LESSON LEARNED, always range check your firearm WITH the ammo you intend to use!!!

Jay

Jay

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Hey Guys;

I recently purchased my wife a Canada Ammo Dominion Arms Grizzly in 20 ga. We are VERY happy with the firearm & finally got out to the range yesterday with it.

She ran some Winchester Super Speed 2&3/4" with 7.5 birdshot through the shotgun, NO PROBLEM.

She then tried to run some Winchester Super X Sabot Slugs. They fed, fired AND THEN JAMMED by only partially extracting the spent casing & feeding a live round from the mag. We repeated this 5 times & the result was the same each time. At this point I was like, uh oh...

But, switching to Winchester Super X Rifled Slugs, the firearm ran NO PROBLEM!

And back to Winchester Super Speed birdshot, again NO PROBLEM!

So, what is the lesson? Although I already knew it, I experienced a FIRST hand lesson on making sure you test your firearm with the ammunition you intend to use! I could NOT imagine the horror of being backcountry camping & needing that firearm in an emergency, only to have it jam & render the firearm useless when you need it most! (And yes, I know the Sabot slugs are meant for a rifled barrel, we were just function checking the firearm & fully intend to use the RIFLED slugs which work great in this shotgun.)

Cheers
Jay



 
Oh, and the mag tube on the 20 ga Grizzly came with a plug installed that limits the mag tube to 3 shells? Well that came out right away! Back to 5 rounds total capacity ASAP! Chuckle

Cheers
Jay
 
A good lesson to be lernt for newbie reloaders.
Make sure yer goll dang reloads will chamber and eject too.

Buddy lost a monster buck a few years ago.
Bought a used rifle and it came with dies, brass and some
reloaded ammo.
He tried to load up his gun to shoot Bambi's padre and he couldnl't
close the bolt on the round he had.
More to this story, butt he dint alf any bigbuckarooew fungshway.
Yesth, I still razz'im 'bout it.
Tuh think he had some of my super-duper reloads.
 
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Jay,

How's the weight on the CanAm 20 gauge ?
The 12 gauge is really heavy. Had a reminder of this just the other day. My CanAm 12 ga. has a lot of mods so it's much lighter. A friend picked up a new one recently. Wow, was it heavy !

My wife in now very interested in a compact 20 ga. At the moment we are hot on the Corwin offering but I like the fact that the CanAm is an 870 copy and will be much easy for modding or parts.
 
madashell said:
Jay,

How's the weight on the CanAm 20 gauge ?

My wife in now very interested in a compact 20 ga. At the moment we are hot on the Corwin offering but I like the fact that the CanAm is an 870 copy and will be much easy for modding or parts.
Click to expand...

I think you will be AS SURPRISED as I was when I weighed our two Dominion Arms Grizzly shotguns! After getting over the shock, chuckle, I realized that THAT is why her 20 ga kicks so mildly! So... I'm okay with it!

My wife's 20 ga Dominion Arms Grizzly is 6lbs 15 & 3/8's oz



My 12 ga Dominion Arms Grizzly is 6lbs 15 & 7/8's oz
 
Thanks for taking the time to weigh and post pictures Jay !! Very generous.

Oh I know the stock is REALLY heavy on these guns. So is the forend !! On my 12 ga. I replaced them with the Hogue 12" LOP. If I used it for hunting I'd go with the full length stock however.

The original stock & forend are in a pile of old parts. Every once in a while looking for something I pick up that stock set and am reminded of how heavy they really are.

Indeed, plus side is it helps absorb recoil.

Surprising the 12 & 20 are so close in weight. You'd figure with the more compact receiver, barrel etc. there would be a bigger gap.

Thanks again.
 
Jay said:
madshell, what did you do to your Grizzly to make it lighter?

Cheers
Jay
Click to expand...

Well, really the only things that made it lighter are the Hogue forend and the Hogue 12" LOP stock. Made a very noticeable weight difference.

Other mods didn't save any weight but they are: Wilson Combat ghost ring tritium sights, Vang Comp stainless follower, Vang Comp over-sized safety, Limbsaver R3 pad (well worth it !!), aluminium mag cap. Although I've since re-installed the original mag cap so I can attach a sling. Haven't looked too hard but have yet to find a light weight mag cap with a sling attachment. It's surprising how heavy the original mag cap is !
Rear sling attachment is a Brute composite which is also lighter than the original steel one.

(Also used to have a 4 round Mesa Tactical shell carrier on it but have since removed. Realized I don't like the feel of extra ammo on SG's.)

ALL useful mods for me and as I said, stock set dropped the weight a fair bit. Don't have a scale or I'd weigh it for you but weight difference is very noticeable when holding both in hand.

This shotgun saved me from a charging black bear so it's been worth the investment !
 
brody125 said:
Being a scaled down version of the 12g, would an aftermarket stock/forend fit?
Click to expand...

I don't see any reason the 20 ga forends wouldn't fit! And, I would say it is on a proper 20 frame, rather than being scaled down... Some 20 ga guns are actually 12 ga receivers & heavier as a result...

Cheers
Jay
 
Thanks everyone. Of course my wife will be properly trained on how to use the firearm. She just doesn't know it yet;-). Anyone know where I can find the Grizzly's? I'm leaning towards 12 gauge.

Thanks,
 
rpaulpen said:
Thanks everyone. Of course my wife will be properly trained on how to use the firearm. She just doesn't know it yet;-). Anyone know where I can find the Grizzly's? I'm leaning towards 12 gauge.

Thanks,
Click to expand...

CanadaAmmo, a site sponsor here at CGN.

Cheers
Jay
 
Jay said:
Oh, and the mag tube on the 20 ga Grizzly came with a plug installed that limits the mag tube to 3 shells? Well that came out right away! Back to 5 rounds total capacity ASAP! Chuckle

Cheers
Jay
Click to expand...
I had a gentleman(off duty MNR conservation Officer) try to tell me after seeing me fire 7, 12 gage shots in rapid succession at the range, that he was charging me for not having a plug in my gun. Took 20 minutes and a call to his boss to set him straight.
 
my72jeep said:
I had a gentleman(off duty MNR conservation Officer) try to tell me after seeing me fire 7, 12 gage shots in rapid succession at the range, that he was charging me for not having a plug in my gun. Took 20 minutes and a call to his boss to set him straight.
Click to expand...

Never ceases to amaze when stuff like this happens. I wonder what this officer would do if he came across someone legally hunting with their Tavor or other 'black' rifle?

Cheers
Jay
 
my72jeep said:
I had a gentleman(off duty MNR conservation Officer) try to tell me after seeing me fire 7, 12 gage shots in rapid succession at the range, that he was charging me for not having a plug in my gun. Took 20 minutes and a call to his boss to set him straight.
Click to expand...

Hunting regs vary from province to province. In some provinces the plug has to stay in even if you're not going after birds.

I thought Ontario was one of them actually but I'm not really a hunter.
 
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