FRONT SIGHT • November/December 200246

STORY AND PHOTOS BY

PATRICK KELLEY, A-14401

Thinking about buying a newshotgun to turn into your 3-gun shotgun? Want a lot butonly want to pay a little?

Well, your ship may have just come infrom Turkey.

Thanks to the fall of the iron cur-tain, various “new” names are appear-ing on the international firearms mar-ket – names like Hatsan, Matsan, Sar-silmaz and Huglu.With the help of U.S.-based importers, theseunrecognized Turkishmanufactures are in-vading U.S. shores un-der the cover of morewestern-soundingbrand names. Most ofthese manufacturersoffer hunting classover-unders and havebeen trying to breakinto the market sharelong dominated byBeretta and Brown-ing. Now these firms, along with sev-eral others, are going after the au-toloader market with gusto.

So far I’ve identified four new shot-guns that may work out well for USPSA3-gun shooting. Not only are thenames on the barrel unfamiliar, the ac-tions themselves are (in most cases) adeparture from the norm. From a dis-tance, the PMC/Verona auto looks likea Winchester SX2. The Legacy SportsEscort looks a bit like an Auto-5, andthe Traditions looks alarmingly like aRemington 1100 until you see the

Beretta-style con-trols. If you preferinertia-operatedguns, the newStoeger has a lot incommon with the

Benelli. However, when you take themapart, the guns reveal unique innerworks. These aren’t “knock-off” guns,and while they’re not completelyunique, they do have some interestingfeatures that may prove to be the equalof the American and Italian designs.Over the next several issues Front Sightand Dave’s Guns have asked me to dis-sect the new Turkish imports one at atime, run them through their paces,and come back with a heads-up report.

Before we get too far along I wouldlike to point out that www.daves-guns.com is the supplier of the fourshotguns in this series. No ringers orgun writer specials here, just a gener-ous offer from a local businessmanwho deserves at least a point and click.

LSI “ESCORT” – The All-Purpose Import?

Legacy Sports International is im-porting from Turkey a new line of self-loading shotguns, dubbed the “Es-cort.” Manufactured by Hatsan Arms

Company, these guns are quite a sur-prise to those of us who have handledsome of the lower-priced Turkishsporting arms. These gas-operated,self-loading shotguns are well thought-out and work very well indeed.

My initial impression of the Escortwas favorable despite my snobbish dis-like for guns not made in the USA andnot of Western European descent. TheEscort series features a matte-finishedlightweight alloy receiver with a profilereminiscent of the old Browning Auto5 or the Franchi AL 48 with a distinc-tive hump at the rear. I have alwaysliked that look and it does offer alonger and more definitive sighting

plane, let alone adding a touch of class.

Dave’s Guns supplied both a wood-stocked sporting model and a more“practical” synthetic-stocked gun toexperiment with. The stocks on bothmodels are nicely fit and proportionedand make the gun feel balanced be-tween the hands. Pistol grips on bothmodels have noticeable palm swellsand are more vertical, such as thoseyou would find on a “clays gun.” Bothguns come with another “sportingclays” feature... stock adjusting shims!You can adjust the drop of the stock up

The Turkish InvasionFour Imported Candidates For Your

Next Practical Shotgun(A multi-part series)

The Escort ships complete with all the items shown:7+1 extension, stock adjusting shims, extra O-rings,choke tubes, wrench, and of course, a gun lock.

or down with the pair of shims pro-vided. The fore ends are as thin as pos-sible considering the gas system mustreside underneath. In fact, those thinfore ends make the Escort feel morelike an over/under than a self-loader.The satin finished wood on the sport-ing model actually has some characterto it and the synthetic stocked ver-sion is very “business” like.

On the minor complaint side, wehave rock hard recoil pad and a lameexcuse for sling mounts. The recoil padneither softens recoil nor resembles apad, and why drill holes in the stocks ifyou are not going to fill them with a de-cent sling swivel? The sling mounts aresmall and do not detach. Both are sim-ple fixes, but I gotta call them as I see‘em. I called LSI and talked to PatWheeler, their on-site gunsmith. He

told me that the recoil pad will be re-placed with a “real one” and the slingmounts will be gone altogether on fu-ture units.

