You may not be aware of this, but there are lots of shotguns coming out of Turkey.
Some are high quality, and others are not. Many of the top shotgun manufacturers
are having their premier shotguns made in Turkey. You may be spending a large
sum of money for a particular brand that may be using Turkish manufacturers that
are putting their brand name on the shotgun.
I have been asked to evaluate an Aselkon shotgun being manufactured in Turkey
and being imported by ADCO. It looks like many higher priced shotguns on the
market.
The first thing I noticed when I picked up this shotgun was the weight. It is light
weight and comfortable to maneuver. The basic specifications on the shotgun are
that it is semiautomatic, weighs 6.5 pounds, has replaceable chokes, a barrel length
of 18.5 inches, and an overall length of 40 inches.
The shotgun was shipped with the barrel and forend disassembled. It did not go
together as smoothly as I anticipated. I discovered that the forend and barrel had to
be squeezed together. Once I took it apart several times, the assembly became
smoother. When reinstalling the barrel into the receiver, follow the directions in
the assembly portion of the manual. When the shotgun is new, the forend is stiff,
and you must press the forend and barrel into the receiver as a unit. There are
small plastic tabs on the base of the plastic forend and if you are not cautious, you
could destroy these alignment tabs.
Once the shotgun is assembled, it is easy to notice the forend and the one-piece
pistol grip have a very good fit to the receiver. These two components blended to
the receiver flawlessly.
The Askalon is equipped with an 18.5 in barrel and the different chokes allow for
the shotgun to shoot a variety of loads for hunting or tactical use. What I really
liked was the extended chamber extension that is chromed. During loading and
unloading, the bolt only rides on the chromed barrel extension. This function will reduce the amount of lubrication necessary, which means you could shoot this
shotgun in a dry, arid environment.
The sights are ghost ring with a high profile. They are adjustable for windage and
elevation. With this sight, it was easy to get sight alignment and to reengage a
target. Additionally, the high wings around the rear sight protect the ghost ring.
The sights are, also, mounted on a weaver-type rail that is fit on grooved slots cut
into the receiver, with a screw holding it in place. The sight base allows for the
mounting of scopes or other optical sights.
Shooting the shotgun was very simple. It is a lightweight shotgun, so I was
surprised that using standard number six shot, there was not a noticeable difference
in the recoil. I shot a few slugs (because why not), and there was a noticeable increase in recoil. However, a lightweight shotgun, that is weather resistant and
can shoot a variety of different loads, at a moderate price, is hard to beat.
By: Richard Vasquez, Retired ATF Tech Branch Chief.
rick@rickvasquezfirearms.com
Dealers can inquire at many high quality sporting good wholesalers or my contact
at ADCO at 800-775-3687 or adcoarmsco@aol.com for more information. Our
website is at www.adcosales.com.
ADCO Arms Co., Inc. 34A Holton St. Woburn, MA 01801 tel: 781-935-1799
ADCO is a Service Disabled, Veteran Own, Small Business (SCVOSB)
