Review - Howa Escort 20g Youth

[Python73]

Bought a Howa 20g for the old lady yesterday at the gun show. Shot three boxes of shells through it today, so I thought I'd give it a quick review.

Model# - HAT00107
Gauge - 20

This is a semi-auto shotgun. It is the black synthetic model with the aggressive recoil pad built into the stock. It came in a box with three chokes (full, mod, imp), a choke wrench, and a booklet. Now that I think about it I don't think it came with a lock. Which means I can't add it to the lock_scrap_heap of all the other locks I'll never use that came with my guns. Anyway... price tag was $399. Paid for a pics and 6% blood money on top, just shy of $430.

Took it out of the box to assemble it, and noticed three things of interest. 1 - there was a sticker on the bottom of the barrel that said ESCORT in big red letters. It peeled off and left glue/residue, which makes me want to load it and murder the assholes that stuck it on there in the first place. I worked it out with a bit of effort and swearing. 2 - the improved choke had a little nib of metal where the slot was ground for the wrench. It stuck into the choke, enough to snag your finger on. Probably would have shot off with the first round but I pictured it bowing up and killing us all (I have some issues). So I took a brass tool I have and pried it up and it snapped off clean. The other two choke tubes are fine. 3 - there's a strange widget on the side of the receiver that sticks out. When you push it in it blocks the magazine tube, holding any shells in place. I suspect that this is for temporary unloads where you want to empty the chamber without emptying the mag. It bothered me quite a bit at first, but I'm warming to the concept. After shooting the gun it isn't in your way at all at least.

The gun is very light and easy to maneuver. I'm a big guy and I have to tuck down into it a bit more than a full sized gun, but I had no problems hitting clays with it. We were shooting Winchester skeet loads. My wife was not very enthused to shoot clays with any of the shotguns we offered on previous trips. She smoked her first clay with this gun and had a huge grin on her face. The thing has almost no recoil. You could literally shoot it until the barrel melted before your shoulder would hurt. All 5 of us took turns and had a great time. No feeding issues or ejection problems. Nice smooth gun and a hell of a lot of fun.

Summary... for a lady shooter or a starter gun this can't be beat. You could easily hunt any small game you wanted with it, and it did fine on clays even with the short barrel. Super happy with this purchase.

[dannyb]

Congratulations and thanks for a great review.