Internal works:As the gas system goes, it is dead

simple. The gas piston and rings aremade of stainless steel. The twin actionbars and bushing are assembled fromcarbon steel (you can relate these partsto those of the Remington 1100). Thegas piston itself is made up of threepieces: an inner sleeve, an outer sleeve

47November/December 2002 • FRONT SIGHT

Escort gas system revealed. It’s simple, but effective. Notice how the recoil springwinds around the magazine tube? Using the mag tube eliminates the need to put partsin the stock (a la the Rem. 1100).

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Gas Buffer. Note the spring at the baseof the Escort’s gas piston. The spring letsthe piston telescope in on itself, acting asa shcock buffer for the gas system.

FRONT SIGHT • November/December 200248

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that holds the rings, and a heavy coil spring. These are per-manently assembled into one unit. The inner and outersleeves are designed to telescope, one over the other with thespring acting as a buffer or shock absorber between the two.When the gas vented from the barrel slams into the piston,the pistol telescopes into itself, buffering and softening thetransmission of energy to the action bar and bushing. Thismay soften the initial recoil impulse but it really serves to re-

duce the battering of the action works. The only “wearitem” in the gas system is an easily replaced “O” ring seal,and an extra is provided with the gun.

Another feature of the gas system is a two-position gasvalve that is quickly adjustable. Set it to “Normal” for mostall loadings up to and including 1-1/4 ounce payloads and“Magnum” for all loads over 1-1/4 ounces. The valve ismade of brass and the position detents are vague, but itworks. There are more sophisticated methods of accom-plishing gas adjustment (without adjustment) but otherthan the poor material choice and cheesy feel of the brassvalve, again, it works.

Another departure from the norm is the location of therecoil spring. Like the Sage conversion for the 1100 Rem-ington or a SPAS 12 the recoil spring coils around the mag-azine tube. This makes making changes to the stock sim-pler, and might be helpful to those who want a very shortstock or even a “Tommy Tactical” pistol grip sans stock.

Both the synthetic and wood-stocked guns sport 28”vent rib barrels with screw-in chokes. Although mis-marked,the chokes measure out close to improved cylinder, modi-fied, and full choke. The fire control system (trigger group)is laid out much like a Remington 1100. The carrier and trig-ger are made of chromed steel and the trigger housing castfrom aluminum. The safety is a round push-button locatedbehind the trigger. The magazine cut-off and carrier re-

Fruit salad. The Escort digested everything from 3 1/4 dram, 1 1/8trap loads on up to 12-pellet 00 buck.

49November/December 2002 • FRONT SIGHT

lease are located on opposite sides ofthe receiver — magazine cut-off on theejection port side and the carrier re-lease on the left side. Yes, I said maga-zine cut-off; another neat extra you didnot pay extra for.

On top of that, both guns comewith a magazine tube extension bring-ing capacity to 7 plus 1, but if thatwon’t quite satisfy you, the plated alu-minum magazine tube will accept1100/870 magazine extension tubes.You will need a spacer, as the extensionI tried ran out of threads before mak-ing firm contact with the fore end, butwith that little fix, an extension tube inthe length of your choice is probably asclose as your local sporting goodsstore.

On the rangeOK, so how do they run? Since this

is a test and comparison of four differ-ent self-loaders and I am on my owndime for expenses, I have a short testthat usually lets me know whether agun has potential malfunction prob-lems. If the gun passes this “short test”it would warrant further testing andevaluation.

The “short test”:130 rounds fired in 8 minutes (about

as fast as I can load and fire intothe dirt), including:

25 rounds Winchester Super Speed(super cheap) 7/8 ounce, 3 ¼ dram

25 rounds Winchester SuperX 1ounce, 3-¼ dram

25 rounds Remington High Speed7/8 ounce, 1,390 fps. (Also cheap)

25 rounds PMC Heavy Dove Load1 1/8 ounce, 3 1/4 dram

10 rounds S&B 00 buck 12 pellet (1¼ ounce)

5 rounds S&B slug 1 ounce.A handful of assorted Winchester

AA target and Remington Nitrotarget ammo.

Test Procedure:First I fired five rounds of each load

except the slugs to see if all would func-tion. All did.

