Utas-15 road show

Hey Wromgway what a great write and perspective on the UTS shotgun. Thank you for posting this. There is just a couple of things I would like to comment on. Glad we got that extension sorted out too LOL.

The factory upgrades do include the magnesium rail and your shotgun has it. Some of the very first monoblock upgrades didn't have the magnesium rail, just a polymer one but they are long gone. I remember doing your shotgun and I can also tell from the picture that you do indeed have the metal rail.

Very good point on the o-ring, I do agree they tend to be too thick, and that with the amount they require the barrel retaining bolt to be cranked down, your solution should work really well. However the newest shotguns don't use O-rings at all, so for those out there with those shotguns thinking you should have an o-ring, no you shouldn't. There are also a few shotguns out there that used the o-ring on the other side of the barrel band, so if you have one of those folks, it is supposed to be on that side and yes it does make a difference. Some of the transitional guns can have the barrels actually set back too far if the o-ring isn't in the right position, causing the shotgun to not lock up as well. I can say for sure that the firearms that were failing before the upgrades needed more that the o-ring change as the monoblocks themselves were causing problems.

Last point, the new shotguns most definitely have the light laser marking on them, the proper marking. The reason why you have the very "classy" looking sticker on there is that they changed the laser/light units to a different style and for some reason the switch had different settings on it. Instead of changing that they just included that wonderful sticker to put on. If you lift your sticker off you will see that you have different settings painted on the gun in regards to the sticker. The best part though is the sticker is no longer required for the new models.

If the top cover on your shotgun is coming up while shooting you may have the barrel set back to far, as the front of the selector switch should rub the opening in the top cover, giving it some friction to hold the cover in place. If it is doing that, use a heat gun on the bottom of the top cover and pinch them in a little tighter, that will fix it too.

Let us know how that baby shoots!
 
Thanks very much, sir Grumpy. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the platform, I've been having a lot of fun with it. My rail was so light, I figured it must been polymer. Magnesium is cool.

My top cover only loosened once, you have to accidentally catch it on something to dislodge it. It's very firm. But, for me, a lock is either positive or it isn't. The little $6 Chinese QR plate is such a perfect fit, it seems to have been made for it. I don't know about the rubbing of the selector switch... I noticed that once the two halves are aligned for perfect bolt lockup and smooth feeding, my selector switch also becomes perfectly centered. Interesting that they went through a few configurations of monoblocks. I think I rather prefer my variety.

One other cosmetic nudge I gave mine, you can actually see it in the bottom left corner of my final picture. I cut a tiny relief notch for the little sear(s) on the magazine feed cover(s). Otherwise they push the plastic out a wee bit when the covers are closed up. Another idea for your customized guns?

I may play with reversing the wiring on my laser switch, make it like the older ones, and do away with the sticker. Only because I have experience and all the tools and parts for that sort of thing. The big trick is sealing it back up correctly.

I wanted to mention, too - The two magazine tubes on roadshow gun were not alternating consistently for one roadshow reviewer. Mine always alternates flawlessly. For obvious reasons, the mechanism to hold one tube and release the other is a bit complicated. I think I know which part must have been slipping, but I could only guess if it was worn or broken, or it simply had an unfortunate piece of dirt in there.

As soon as the rain here lets up, I have a ton of old shells to feed through this thing, and I'll post my results asap.
 
I really find it funny that if a person puts on one negative thing about these shotguns, there are people commenting left and right. A fellow like wromgway does a great unsolicited review of the of the shotgun and the sounds of crickets on this thread becomes deafening.
 
Grumpy Wolverine said:
I really find it funny that if a person puts on one negative thing about these shotguns, there are people commenting left and right. A fellow like wromgway does a great unsolicited review of the of the shotgun and the sounds of crickets on this thread becomes deafening.
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I thought his review was great - I didn't get a chance to see it until this morning. I am looking forward to taking the roadshow UTAS out for a rip this weekend. Unfortunately sometimes people just love to #####, and when proven otherwise - slink away without any sort of fanfare.
 
Shotgun was received today while at the shop, haven't had the chance to really look at how clean it is yet. It generated alot of buzz with the guys I work with and I am amazed by how light this thing is. Stay tuned for more soon.

Cheers,
Mitch
 
I am guilty as charged Grumpy, I love my UTS-15. But I do not post unless I have something to add to the discussion. Thanks wromgway for the insights into the inner workings.
Abid
 
Got off work and got a chance to really dig into this gun. The first thing I have to say it that is balances and points extremely well, it is also very light as compared to how it looks. It looks even more badass in person then in the pictures. From playing around with it the only problem I can see is a short length of pull but maybe it just takes some getting use to. The gun arrived in perfect condition and was well cared for by the previous tester. There are some pictures below of the condition of the gun upon arrival and I will post more when I find out where and when I will be testing. As of right now, I can honestly say that if this gun functions well I WILL be buying one. More to come soon!

Cheers,
Mitch









 
First off - some photos!

