I bought the hatsan escort 8 shot semi auto last autumn and have since put 3000 shells through it , I'm very pleased so I thought I'd write a review, a picture of this shotgun can be found on the below link .
HATSAN ARMS COMPANY
Firstly I love the military police style stock , It's perfect for shooting off a quad bike or out of a gator whilst I've been lambing , and it's very easy to bring to the shoulder , my escort is chambered for magnums and the stock has proven to be very comfortable with no complaints even after shooting a box of 3/12 inch 60 gram bbs whilst fox shooting . I also appreciate the fact it comes factory standard with a full set of chokes ( including super full choke ) and a weaver rail on the action . I have a red dot 1.5xmag scope on my escort which makes it great for target acquisition at night on a quad when foxing . My only complaint with the weaver rail was that from new it kept coming loose until I finally applied loctite thread lock on the screw threads .
The iron sights are adjustable and are night-glo type however I found them inadequate for night shooting and so fitted the red dot sight , brilliant for ground level shots , not so good for birds .
The chokes supplied are your usual selection , plus a super full choke - awesome bit of kit , this thing will group 6 out of the 9 lead balls in a magnum sg in a 5 inch square at 55 yards . It's a great tool for foxes , it hits them like a freight train .
The rate of fire on this gun is impressive , you can completely unload all 9 rounds in 3.8 seconds .
I know this is a cheap gun and for that reason I expected it to jam but it just doesn't , I've never ever jammed it , I've shot all loads from a 24 gram right up to a 66 gram and it's always cycles . I don't clean it that often , probably about twice a month and it works fine .
The action is a bit crude but it's fast and it works , it's not as smooth as the franchi spas but it's a quarter of the price and as mentioned above it always cycles .
I'm not keen on the safety , its the standard push over type located behind the trigger .
The trigger pull is 2lbs , for me that's perfect all my rifles are set to this as well .
All in all I'd give this shotgun 8/10 , I've shot franchi , benelli , browning and Winchester autos and although it's cheaper than any of these , I can't think of any reason I'd rather have any of the above as a working shotgun . ( except maybe a franchi spas ) the escort mpa is perfect for a foxing gun to carry whilst lambing its weather proof , rugged , high capacity , easy to shoot and cheap . The stocks also very easy to clean . Id thoroughly recommend this shotgun as a workhorse to anyone . It just does the job with no fuss .
My set up and costs are as follows
Hatsan escort 12ga mpa semi auto 8 shot - £470
Sling and clips - £15
Winchester red dot sight -£25
My favourite foxing load , hull super magnum 3/12 inch 66 gram bb
There is however one problem with the hatsan , me and some mates often shoot rabbits from a pick up truck rear tub frame on a large arable farm and regurlarly use 3-400 cartridges a night to kill 2-300 rabbits . With a shotgun with this magazine capacity you need to watch yourself as its easy to get trigger happy and shoot at things more than one or two times = expensive shooting .another problem when doing this amount of shooting is that the barrel gets VERY hot and off someone is standing to the right of you they are continually blasted by very hot gasses at face level , this gun could do with some sort of directional exhausts to fire the gasses up or down .
I hope you find this usefull . Please comment and add to my post !
HATSAN ARMS COMPANY
Firstly I love the military police style stock , It's perfect for shooting off a quad bike or out of a gator whilst I've been lambing , and it's very easy to bring to the shoulder , my escort is chambered for magnums and the stock has proven to be very comfortable with no complaints even after shooting a box of 3/12 inch 60 gram bbs whilst fox shooting . I also appreciate the fact it comes factory standard with a full set of chokes ( including super full choke ) and a weaver rail on the action . I have a red dot 1.5xmag scope on my escort which makes it great for target acquisition at night on a quad when foxing . My only complaint with the weaver rail was that from new it kept coming loose until I finally applied loctite thread lock on the screw threads .
The iron sights are adjustable and are night-glo type however I found them inadequate for night shooting and so fitted the red dot sight , brilliant for ground level shots , not so good for birds .
The chokes supplied are your usual selection , plus a super full choke - awesome bit of kit , this thing will group 6 out of the 9 lead balls in a magnum sg in a 5 inch square at 55 yards . It's a great tool for foxes , it hits them like a freight train .
The rate of fire on this gun is impressive , you can completely unload all 9 rounds in 3.8 seconds .
I know this is a cheap gun and for that reason I expected it to jam but it just doesn't , I've never ever jammed it , I've shot all loads from a 24 gram right up to a 66 gram and it's always cycles . I don't clean it that often , probably about twice a month and it works fine .
The action is a bit crude but it's fast and it works , it's not as smooth as the franchi spas but it's a quarter of the price and as mentioned above it always cycles .
I'm not keen on the safety , its the standard push over type located behind the trigger .
The trigger pull is 2lbs , for me that's perfect all my rifles are set to this as well .
All in all I'd give this shotgun 8/10 , I've shot franchi , benelli , browning and Winchester autos and although it's cheaper than any of these , I can't think of any reason I'd rather have any of the above as a working shotgun . ( except maybe a franchi spas ) the escort mpa is perfect for a foxing gun to carry whilst lambing its weather proof , rugged , high capacity , easy to shoot and cheap . The stocks also very easy to clean . Id thoroughly recommend this shotgun as a workhorse to anyone . It just does the job with no fuss .
My set up and costs are as follows
Hatsan escort 12ga mpa semi auto 8 shot - £470
Sling and clips - £15
Winchester red dot sight -£25
My favourite foxing load , hull super magnum 3/12 inch 66 gram bb
There is however one problem with the hatsan , me and some mates often shoot rabbits from a pick up truck rear tub frame on a large arable farm and regurlarly use 3-400 cartridges a night to kill 2-300 rabbits . With a shotgun with this magazine capacity you need to watch yourself as its easy to get trigger happy and shoot at things more than one or two times = expensive shooting .another problem when doing this amount of shooting is that the barrel gets VERY hot and off someone is standing to the right of you they are continually blasted by very hot gasses at face level , this gun could do with some sort of directional exhausts to fire the gasses up or down .
I hope you find this usefull . Please comment and add to my post !