Dufalteinde
New member
This is the recent batch of Charles Daly ca612, specifically the M4 with ARGO gas system, or 601 DPS in the US. every batch is different from what I read online.
The purpose of this review is to show what you usually get for a Turkish clone by examining all the parts and why it cost less at 1/6 the price of the original. This was $450@foc. All picture are taken after 340 rounds and full strip cleaning.
Just buy the original they say, but I am poor, and I rather shoot 3k worth of shells.
Overall, it seems to function just fine feeding from the mag tube, dropping rounds in and releasing the bolt are not as reliable as benelli due to internal geometries I believe, rounds can get stuck under the barrel feed ramp if gun is tiled forward. My example has no heat treatment issue or leaking gas tubes. After 340 rounds of various loads fired, I have not seen any deformation in the piston and bolt.
Where does all the cost saving come from? By simplifying original designs, minimal polishing, brute force springs, sneaky way to reduce rubber usage. Out of box the amount of friction this gun has make it unable to cycle with rounds such as low recoil slugs, 7/8 oz shots are also mostly bolt action.
Looking at the bolt, The link is a quality piece, probably better made than benelli. Bolt handle is an exact copy. Rest of the parts are all simplified. The firing pin retainer need to be hammered in and out instead of the O ring locking design of the original. The extractor is also not serviceable, as there is no pin access hole on the bolt head. It’s a 1.4mm hole they never bothered to drill.
The buffer tube is of standard Turkish design, 9 positions. But it has no locking nuts to the receiver, it rely on the pistol grip and locktite.
the trigger assembly. It has been greatly simplified. the carrier has a permanently attached bolt latch. The trigger area has 2 less parts. Some of the removable parts are also directly molded into the trigger housing. Also notice the axle pin is not captive in the receiver.
The ARGO gas system, this particular model’s piston are not chromed, I have not seen this regulator design elsewhere. The regulator plug has 4 parts, the housing with screw cap, inside a plunger and spring. Simpler design than Benelli with locking pin.
Critical screws, All the rail screws seem to be installed properly, I have marked them since new and they have not moved. a eotech xps recovered from 2020 boating accidents is on the rails from day one. The bolt handle retainer set screw backed out and got smashed a little by the bolt head, refinished it and locktite sunked.
I think the receiver is well machined and the bolt rail runs smooth. The rear sight housing is plastic. The barrel is fine, and come with fixed fiber front sight. Unlike the original which is adjustable with a nut.
The furniture fits well and seem to be of good quality. The rubber buttpad only has about 1cm, 3/8” of rubber. Its overmolded on a plastic skeleton and hollow.
There are a lot of friction points in this gun. The trigger housing grips the hammer with at least 1 lb of force. There are burs on the bolt which the hammer smashed through lol
Parts I have polished or changed shapes:
Hammer, trigger, disconnector. Only made it smoother, did not reduce engagement surface.
Slightly enlarged hammer channel in trigger housing, so the hammer run smooth.
Put a divot on the axle pin, it did not come with one and I have nowhere to push.
Polished piston, recoil plunger with 1500 grit.
Debur and polish all contact surface of the bolt with 600 and 1500 grit.
Polished and radius multiple places before the chamber.
After all this polishing, It still doesn’t cycle light shot loads sometime. I suspect all the springs are stronger than necessary.
To conclude this review I think this is a good shotgun for what it is. I cannot buy an original bolt for the price of this clone. Its a good learning piece and experience. I find it hard to commit 3k to a m4. With this, I can buy lots of ammo for the same amount of money. Most of the aftermarket tacticool
will probably fit too, not that I plan to add any, perhaps a light mount and larger charging handle.Comparing to other M4s, shooting feel mostly the same as Benelli, handling smoothness is not on par, and definitely not as reliable for light loads. I think this ca612 shared many parts with the original canuck operator. but that is better finished. I have since handled the newer elite operator it is smooth and uses much lighter springs, making it able to cycle all the light loads out of box.
Bottomline these clones are ok but require some work, try to spend a little more and buy one with a survicable bolthead in case the extractor breaks, so you don’t need to rely on the warranty which I heard is super slow or waste of time. My example functions fine with higher powered ammo out of box, and has been able to cycle lighter loads after some break in. The only real fault of the whole package is that the bolt handle plunger setscrew walked out after some shooting. If this thing last one Benelli worth of ammo I’m satisfied.
