I purchased an A400 last week mainly for sporting clays duty. I was looking for a 12 gauge semi-auto that my wife could shoot comfortably and that I could use as well. I decided on the A400 due to it's low weight and recoil reduction technology.
Out of the box this is one beautiful shotgun, nice lines and deep black bluing, it is a definite step up from my old faithful 870 Express. It comes with 3 chokes F,M and C, choke tool and bottle of oil in a nice hard plastic case.
Shouldering the gun feels good, just slightly shorter than I would like but it fits the wife great. I do have to consciously get my head down on the stock to get the rib lined with the bead on top, I think this is from years of shooting the 870 and the muscle memory I have built up.
I took it out first for some pasture clays thrown straight away to make sure I could hit with it. I smoked the first one so I knew I couldn't do too bad with it. I ended up hitting a lot less than I should but I expected that.
The gun handles great, the balance is about perfect even with the heavy Kick-Off system in the butt. The receiver is very light so the barrel balances the butt nicely. I did not notice the recoil at all with 1 1/8 oz.
At the sporting clays course this weekend I was able to take the wife out to ring it out. She is a very green shotgun shooter who is very recoil sensitive. She ended up shooting about 70 rounds of 1 oz loads and wasn't too sore at the end of the day. She also shot 2 rounds out of her brothers Maxxus and a 20 gauge 870 Express Youth model both of which she said kicked harder than the A400.
The gun performed flawlessly though the 170 or so rounds we put through it. I ended up with a score of 60 on a very difficult course(CO state championship warmup was held the day before), below my average but by the end I was hitting 8s and 9s. I wasn't sore at all and could have easily shot another round unlike with my 870 I was always sore after 100 rounds.
Cleaning afterwards was not as easy as my pump gun but not as bad as I feared. The gas system had some crud on it but I am sure I could have put several hundred more rounds through it without a stoppage. Everything wiped clean easily other than a few nooks and crannies that require some scrubbing.
Overall I am impressed with this shotgun, it is my first auto and will take some shooting to get fully acquainted with it, but I am happy with it. I was also impressed that the wife could shoot so many rounds through it. She has never shot a 12 gauge more than a few shots before giving them up. I think this one is a keeper.
Bring on dove season!!
Sorry for the poor quality phone pics but at least there are pics.
Out of the box this is one beautiful shotgun, nice lines and deep black bluing, it is a definite step up from my old faithful 870 Express. It comes with 3 chokes F,M and C, choke tool and bottle of oil in a nice hard plastic case.
Shouldering the gun feels good, just slightly shorter than I would like but it fits the wife great. I do have to consciously get my head down on the stock to get the rib lined with the bead on top, I think this is from years of shooting the 870 and the muscle memory I have built up.
I took it out first for some pasture clays thrown straight away to make sure I could hit with it. I smoked the first one so I knew I couldn't do too bad with it. I ended up hitting a lot less than I should but I expected that.
The gun handles great, the balance is about perfect even with the heavy Kick-Off system in the butt. The receiver is very light so the barrel balances the butt nicely. I did not notice the recoil at all with 1 1/8 oz.
At the sporting clays course this weekend I was able to take the wife out to ring it out. She is a very green shotgun shooter who is very recoil sensitive. She ended up shooting about 70 rounds of 1 oz loads and wasn't too sore at the end of the day. She also shot 2 rounds out of her brothers Maxxus and a 20 gauge 870 Express Youth model both of which she said kicked harder than the A400.
The gun performed flawlessly though the 170 or so rounds we put through it. I ended up with a score of 60 on a very difficult course(CO state championship warmup was held the day before), below my average but by the end I was hitting 8s and 9s. I wasn't sore at all and could have easily shot another round unlike with my 870 I was always sore after 100 rounds.
Cleaning afterwards was not as easy as my pump gun but not as bad as I feared. The gas system had some crud on it but I am sure I could have put several hundred more rounds through it without a stoppage. Everything wiped clean easily other than a few nooks and crannies that require some scrubbing.
Overall I am impressed with this shotgun, it is my first auto and will take some shooting to get fully acquainted with it, but I am happy with it. I was also impressed that the wife could shoot so many rounds through it. She has never shot a 12 gauge more than a few shots before giving them up. I think this one is a keeper.
Bring on dove season!!
Sorry for the poor quality phone pics but at least there are pics.