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Just got back in from the range - myself and CGN member Elhurron met up to blast through a ton of rounds with the roadshow gun. We ended up feeding the UTS about 6 different types of shot, from slugs to buck and all told we put through between 3 and 4 hundred rounds through the shotgun. I am not sure the actual count, but there was a bunch. We started out at the 50 yard range up at Thompson Mountain, shooting about 25 yards at a pair of targets; one silhouette and one blank piece of cardboard.

First thoughts on holding this gun - was how light it was for the size. The polymer of the shotgun looks a bit on the cheap side, but the ruggedness of the build was actually surprising. Even when the shotgun was fully loaded it was easy to manipulate and not that heavy. The pieces that needed to be steel were steel and the parts that were polymer were very tough and seemed fairly well built. I went into this without much of a bias, as I had avoided watching videos that didn't favor the gun and reading reviews that were negative - so my impressions are hopefully fair. The ergonomics of the gun are not the best as there is no length of pull adjustment to allow for people with longer arms to make the gun a bit more comfortable. On top of that, the trigger guard looks unfinished. It is blocky and actually cut Elhurron's finger when he fired it. I think the first thing that I would do if I owned this gun would be to polish them round - they trigger guard feels like it is made of aluminum, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

From the get-go the shells wouldn't load into the magazine and 'click' into place. We later figured out that there must have been grime in the hooks that hold the shells in place, and once we worked through 20-30 shells - that issue went away. Firing the gun - you definitely need to be assertive with it, or else you will see the tell-tale misfeeds that people have largely complained about. We initially ran into the same problem - but I was confident it was us operating it and not the mechanics of the gun. After a good 30-40 rounds, we both got used to how the gun operates - and neither one of us had a problem with ejection or double feeds. In fact - I think there was only 1 double-feed throughout the entire day. Any issues we had, we both immediately recognized that we short-stroked the pump and caused it ourselves.

As you can see in this video, I had a short-stroke and had to peel the shell out manually. Please excuse the awkwardness of me shooting a pump-action - I am *really* not designed to be shooting them, so I have to alternate hands in order to make it work:


The gun shoots straight - that is for sure - we were hitting close to the bull on a silhouette target at 25 yards fairly regularly with slugs. In fact - we slapped the long barrel on it and took it over to the skeet range and shot skeet with it for an hour. Once we got the hang of using it for skeet - we were hitting 30-40% of the clays with it. I for one am not a good skeet shooter, so I was surprised to hit them in the first place :)

Here is a video from the side where you can see me actually hit 1/2 the clays :D



Initially we were just dropping shells into the breach and firing them that way - which is dead easy and doesn't pose a problem at all; after a few rounds of that I loaded it up properly and shot it that way. The alternating feed of the tubes functioned for us no problem, as we had different color shells in either tube, we could see that they were grabbing from one side, then the other. In the second video above you can see that I've loaded it up and instead of dropping into the breach - and shot it that way.

Overall impressions of this gun - I like it - a lot. It is a fun range toy to shoot and you can go through ammo like it is nothing because of how many shells it holds. Despite going into this with as little bias as possible - I was expecting a bit of a problem - and it did manifest itself initially. That went away when the both of us were forcibly racking the slide and ejecting/chambering shells - basically once we were comfortable with the gun. The look of it is really neat - I like the aesthetics of it. My only gripes would be the ability to adjust the length of pull, and to finish the rough edges on it. It seems that to me that the gun is not 'finished' and needs some nice touches on it to give it that finished feel.

The ammo we fed through this was a little bit of everything:

* Federal Power Shok slugs
* Federal Vital Shok slugs
* Fiocchi Buck shot
* Federal Target load
* Score slug 28
* Winchester Target load

The gun ate through any and all of these shells without a single mechanical problem. As I said above, the problems we ran into were absolutely us not operating the slide as we should have been. This gun is definitely not a Winchester pump shotgun where you can get away with short stroking it - you need to ram the pump all the way to the back....forcefully. If you do that - you won't have problems.

And finally - to round off the post, here are some photos from the day - the full UTS gallery is here:


My ugly mug:

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"Please excuse the awkwardness of me shooting a pump-action - I am *really* not designed to be shooting them, so I have to alternate hands in order to make it work"

Lol, thanks for the forewarning, made me chuckle :)
 
Sorry about the lack of updates guys, I've been waiting on a decent day to go shooting that I could get off. Was going to go tomorrow but now it's calling for rain and snow so I've pushed it off until Wednesday. Hopefully the weather holds!
 
Hunter709 said:
Sorry about the lack of updates guys, I've been waiting on a decent day to go shooting that I could get off. Was going to go tomorrow but now it's calling for rain and snow so I've pushed it off until Wednesday. Hopefully the weather holds!
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No worries, no use trying to use them when the weather is crappy, would rather have you have some fun and not worry about getting soggy and freezing.
 
Forecast is calling for a few flurries tomorrow which I can deal with so I have got the day off. I know this is extremely shot notice but I will be heading up to the gravel pit on the opposite side of the highway from the Rod & Gun club tomorrow at around 12:00 (lunchtime). Anyone interested in trying her out is more then welcome to come out. If you don't get the chance to come out, the gun will be on display for the remainder of the time that I have at where I work at Complete Gun Repairs. At least you will be able to come by and get a feel for the gun. More to come shortly!

Cheers,
Mitch
 
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