t roy,
The Silver Pigeon II is one of the Beretta 680 series guns, and should serve you well. If you are wanting to do much clay shooting I'd say favor a longer barrel, 28" at least, but if it's an upland gun the 26" barrel will do fine and make it very quick pointing. This gun is very durable, and can be rebuilt numerous times (and it takes hundreds of thousands of rounds for a rebuild). I have a 686E that I use for Sporting clays and Skeet, and absolutely love it! No, as you say they aren't cheap but my 2 O/U shotguns (the other one is a browning) are the best firearm purchases I've ever made, every time I shoot them I'm glad I bought them.

Gordon