All the remaining ammo was

poured onto the tailgate of my pick-upand stirred into what my editor calls a“fruit salad” of shotgun shells. I thenstuffed mixed shells into the magazineand chamber as fast as I could and thenran them out of the gun, much, muchfaster. (I have an obsession with speedshooting.) The gun got way too hot totouch but only failed to eject twice.

Both times I induced the failure.Both times it was on the lightest ammo.You have heard of limp wristing, right?Well, I have a hard time recreating thatwith the shotgun even near my shoul-der, so I simulate it by holding the gunat arm’s length and firing it with myright thumb. Both arms are out-stretched with the gun parallel to mychest. This offers very little resistance

Look familiar? The Escort’s fire control system workslike an 1100, only with fewer parts.

TURKISH INVASION continued on page 60.

FRONT SIGHT • November/December 200260

to recoil and will make most any self-loader cough. Re-member, it only failed to eject twice and it was fully expectedto. With any semblance of shouldering, the gun ran flaw-lessly.

How does the “Escort” fit into practical shooting? Keep-ing in mind that reliability is the foundation to build on, weseem (in our short test) to have that covered. Next we have

to keep the thing running, and for that we need replacementparts. A quick call to Legacy Sports customer service tookcare of that question with a positive response: parts are avail-able. Beyond that, what do we need to make this a suitableaction shotgun? Something shorter than 28” barrels wouldbe nice but they are not currently of-fered. Add that to the minus column oradd $85 to have it cut and choked.Sights? If a smooth bore slug barrelwere available, we would have the barrellength and sighting problem covered.Sadly we do not, so add another $25 toattach sights to the vent rib. (Again, Mr.Wheeler gave me the heads up thatshorter barrels are in the works, as is thepossibility of a slug barrel.)

We still have another problem thatcould be overcome. This gun (like aRemington 1100) has a locked shell car-rier (loading gate). To load, you mustdepress the carrier release button. Thisis not an unusual manual of arms, manyolder shotguns are loaded this way.Some are a little more user-friendly, like

the Remington 1100 that has its release button attached tothe carrier, which practical shooters replace with the elegantEZ-Loader for a big improvement. So how do we overcomethis? If you reload your shotgun using the “flip and burn”technique you can manage the button just fine with a littlepractice. Alternately you may be able to modify the carrierrelease system. This too must be added to the minus column.At only 7 pounds I would not call this gun soft-shooting, butadding weight is a lot easier than shedding it.

I had to come up with some kind of data to take homewith me, so while I was burning rounds into the backstop, Idecided to see what kind of shot-to-shot splits the gun woulddo. Using an audible shot timer and rolling rounds off as fastas I could, this gun proved to be the equal of a Benelli M1Super 90 in the pure speed department, with a number of.12 splits recorded. How’s THAT for a “cheap import?!”(The Benelli gags trying to shoot .12 second splits.)

In conclusion, this first offering from LSI seems to be agood one. Reliable, well engineered and (other than theitems mentioned) soundly constructed, the Escort may havea future with USPSA. Most of us have a propensity fortweaking and tuning our “race gear” and this self-loadingshotgun should be a good project platform to build on. Withan MSRP of $400 and a street price of around $360 this gunmay be the budget blaster you are looking for.

Tune in next issue for a look at the Traditions ALS 2100and the PMC/ Verona SX401. I will give you a sneak peakof what is in store. The ALS 2100 is a handsome lightweightupland field gun with a polished receiver and barrel. TheVerona SX401 has already been to the USPSA 3-gun nation-als. Can either of these measure up to the Escort?Look for it here in Front Sight!

Corrections, Omissions, GoofsBY ROBIN TAYLOR, TY-19724, USPSA STAFF

Wrong Woman At Area 4In our last issue, Front

Sight incorrectly reported Re-nee Tyson as top lady at Area4. Tyson finished high LIM-ITED Lady at Area 4. Accord-ing to match director KenHicks, top honors went toAthena Lee (high lady over-all), while Julie Goloski fin-ished second.

Our apologies to all con-cerned.

TURKISH

INVASION continued from page 49.

Two Turkish hybrids. While the Escort, top, looks like aFranchi, its inner workings operate more like a SAGE Remington1100. The Traditions ALS 2100 looks and feels like a Remington1100, but works more like a Beretta 391. Tune in next time for de-tails.