Thread: Escort shotguns. Good, bad or ugly?

my own escort12g S/A is over 10yrs old and it still trundles along.
It does have its shortcomings but ive always managed to to restore her to working in my mancave,courtesy of another member of other channel who kindly gave me some spare parts.
The key problem with early models was the softness of the bolt carrier arms.If the mag tube got covered in crap and the carrier bound in travel -those arms would bend.
Hence the need for scrupulous cleaning.
As gadget said,mine has had a few dips in the shitty water of ellesmere ,but like its russian cousins still functioned -but once home a quick 10min complete strip clean &inspection had it back on the road.
Recently the gas piston shit itself-a manufacturing fault where a thread was cut into it leaving too little metal to cope with the forces of firing god knows how many thousand rounds.
into the spares boxand bingo away we go.oh yeah the gas ring tore-hmmm look through my O ring collection-likely candidate -stretch it on and bingo bang bang bang we,re back into it.
mine has extended mag -8x 23/4"rds or 7x3"rds.
The other dilemma was trap ammo -she wouldnt cycle.yep "getan itie ,lump of shit ,boat anchor"heard em all.no Imnot going to admit defeat-instead i discovered barry foster of Fosters outdoor centre&stihl shop Blenheim rd CHCH.
Barry imports&sells the excellent HULL(UK) ammo in steel/lead hunting12g and DTL3000(1500fps)trap ammo.oh yeah baby is boogieing again.that rd is the first with common trap rd as 2nd option.luvly to see clouds of dust&flying chips.
My 2nd gun is a Bentley pointer -the jap replica of browning A5 action.Sheslimited to 2 3/4steel as chamber areas are soft alloy and prone to cracking.also fixed1/2choke.
Escort runs 6 choke combos at present.
dont forget this is an early escort gun with manual 2 stage gas regulator.
Finally if one wants a plain jane-dont overlook baikal. Ive a sweet wee o/u (identical to uplanders)on loan and im loving it.the owner had a baikal s/a before that and it was typically a reliable workhorse,as russian guns often are.
like others on here ,I love a fine gun ,but mine are 1st and foremost working tools hence they may been a little crude in mixed company ,but for me they do the job.
Ive got in more shit on ch2 for escort defence than anything ,but to me its just good ol devils advocate.hehehehe

actually before i go -another member on other channel got hold of me having bought a nice wee presentation model escort(?20G)for his wife.It was non functioning and gunsmith was happy to ofer other options.hmm-quick strip-yup bolt carrier armhad a ben like ell mcphersons bust line and mag tube looked like interior of coal fired boiler.Itok most of the bend out ,and was confident it could be remedied ,tho i think he bought her another gun.
other advantage here -very simple systems to work on .