Silver Eagle Sporter 20 Gauge Satin Black Shotgun

I have been wanting a...

I have been wanting a 20ga semi auto for a while. I decided on the Silver Eagle Sporter 26". The price was right and I have always had real good luck with Turkish shotguns in general. Very easy transaction as always with Buds. Shipping was quick with great tracking information. The gun arrived at my FFL in great shape. My FFL and I were real impressed with the gun. For the price it looked pretty solid. The action was a bit rough, but that is to be expected at this price point. The finish of the wood is so so, but for $335, that's what you get. I got it home and took it apart. I cleaned and lubed it and put it back together. On other semi auto shotguns I have worked on removing the charging handle can be a pain. Especially when new. This gun was no exception. It was bear to get out and a bear to get back in. To date I have disassembled and reassembled the gun close to 10 times and it has not gotten any easier. Because it is a gas operated gun you need to disassemble it after every time you take it out because of how dirty they get. The charging handle has to come out so the bolt can be removed. Not a fan of how tough it is to remove the charging handle. The bolt was a little rough initially. A little work with a file removed numerous sharp edges and burrs. I reassembled the gun and dry cycled the action close to 1000 times over a couple of nights. The action was noticeably smoother. The sling swivel studs had these goofy loops on them that won't allow you to use quick disconnect sling setup. I cut them off with a Dremel and a cutoff wheel, then opened up the holes so my sling would fit. I wasn't a fan of the hard rubber but pad on this shotgun. My experience with them is they inflict a lot of pain. I intended to change it out to a real recoil pad later on. I took the gun out to put some rounds through it. I was using Winchester Super X high brass #6 1 oz 2 3/4" upland game loads and some 7/8 oz #7 1/2 Winchester Universal loads from WalMart. I ran 2 boxes of through the gun and half a box of the WalMart loads. First impression was this is one soft shooting gun! Recoil with the heavy game loads is way less than my 12ga ,that has a good recoil pad, shooting Walmart #8 target loads. A recoil pad won't be necessary for this shotgun. I did have a few failure to feeds, however they became less frequent by the time I finished the second box of game loads. I'm sure with more rounds through the gun it will break in nicely. With the modified choke in this gun throws a real nice pattern. It will be perfect for quail in the Desert. I walked for about 3 miles with the sling on and it was real comfortable. Much lighter than my 12ga. The main reason I chose this gun is for hunting birds and rabbits in the Desert. I wasn't interested in a expensive gun with beautiful wood and perfect bluing that you would have a complete heart attack if you would ever get a ding or a scratch on it. This is a hunting gun for me. It is a tool. I'm not interested in winning a beauty contest. I want something that works for hunting. I think this gun checks the boxes for me. Is it perfect? No. I had to fix a few things that bugged me with it, and that charging handle issue will probably get easier with time, but it's not that big of a deal. It It does feel really nice though. Light weight. (Around 6.5 lbs) Slim. Points and shoulders real well. Throws a nice pattern. Very soft shooting! It's not a Browning or a Benelli, but it's only $335 shipped. If it gets some battle scars I'll get over it.