Browsing a Bolt 12 Game Slug Gun Reviews

Turnbolt shotguns are the hottest tickets in slug gun shooting today.

Photo: Vicious commodities actions have a reputation for outstanding accuracy.

Among deer hunters in the shotguns-only surroundings of rural New York a half-century ago, it was common knowledge that Ithaca Gun and Remington Arms made shotguns, and every other company just tried existent hard.

The two companies were major employers in the central part of the state following World War II and Korea, and their products pretty much dominated dealers' shelves.

Ithaca M37 Deer Slayers and Remington 870 Wingmasters were the ultimate goal for early Babe Boomers, guns that virtually every hunter aspired to eventually own. But you didn't offset there.

In my formative years equally a deer hunter, there was always a cousin, neighbour kid or buddy serving their apprenticeship with a clubby bolt-action Mossberg 195, Marlin 55, J.C. Higgins, Stevens or Sears 140.

Turnbolt shotguns were starters reserved for kids or folks who weren't as serious about deer guns. But all that inverse with the appearance of rifled barrels and sabot slugs in the belatedly 1980s. From that point to the present, slug gun accuracy evolved from the 40-yard "maybes" to taking deer out to 150 yards and sometimes farther.

Today'due south bolt-action slug guns comport little resemblance to yesterday'southward simple models. Anyone knowledgeable about slug guns knows solid lockup, a heavy barrel fixed to the receiver and a quality trigger are disquisitional to accuracy.

Thus, the hottest ticket in slug gun shooting today is the bolt action, which boasts all three. Again.

False Start for Bolt Actions

Aye, yous remember correctly. The rifled-barrel bolt-activeness shotgun craze initially hit in the 1990s. But it turned out to be a false starting time earlier almost flaming out in the waning days of the 20th century.

In the mid-1990s, Marlin introduced its 512 SlugMaster, followed by Browning's A-Bolt shotgun, Vicious's 210 MasterShot and Mossberg's 695. All were 12-gauge commodities deportment with rifled barrels, representing the cut edge in fast-advancing slug shooting engineering science.

But after a quick retail start, the bolt-action slug gun fad faded quickly, for a couple of reasons. Reliably cycling a non-tapered, large-bore shotgun hull through a bolt activeness is problematic and prone to failure in excited or unpracticed hands.

Secondly, price points of the new guns varied wildly, and the public ignored quality over affordability.

Mossberg's 695, a rifled butt version of its older Maverick 95 bolt gun, was described equally a retail habitation run presently afterward its introduction in 1995. Marlin's 512, similarly evolved from the company's venerable Model 55 Goose Gun in 1994, also sold well when either gun could exist routinely found for less than $300. The guns also had clubby stocks and heavy triggers that were difficult to accommodate. But they were cheap.

Bolts were elementary nevertheless effective. With no lugs on the commodities head, lockup was accomplished past simply lowering the bolt handle into a recess in the receiver.

Mossberg dropped the 695 in 1999, and Marlin followed, both citing slacking sales.

The Browning A-Bolt and Savage 210 were essentially 12-judge versions of proven rifle designs. Both featured smooth, quality burglarize bolts with front end locking lugs, triggers that ranged from skilful (Browning) to acceptable (Savage) and heavy rifled barrels.

Although much better in quality, the $800 Browning and $420 Savage couldn't compete with the eminently more than affordable Mossberg and Marlin.

The A-Bolt was introduced in 1994 merely didn't hit dealers until March 1996. Arguably the all-time production slug gun ever made, the A-Bolt was discontinued due to poor sales in 1999.

Cruel had emerged from the ashes of defalcation in 1989 under the leadership of Ron Coburn. Afterwards a prospective merger with Mossberg fell through in 1995, the visitor remained small-scale and active enough to service the niche slug gun marketplace with the superbly accurate 210, despite sales of less than nine,000 units annually.

Bolt Actions Today

The 12-judge Savage 210 thus remained viable through 2009, well after its competition had disappeared. It was e'er accurate, but a disappointing trigger, boxy integral magazine and some ejection problems limited sales.

A pocket-size camp of dedicated slug shooters had lobbied to have Savage's vaunted Accu-Trigger organisation integrated into the 210 design, but the required redesign (trigger slot in the 210 receiver wasn't wide enough) would accept hurt the affordability of what was already a limited-interest firearm.

Instead, in 2010, Savage came out with a vastly improved bolt gun, this fourth dimension in 20 gauge. The 220F, with a fast rifling twist rate, Accu-Trigger system and detachable polymer mag, set new standards for accuracy and took the slug shooting world by storm.

The 7-pound, 2-ounce gun relegated the 210 to the shadows. The 12 gauge pattern was discontinued late in 2010 to allow for all-out production of the 220F.

What followed quite naturally a few months after was the new 12-estimate Savage bolt gun, the 212, a beefed-upward version of the 220F with an Accu-Trigger and detachable magazine but the same old proven SAAMI-spec 12-guess 1-in-35 twist rate. The gun, which became available last spring, has an MSRP of $618.

