Turkish Auto-Loaders

[BigMacMI]

Background: I have knowledge of shotguns based on my Winchester 1300 I had as a kid, and the $280 over/under Baikal I purchased to shoot sporting clays with a buddy for a weekend.

Anyhow, currently, I run a pump N&R Pardner for 8 gun (8+1). Pump always goes bang, even though I am not particularly quick with it.

Looking at auto loaders. Are the Turkish semi-auto 12ga as crappy as their price suggests? I mean, I realize it's not a Beretta, but with some care and attention, could these be made serviceable?

Brands for example I have seen online:
EAA
TRS
TRISTAR
All seem to be coming from turkey. My other hope would be to find an extension tube, otherwise would have to have one made, which would hurt the budget. My more mainstream option will probably be the Stoeger M3000 series, and I will make-do until I can upgrade the loading port etc as time goes on

 

[red rick]

I have a Weatherby SA-08 20ga. Deluxe and I like it more each time I use it . I use it for rabbit hunting , it is very light and easy to clean . Loading and un-loading it works differently than what I am use to , that is one negative I give it .

 

[cdb1]

I wouldn’t be afraid to own a Tristar. We have three Weatherby SA-08’s in the family and one SA-459. The Mossberg SA-20 is very similar to the SA-08 but is made by a different company in Turkey and I’d definitely own a SA-20. Owned a Stoeger when they first came out, it ran fine. Gave it to my future SIL and he’s still shooting it. I believe the Weatherby, Mossberg and Tristar to be better quality than Stoeger. The Stoeger is also inertia operated whereas the others are gas guns. CZ also sells Turkish made semi’s and I believe their quality is a little worse than Stoeger. I owned two and sent them down the road.

Turkey turns out some pretty good shotguns. I also own a FABARM L4S, Browning Maxus, two Franchi Affinity’s and four Winchester SX3’s. If all I had were my Turkish semi’s I don’t feel I’d be handicapped in any way.

 

[BigMacMI]

Continuing to do some research on mag extensions, and possibly disconnecting the lifter lock that some (lots) of them seem to have. My goal is VERY budget 3 gun shotgun. The pump is getting old, but it is reliable at least.....

 

[Intox]

I can't speak to the shotguns, I do have some experience with Turkish made firearms.

When the Tisas came out my wife and I decided to spend the $400 for their 1911 A-1 figuring if it was a mediocre firearm then we would have gotten what we paid for, and if it was better than expected, then it was a nice surprise. I say that even though we looked up as much material as we could find concerning the gun, mind you.

When we got the pistol, I'll admit I was shocked at the machining. I worked as a machinist and machine shop supervisor for several years with Alko-Kober, so I knew what to look for to gauge how well it was machined. And if that pistol is any indicator of the standard held for other firearms, then their standard is higher than many American manufacturers.

I'll post a pic of that thing. We call it our "Punisher .45" as I used the frame to build a 1911 modeled after the .45 Colts from the Punisher movie in 2004/2005ish I will say this though....we spent $400 for the pistol, and I think we spent another $250 or so for guts (Wilson Combat with an odd piece hailing from Colt) and rebuilt the pistol completely. But, and I own many very high end firearms, for that maybe $800 total we built a 1911 that I trust just as much if not more than our Kimbers, Colts, and Brownings

 

[Analogkid]

I have the tristar atac in 12 gauge. The manual said to run hot stuff through it at first. So I ran several boxes of off season discounted turkey loads through it to run it in. It' been rock solid and like the above stated it has very good fit and finish. It will eat anything. It will even run the discount target stuff through it.

It's light though. Heavy stuff can put a hurting on you if hold it loose. I've been tempted to add a mag extention on it. I've seen several vids showing the process but haven't yet.

 

[hq]

It seems to vary a lot. My son bought an Escort a few years ago and it has run great, even with light skeet/trap loads and while the finish is a bit rough, overall quality seems good enough. A friend of mine wanted the cheapest semiauto shotgun she could find, got a Yildiz and it's been nothing but trouble - including us having to beat the stuck action open with a piece of wood after firing a couple of 12/76 shotshells. Like I mentioned in another thread I'm about to jump in the bandwagon with a Stoeger (by Vursan) shortly.

Whenever I'm buying something I'm not familiar with, one of the first things I do is google "[brand/model name] problems". Discussion forum hits are a good resource to gauge the likelihood of getting a lemon and possible easy fixes to common issues.

EDIT: I checked, my son's gun isn't Escort but Akkar Karatay. Escort was one of the alternatives he considered, though.