The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Big Frank on August 25, 2018, 10:40:04 PM
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Does anyone have any experience with Iver Johnson shotguns, or pistols for that matter, made in the last 25 years? Are they any good? Their shotguns are made by Armed Guns in Turkey, and their 1911s are made in the Philippines by Shooters Arms Manufacturing. They have a semi-auto 12 gauge dressed up AR-style with 2 5-round box magazines, put the plainer looking version with a 5-round tube magazine looks good to me. It's 30 bucks cheaper, a few inches shorter, 1.25 pounds lighter, and it's not as goofy looking. They make a 20 gauge version too, and on all 3 guns the push of a button above the grip lets you take the stock off, leaving you with a fully functional pistol grip semi-auto. The list price is only $420. That's over $1,000 less than a Remington VERSA MAX Tactical. I'd rather have a Benelli M4 Tactical, but they want 2 grand for one. I don't expect a $420 gun to be as good as those but if it works, it works, and the black chrome finish should hold up well.
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Turkish shotguns for the most part are very well built and finished for the money. As are many of their handguns. They're manufacturing a clone of the Browning 9 MM Hi-Power that is an excellent gun.
So if I were looking for a good, low cost dependable shotgun, the Turkish guns are where I would start. As far as the Benelli M-4, it's a good shotgun. But it's ridiculously over priced for what it is. The best saying I've heard about the Benelli M-4, is that it's the absolute best $650.00 shotgun you can buy........ For $1,800.00.
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CZ shotguns...methinks, are made in Turkey. Or at least some of them were. I don't own any but I love their rifles and pistols. I know of the overunder shotguns from owner conversations and I have never heard anything but good.
https://czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=28025.0 (https://czfirearms.us/index.php?topic=28025.0)
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That should have said Iver Johnsons made in the last 15 years. I thought of that as I lay awake in bed, but at 4:00 AM I was more interested in falling asleep than correcting a mistake.
Thanks guys. That confirms what I've read elsewhere about Turkish shotguns in general. I've seen pictures of some really fancy O/U and SxS shotguns with various brands stamped on them that were all made in Turkey. But not much news on pumps and semi-autos.
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Jumbo... I tried to post earlier, but couldn't get the link to work.... the Stoeger M3000 has pretty good reviews on the Brian Enos forum ( shotgun=technical section)... I think it is slightly more expensive, but has some pretty qualified reviewers... I've played with an early version of the box fed Turkish AR style 12ga (M1919?) for a friend but was not very successful in making it work...
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The Stoeger M3000 Defense Shotguns look alright. $619 with a black synthetic conventional stock and $669 with a pistol grip stock, in the Freedom Series with extended magazine tubes.
https://www.stoegerindustries.com/freedom-series-extended-magazine-shotguns
I've heard about other AR style 12 gauges having a lot of problems. The Iver Johnson one looks like they took an existing design and modified it to take detachable box magazines. It doesn't really look like an AR but is AR-ish, with an A2-ish detachable carry handle on a Pic-ish rail.
https://iverjohnsonarms.com/store/p173/Stryker-12.html