Escort Youth AS Shotgun Review

[bsutravis]

After a long search for a youth shotgun that had a good reputation, yet wouldn't break the bank... I drove up to Bass Pro in Hammond last week and bought my 10 year old an Escort AS Youth model 20 gauge. I have to admit, I was still hesitant about buying a gun made in Turkey, from a company I'd never heard of (Hatsan Arms Co.). BPS had a heck of a deal on this gun though, and I only paid $250 for a semi-auto with very nice looking walnut stock and fore-end.



After two shooting sessions all I can say is WOW about this Escort shotgun! Absolutely flawless performance every time the trigger has been pulled. My son totally loves shooting his new gun. We've shot 100 rounds so far, 50 low brass skeet loads and 50 high brass game loads and have yet to see any issues. Yesterday I loaded 5 shells and ripped them off as fast as I could pull the trigger TRYING to get the gun to hang up and it refused to give in.

I outfitted the gun with a SIMS slip on recoil pad and that's made this gun shoot like a .410 at worst. With so little recoil my wife decided to try her luck yesterday and she had a blast to the point where she and my son were arguing over who got to shoot the final shell! I purchased some shooting sticks so mid-way through the shooting session my son can rest his arms and steady his final shots with the sticks and that worked very nicely.

He's got his aim down and I think now we're going to start experimenting with some slow moving ground targets. I'm going to try to rig a way to pull a clay target or a small weighted balloon along the ground with a heavy fishing rod/reel. I'll have to run the line out away from us, around a post and then take the line out so it's parallel to where we are standing. That's about all I can think of right now for a way to get a target to move other than fast flying skeet. I'll let ya know how it goes.

[huxbux]

Travis, those cheap plastic hand throwers work really well. Once you get the hang of them, it's fairly easy to fling clay pigeons at very slow speeds.

[bsutravis]

Yeah... I've got one somewhere....just need to find it. I never tried to toss 'em soft with it though. Usually it was me or a buddy slingin' them as hard as we could so the shooter wouldn't have a chance at hitting them! LOL

[dbd870]

Very nice looking gun for $250. I'll have to keep that in mind if my daughter decides she wants a shotgun.

[TagTeamHunter]

You know those Do It All Springer Trap Throwers don't throw birds that fast; also it is easy to have the birds fly the same path each time. Works great for teaching him leading and cover up the birds. Anyways that is one sweet looking gun.

[bsutravis]

We just got back from another session with the Escort.... again, not a single problem. I can't express how happy with this 'cheap' shotgun! Best $250 I've spent on a hunting item without a doubt!

Thanks for the suggestions on how to get my kid shooting more difficult targets..... he's definately gotten the hang of it! We started out with the fishing pole trick I mentioned earlier and he smoked all 10 targets I pulled along the ground perpendicular to him. I knew I had to try some harder things so I started tossing up balloons into the air, letting the wind catch them and letting him shoot at those.....again he was perfect after 10. By then my boy was starting to have a swagger about him and I knew I needed to bust him back down to reality so we graduated to hand tossed skeet. He missed the first 5, then hit his first clay and he was back on cloud nine! We then went through nearly 2 boxes of shells as I was tossing singles straight out and at slight angles for him. One time he hit 6 in a row.... I'd say after all was over he got slightly over 50% of the clays.... which impressed his ol' Dad! We'll be at the REAL skeet range before too long if he keeps it up.

We had a heart-to-heart on the way home and I explained to him that he's learning a skill that he will truly be able to use the rest of his life. Playing baseball & football as a kid is fun, and I wish he had the physical ability that he once did to participate, but I told him that those things would go away as he became a teen or in college at the latest..... but shooting and hunting, now THOSE things are a love he can hold onto and participate in forever.

It was a great time.

[Decatur]

That's great!

[Woody Williams]

That is nothing short of GREAT!!

You are instilling in him a great attitude.

You''ll have a lifetime hutning buddy there.

Congratulations to that young man for his shooting.