Browning, meanwhile, had evidently long been having second thoughts on the early dismissal of the A-Commodities design. The quality commodities-activeness shotgun that they only couldn't sell in the late 1990s for $700-$800 was, by the 21st century, regularly selling on the used gun market for $ane,500-$two,500.

Thus, in 2011, Browning/Miroku reintroduced the walnut-stocked A-Bolt Hunter, albeit at $1,200-plus price ($1,100 for the synthetic-stocked Stalker model and $i,240 for the camo version cloaked in Mossy Oak Breakup).

The A-Bolt is no longer available in a smoothbore version, every bit was the alternative in the 1990s. The rifled-butt version has Trego rifle sights, dissimilar its naked-barreled predecessor.

Otherwise, the new Miroku gun pretty much mirrors the old pattern, which, as noted, was terrific.

Comparing the Bolt Deportment

Both the Savage 220/212 and Browning A-Bolt designs feature front-locking rifle-manner bolts, free-floating 22-inch rifled barrels, and receivers drilled and tapped to accept scope mounts. In fact, the Brutal comes with proprietary scope mounts installed.

The Browning boasts three forepart-locking lugs and the Vicious Mauser-based twin-opposed lugs. Both accept 60-degree bolt rotations.

As mentioned, the Browning features rifle sights while the Vicious has no sights.

Rifling twist charge per unit for the 20-gauge 220F is the now widely-accepted 1-in-24 inches while the 212 remains the 12-gauge SAAMI standard 1-35. The A-Commodities'southward 12-approximate twist is the widely adaptable 1-in-28.

The vii-pound A-Commodities features a two-shot box magazine that attaches the hinged floorplate. In addition to the locking lugs, the gun features a big hook extractor that pulls the trounce case against an ejector stud in the left rear of the receiver. Leap-loaded grips in two of the lugs help maintain the extractor's hold on shotshells.

The front-locking bolt, like the rifle design, turns within a sleeve that remains stationary while the bolt rotates in and out of battery.

The extractor is a slender hook-like thing that rotates with the bolt head and is housed in a slot just higher up the bottom locking lug. Extraction is theoretically via inertia with a blade contacting the example rim as the bolt reaches the concluding half-inch of travel.

The 22-inch rifled barrel is threaded to the receiver and secured by Savage's unique locking nut, long considered the foundation of the design's renowned accuracy.

1 might question the need for the locking nut in a firearm with chamber pressures a fraction of a centerfire deer rifles. But given the fact that a slug must leap a half-inch or more from the bedroom to engage the rifling, the nut certainly is office of the gun's accuracy considering it provides a more solid lockup between butt and receiver and reduces vibration.

As noted, ejecting beefy shotgun hulls from a rifle-sized action with a bolt is problematic, and the quondam 210 displayed that weakness. I sympathise that early versions of the 220 ejected also vertically, commonly bouncing hulls off scopes. The post-November 2009 models, nevertheless, eject more efficiently.

Add the controlled-circular feed with stationary bract ejector, the 1-inch P.A.D. recoil pad and the 220 is, quite simply, a long-activeness Savage 110 burglarize chambered in 20-gauge. That dimensional similarity makes the design more toll efficient, since it uses the same basic receiver. That was probably a gene in bringing out a 20-gauge slug gun earlier the redesigned 12.

Range Testing

Recently, I gave the Savage 220F a thorough wringing out at the range and in the field. Literal MOA groups were achievable at distances well beyond the effective range of whatsoever 20-gauge slug I've tested.

The Brutal 220F is phenomenal. I believe the combination of the fast-twist rifling and Accu-Trigger makes it nothing less than the nearly accurate product slug gun always made.

The 12-approximate Savage 212 and Browning A-Bolt are very good. Shooting a variety of modern high-velocity slugs, both the 212 and the A-Commodities exhibited outstanding accuracy.

Test ammo included Winchester Dual Bonds and Partition Golds, Remington Accu-Tips, Federal Tipped Barnes Expanders, Hornady SSTs and Lightfield Hybred Elite sabots. All provided a good idea of the two guns' long-range accuracy potential. Both achieved v-shot groups of less than 1 one/2 inches at 100 yards.

The A-Bolt shot three Winchester Dual Bonds into a 1 three/eight-inch group. The Savage 212 also shot 3-inch Lightfield Hybred Elites and Remington Accu-Tips into sub-one ane/2-inch groups.

As i might wait of a $1,000-plus gun, the A-Bolt cycled slightly smoother, just is also kicked a tad harder than the Savage.

The Fell'southward Accu-Trigger was a bit meliorate than the A-Bolt trigger.

All in all, both models proved to be outstanding performers. Slug guns take certainly come a long fashion.

Read Recent GunHunter Manufactures:

• Muzzleloader Myths: Voodoo ballistics and other misconceptions still abound in blackpowder shooting.

• Classic Styling is Everlasting: Jack O'Connor's favorite Model 70s are not bad examples of timeless elegance in rifle design.

This commodity was first printed in the September 2009 edition of Buckmasters GunHunter Magazine. Subscribe today to have GunHunter delivered to your abode.

dominguezwhentely.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.buckmasters.com/Magazines/GunHunter/Articles/ID/2976/Return-of-the-Bolt-Action-Slug-Gun