it. With this gun being made for a right-handed shooter, it has a palm swell on the right side of the pistol grip best described as “medium” in sensation. The checkering on the pistol grip is “light-medium” in feel. The shooter will know it is there, but it is not too gritty.
The Length Of Pull (LOP) with the trigger in the middle of the rail is 14¾”. The rail upon which the trigger can move front/back is 1″ in length, allowing the LOP to be adjusted from 14¼” to 15¼”. The wood-to-metal fit between the stock and receiver and the forearm and its metal components were excellent.
The receiver of the Summit Impact Trap Combo is dark satin blued. It has the name “Caesar Guerini” embossed in gold lettering on both sides of the receiver, and the model name “SUMMIT” is embossed in gold lettering on the bottom of the receiver. Along with the name and model number, the receiver has some decorative floral designs etched throughout. This engraving is done by the world-famous Bottega Giovanelli engraving house in Italy.
The 32″ over/under barrel is topped with a 17mm-high rib, which is adjustable at the muzzle end using one of the Allen wrenches provided. The 34″ unsingle barrel also has a 17mm-high rib, which is adjustable at the muzzle end using a wheel that can be turned by hand, then locked in place by tightening a screw with an Allen wrench. Both ribs are tapered from 11mm at the receiver to 9.6mm at the muzzle, and both ribs have two beads: a white Bradley at the muzzle and a small silver bead approximately halfway down the rib.
A semi-beavertail forearm is used for both barrels. Similar to the pistol grip, the checkering on the forearm is “light-medium” in feel. The forearm utilizes the Anson push-rod release, where the button at the end of the forearm is pushed down to remove it.
To test this gun on the range, I headed out to Golden Gun Club in Watkins, CO. They recently converted their patterning board from using paper to a light-gray grease-paint format. With the comb set such that the two beads were in line with each other, I used the Allen wrench to set the rib in its highest position at the muzzle for both the unsingle and the over/under. Starting with the over/under, I put the Modified choke in the lower barrel and used heavy 7½ shotshells 15 yards back from the patterning board to observe a 50/50 POI. Using the Allen wrench to turn the screw three turns to lower the rib gave me a POI of 60/40. Three more turns gave me a POI of 70/30, and with three more turns the rib was in its lowest position, giving me a POI of 80/20. I did this process in reverse (started with the rib in the lowest position and moved it three turns at a time to bring it to its highest position) when I put the Modified choke in the top barrel, but the observed POI results were the same.
Since I have a visual preference when shooting trap to have the two beads in a figure-8 configuration, I raised the comb on the Summit Impact Trap Combo to give me this visual and went back to the patterning board. What I found was by raising the comb just enough to give me this look, my 50/50 POI went to 60/40 POI. After swapping the over/under barrel for the unsingle barrel, I put the comb back down so the two beads were in line with one another, and I went through the same process. I concluded this barrel’s POI can be varied from a 60/40 POI to a 110/0 POI when the shooter’s eyes are lined up so that the two beads are in-line with one another. Backing up to 40 yards, I shot at the standard 30″-diameter circle to review density and uniformity of the Caesar Guerini MAXIS chokes. The uniformity of these chokes was excellent. And, while I did not do a pellet count, the percentage of pellets in the circle for the Full, Modified and Improved Cylinder chokes I used appeared to be correct…if not on the high-side.
With the unsingle already on the Summit Impact Trap Combo, I headed to the 16-yard line with a box of light 8s and the Modified choke. I used what I just learned to set the POI to 80/20 with the beads aligned to a figure 8. I hit all 25 targets, with 20 of them hovering in the air as a smokeball after I shot. Using a medium-high hold (not a parallel hold but not holding down on the house), what little movement I made to hit the target seemed effortless. And, the movement to the hard left and right targets from Posts 1 and 5, respectively, was very easy and smooth.
After moving the microphones back to the 27-yard line and changing the choke in the unsingle to Full, I grabbed a box of heavy 7½s and went to Post 3. When I walked off Post 2, I was ecstatic since I did not miss a single target from long yardage. That is the first time I had done that as part of a gun review! While I did not get the hovering smokeballs I did when shooting singles, all 25 were solid hits.
I swapped the unsingle for the over/under and installed the Modified and Full chokes to shoot doubles. With the 80/20 POI, I was able to shoot the first target with minimal upward movement and then make a clean move to the second target. Since shooting doubles requires more gun movement than singles or handicap, I got a better chance to see just how smooth this gun would swing. It was unbelievably smooth, and at no time did I feel like it took effort to push or pull the shotgun to get to the second shot. I was pleased with a 49 in doubles, although I had really wanted to shoot a 100×100 with this gun!
Since I felt comfortable adjusting the POI after patterning, I set the POI to 55/45 and headed to the 5-Stand course. I decided to use heavy 8 shotshells with the Light Modified choke in the bottom barrel and the Improved Modified choke in the top barrel. The 5-Stand configuration at the Golden Gun Club uses seven machines which consist of two incomers, one rabbit, two crossers (one from the left and one from the right), one chandelle and one that drops in from a machine stationed behind the shooters. I ended the round with a 23, having missed one rabbit and one overhead dropping target.
Shooting 5-Stand with the Summit Impact Trap Combo allowed me to get a great feel for the swing characteristics and balance between the hands. On 5-Stand, I like to use an off-the-face starting position and start moving the gun with the target as I bring it to my face. The Summit Impact Trap Combo moved effortlessly to my cheek, and the swing continued to be smooth as silk. I felt the medium-height rib of this shotgun allowed my eyes to clearly see the target while not feeling the barrels obstructed my vision.
While most shotguns offered in the 32″/34″ “combo” configuration are dedicated trap shotguns, the Summit Impact Trap Combo is one combo which can excel mightily at all clay-target disciplines because it can be adjusted to shoot a rising trap target, a crossing skeet target or a dropping incoming sporting clays target. For those shooters who enjoy all clay target games (such as SCTP competitors), there is no longer a need to get a different gun for each game. And, with Caesar Guerini’s lifetime warranty, the Summit Impact Trap Combo (MSRP $11,235) could well be the last shotgun a shooter has to buy. SS
Mark H. Taylor has over 40 years of shooting experience. He has won many regional, state, national and international clay target competitions. He is the author of the book Clay Target Shooting – The Mental Game and co-author of the book Break ’em All. Mark is a NRA Certified Advanced International Shotgun Coach and a High-Performance Shotgun Coach for USA Shooting. He is a Caesar Guerini and Cabela’s (in Thornton, CO) Pro Staff shooter, and teaches monthly beginner shotgun clinics at Colorado Clays in Brighton, CO, and travels nationally and internationally teaching coaching courses and working with world-class athletes. You can email him at [email protected].
