I couldn't decide which forum to post this in as it it is both a shotgun and a rimfire; and the "Hunting and Sporting Arms" forum seems to focus more on centre-fire. So "General Discussion" it is! 
edited to add: (Well, it looks like it's in "Hunting and Sporting Arms" after all)
Here is my new favorite firearm:
As you can probably see from the picture, it is the .22 over 20 gauge model. A few minor gripes aside, it is (in my opinion anyway) just about the best small game firearm a person could own. It is just a tad on the heavy side for upland birds but I bagged a few Ruffies with it a few weekends ago anyway, and the birds didn't seem to mind. It sure was nice having the .22 for the sitting rabbit I saw and of course to plink a few mushrooms. Thirty-six grains of lead traveling at 1280 fps sure make short work of the shrooms!
I am a "scoped-rifle man" myself and I am having just a little trouble getting used to the iron sights. I replaced the rear sight with a green-tubed 'hi-vis' and put a dab of florescent orange on the front. The sights really stand out for me now and with a bit more practice, I think I'll be able to take rabbit sized game out to 75 yards or so.
Number 6 shot out of the permanently modified choked barrel produces an acceptable pattern for either rabbit or grouse out to about 40 yards and is almost exactly centered with the sights. Slugs hit about 4 inches high and 2 inches to the left at 50 yards. That kind of disappointed me until I realized that If I were to hunt larger game using slugs, I'd probably throw on a scope. Since I doubt that I'll actually ever use this for larger game, it's really a non-issue.
The barrel drops open quite easily with a push of the rear mounted tang and the barrel selector is on the hammer. It doesn't get any simpler than that! The trigger is a little heavy but there is absolutely no pre-travel. If I can figure out how to lighten it down to about 5 pounds, it would be just about perfect.
Now for the gripes:
- As I mentioned before, it's a bit heavy. The specs list it at 8 pounds and although I don't have a scale, it certainly feels to be every once of it.
- the .22 barrel seems to somewhat mis-aligned. I had to tap the front sight to the right a bit so that the rear sight (being moved as far left as possible) remained tight enough it it's groove that I wouldn't worry about it falling off out in the woods. As I mentioned before, I'm more of a scope man, so can anyone tell me if this is normal? or am I looking at some sort of flaw? I'm not worried too much about it as it seems to shoot straight for me now but I'm still thinking that this is odd.
- One of my biggest gripes of all is the fact that it has a cross-bolt safety! The Cooey 840 that I own doesn't have one and it seems to be safe enough!! Why the heck did they have to ruin the look of a perfectly safe firearm with a second safety?!? AHHHHhhhhhh!!!!! (pssst! don't tell anyone but I think I might take it out, grind off one end, re-blue it and re-install it in the "off-safe" position permanently)
- The 20 gauge barrel is attached at the front with a ring that is slightly too big. A few shims from a took out the slack. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough play to allow me to line it up so that the slugs lined up with the sights though. Oh well.
- And my final gripe; as you can see from the pictures below, there seems to be some wear on the block below the barrels, and on the receiver where the block fits in.
The circle marked "1" is normal while the circle marked "2" shows significant wear. Hopefully it's worn as far as it's going to as I'm pretty sure it might be difficult to get warranty work done from across the border.
Anyway, that's my review. I know it seems to end on quite a few negative points, but remember that they are all relatively minor and they in no way take away from the sheer versatility of this fine firearm out in the field.
Matthew
edited to add: (Well, it looks like it's in "Hunting and Sporting Arms" after all)Here is my new favorite firearm:
As you can probably see from the picture, it is the .22 over 20 gauge model. A few minor gripes aside, it is (in my opinion anyway) just about the best small game firearm a person could own. It is just a tad on the heavy side for upland birds but I bagged a few Ruffies with it a few weekends ago anyway, and the birds didn't seem to mind.
It sure was nice having the .22 for the sitting rabbit I saw and of course to plink a few mushrooms. Thirty-six grains of lead traveling at 1280 fps sure make short work of the shrooms! I am a "scoped-rifle man" myself and I am having just a little trouble getting used to the iron sights. I replaced the rear sight with a green-tubed 'hi-vis' and put a dab of florescent orange on the front. The sights really stand out for me now and with a bit more practice, I think I'll be able to take rabbit sized game out to 75 yards or so.
Number 6 shot out of the permanently modified choked barrel produces an acceptable pattern for either rabbit or grouse out to about 40 yards and is almost exactly centered with the sights. Slugs hit about 4 inches high and 2 inches to the left at 50 yards. That kind of disappointed me until I realized that If I were to hunt larger game using slugs, I'd probably throw on a scope. Since I doubt that I'll actually ever use this for larger game, it's really a non-issue.
The barrel drops open quite easily with a push of the rear mounted tang and the barrel selector is on the hammer. It doesn't get any simpler than that!
The trigger is a little heavy but there is absolutely no pre-travel. If I can figure out how to lighten it down to about 5 pounds, it would be just about perfect.Now for the gripes:
- As I mentioned before, it's a bit heavy. The specs list it at 8 pounds and although I don't have a scale, it certainly feels to be every once of it.
- the .22 barrel seems to somewhat mis-aligned. I had to tap the front sight to the right a bit so that the rear sight (being moved as far left as possible) remained tight enough it it's groove that I wouldn't worry about it falling off out in the woods. As I mentioned before, I'm more of a scope man, so can anyone tell me if this is normal? or am I looking at some sort of flaw? I'm not worried too much about it as it seems to shoot straight for me now but I'm still thinking that this is odd.
- One of my biggest gripes of all is the fact that it has a cross-bolt safety! The Cooey 840 that I own doesn't have one and it seems to be safe enough!! Why the heck did they have to ruin the look of a perfectly safe firearm with a second safety?!? AHHHHhhhhhh!!!!!
(pssst! don't tell anyone but I think I might take it out, grind off one end, re-blue it and re-install it in the "off-safe" position permanently) - The 20 gauge barrel is attached at the front with a ring that is slightly too big. A few shims from a took out the slack. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough play to allow me to line it up so that the slugs lined up with the sights though. Oh well.
- And my final gripe; as you can see from the pictures below, there seems to be some wear on the block below the barrels, and on the receiver where the block fits in.
The circle marked "1" is normal while the circle marked "2" shows significant wear. Hopefully it's worn as far as it's going to as I'm pretty sure it might be difficult to get warranty work done from across the border.
Anyway, that's my review. I know it seems to end on quite a few negative points, but remember that they are all relatively minor and they in no way take away from the sheer versatility of this fine firearm out in the field.
Matthew
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