Thoughts on Turkish made shotguns?

[Gus Chiggins]

I have Huglu 12 gauge o/o Trap Special that's holding up well. The only complaint I have is that the bluing isn't that great. It cost around $1200.

 

[John Joseph]

Not a fan of Turkish guns even though the wood can be spectacular.
I'm content with my Spanish Maid.

 

[welldoya]

I lived in Turkey back in the early 70s.
The Turks were great craftsmen but I never saw the first gunshop in the two years I lived there.

 

[Crunchy Frog]

I hope they’re side by side guns made for CZ are good. I am buying one of their Sharptails Coach guns soon. Virtually no information on the boards about them and only a few magazine articles (which I don’t really trust as reliable sources of info). Time will tell.

I’m a cowboy action shooter. There is always a demand for a good quality side by side. On the low end we have the rough Chinese guns and of course the Stoeger. The Baikal is a better made shotgun but those have not been imported for several years.

On the top end are SKB 100/200 and the Browning BSS, all long discontinued and they command really high prices.

The various importers have brought in some doubles from China, Turkey and Pakistan over the years, with inconsistent results. We use our guns hard and expect them to perform.

I remember when the Sharptail was introduced. For a while no one in the sport had heard about it. I looked over one in a local store. It seemed pretty well made. Heavier than I expected, more like a BSS than an SKB. A cowboy gunsmith I trust told me that until someone had gotten inside one to see if it would hold up, the jury was out.

A couple of years have gone by. Longhunter Shooting Supply sells the Sharptail with action work performed. I’ve not seen one in action.

Another Turkish gun that has a following is the Charles Daly 512T. About the same price. They need work to be used in our game. A friend has one; he has had to replace the firing pins but it’s running well.

Some shooters in my area have purchased the Yildiz double (a Turkish gun sold by Academy Sports). They don’t have a coach gun version so they have to be bobbed (as do the SKB and BSS). They sell for about $500-600. They need a little work, too.

 

[Kevin Keith]

I bought a Yildiz 12 SxS a few years ago for dove. It worked fine for the little field time it saw and I have no complaints. I did sell it, but not because I was unhappy with it. I might get another one or a Yildiz O/U.

Question: Why did Constantinople get the works?

Answer: That's nobody's business but the Turks.