My Grizzly arrived Thursday afternoon. The lady at the post office was all smiles as she had me sign for my "Pro Golf" package ......I smiled back!
That evening I field stripped the gun down to have a better look. I'm basically quite impressed with the gun (especially considering the price) as these seem to be built quite rugged. The matt black oxide finish is nice and I like the appearance better than the finish any of the 870 express guns I have owned. The stock has a bit more drop than I would prefer but it is stout as hell and has a recoil pad that is actually soft unlike the chunk of hard rubber that's on my express Remington. The barrel fits nice and tight and the action is pretty smooth for a new gun. The only problem I could find was that the bead points slightly to the left. I must say it was odd being able to clean the bore with only one cleaning rod segement instead of two or three!
This afternoon I took it to the club and shot four rounds of skeet with it. A friend also shot a round with it and there were a few other test shots fired with it, all told there were at least 130 shots fired and no problems. On my third round I even managed to shoot a 25 with it.
Overall shooting impressions: These things are loud! It's not too bad for the shooter (except shooting from the hip) but it's loud for the rest of the shooters. Recoil with Federal 2-3/4 dram 1-1/8 oz target shells was light, so I expect the velocity is down a fair bit with the short tube. I also tried a box of 1 oz reloads - these were like shooting blanks! The Grizzly is super fast pointing and this suits my style of shooting, however I don't think they would be suitable for a more deliberate wing shooter as the center of balance is further back. It is quite easy to stop/slow your swing with this gun.
I'm happy I bought one of these. Thanks to Canada Ammo for offering such a good value. If you missed out on this batch be sure to get one of the next batch.
