Hi All,
So the shotgun should have arrived at the next tester in ON, and I've got a spare moment to post my review. I'll spare everyone the pics of my shredded targets and piles of empty casings and focus more on the actual performance and details of the testing.
First off, this shotgun made 3 trips to Silverdale over the course of 2 weeks and was used by 18 people, mostly friends, but a few strangers and an RO got to fire random rounds to try it out. Of the group of folks I brought out there were 6 shooters who had never shot a shotgun before, the rest were either LEO, experienced shooters or waterfowl hunters.
In total there were almost 500 rounds put through the gun of which I had about 6 misfires. I'll get into detail about those below. Overall I LOVE this gun, and side by side shooting with the KSG there was definitely no clear winner/loser in my opinion.
What I liked:
- The weight and balance of this felt better than a KSG and generally very light to shoot.
- The recoil was easily managed with all types of ammo
- The loading ports are much easier to use than the KSG (IMO) and the loading process itself is more intuitive than a KSG. Being able to load into the chamber from the ejection port was a major win for the new shooters at the Trap range where you have to load one at a time. Bottom-loading the KSG is a PITA for some.
- Jams are easier to clear on the UTS. I didn't get a single jam or double feed or failure to extract using actual live shells for what it's worth...
- The barrel extension with the use of chokes was a major plus for me. If I were to buy this gun, it would almost legitimize using it to hunt since you essentially have a long-barrel shotgun with chokes that's the size of a short 870. The KSG choke system (if you can find it) doesn't appeal to me nearly as much as the UTS.
- Disassembly is a breeze for cleaning. I didn't go beyond that level of disassembly but it doesn't seem to be complicated at all.
What I didn't like:
- The need to really exert
serious authority into every movement to guarantee it will fire. I know it's been well advised but it would be a tough sell to folks who don't like to really put a lot of force into cycling a gun. This was definitely part of the reason for the misfires but I'll elaborate more below.
- The Length of Pull is a bit shorter than what feels comfortable for me. I'm not a tall guy but the KSG has the pistol grip set a but further forward and it feels more comfortable to cycle. A friend who's about 6'4" had a moment where he needed to figure out where exactly to make a cheek-weld because of the super shot LOP.
- The E-clips used to retain the pins are a nightmare for me. I didn't take the gun apart to that level but anything with E-Clips bother me as they are easily lost.
- I mentioned above that I didn't like the swivels at all and I maintain that dislike. Luckily they remove easily and store nicely in the provided pelican case.
- The bolt design and lock-up... I'll elaborate below, but to me it seems that light primer hits could be caused by the "spring-loaded" bolt design combined with less-than-firm cycling.
For the test I got to try out a small variety of ammo and I'm posting the types below with the overall performance of each type.
With the exception of Federal Buck and Remington Buck I have a pic of each type tested.
Challenger Handicap Loads #7.5 - 2-34" - 250 Rounds
I bought a flat with the intention of letting everyone try at least a box through this gun. We busted clays pretty easily and the gun was surprisingly good at shooting trap with the iron sights. There was one misfire with no primer hit. Cycled the round again and fired no problem.
Winchester Super-X #7.5 - 2-3/4" - 200 Rounds
I had some leftover from a prior trip and decided to just let people keep firing.
Not a single hiccup and more clays were busted.
Remington Slugger Rifled Slugs - 3" -10 Rounds
Federal Low Recoil Rifled Slugs - 2-3/4" - 10 Rounds
I took these to the action range and loaded 5 of each on the left and right tubes and tried to cycle quickly while still aiming at an IPSC target. I drained one tube, then the other. No hang ups or double feeds so I did it again but alternated the tubes and again, no issues whatsoever. Shooting was about as fast as I could cycle while still aiming at the target.
Remington 00 Buck - 2-3/4" - 10 Rounds
Federal 00 Buck - 2/34" - 5 Rounds
Sorry no pic here... Basically loaded both tubes full of whatever I had left and dumped them down range. No hiccups, but I was being very deliberate with the way I was cycling the action. Firing speed was about 1 round per second.
Random shells - 10 Rounds
These are shells that a few guys tried at the trap range when I popped by to show off the gun at the end of day 1. These are basically where all but one of the misfires came from and in each case the round was re-chambered and fired successfully. Aside from being a bit embarrassed I was happy that people were excited to try the gun.
The Misfires
All the misfires occurred when the user (usually someone unfamiliar with the gun) would load the round, pull the trigger and get a click with no bang. I'd instruct them to check for a primer hit, and try again but be more forceful. After a few tries with one shell I stepped in a really racked the slide and the shell fired no problem. It happened to the three rounds pictured for a total of 5 times, with the only other misfire being the same issue, but with a Challenger round. When it happened to me I could almost feel as if the round wasn't going to fire. Not sure how to explain it but it just didn't feel like the round chambered the same as the others. The spring-loaded bolt (or whatever it's ACTUALLY called) was just a bit strange, and the lock up when the round is chambered is not as firm, for lack of a better word, than an 870 or even the KSG.
All in all after testing this gun I will probably buy one. I'd love to own one and it's stood up to a lot of different people test-firing and abusing it so in my books that's a winner. I do still prefer my KSG in this "niche" but it's right up there for performance. and BOTH guns require a lot of practice to really become proficient.
Thanks again Wolverine and sorry for the delay in posting the review. Sending a gun around for testing is the
BEST idea I've seen from a store in a while.