SDS AR T-02 Shotgun Test Report

[Deanimator]

Shooting Report:

Pluses:

1. Extremely pleasant to shoot, far more so than my Ithaca 37, with 00, 0 and #4.
2. Very decent patterns at seven yards.

Minuses:

1. Second to last and last rounds kept jumping out of the magazine tube. I preliminarily attribute this to the magazine spring which came with the extension. It seems too strong. I noticed something similar when trying to cycle snapcaps through it. I suppose it could also be due to short stroking during break-in. The next time I shoot it, I'll switch to the OEM spring and see what happens.
2. The screw holding the rail on sheered off. There appears to be just enough of it left to possibly remove with needle nosed pliers.

Does anybody know what size screw is used to hold the rail in place? I'm betting it's some metric size, but won't know until I can get the broken one out.

Summary: I didn't expect Benelli or Beretta quality from a $255 gun, and am willing to do a little more wrenching on it to get what I want.

[DukeConnor]

can't help you with the screw. all i have is a comment.
mag extensions on shot guns are always troublesome and require some work. try running it without the extension.

[Hanzy4200]

No advice on the screw. Downside of cheap import shotguns. Good luck getting parts or expert advice. I guess you could just buy another one to pull parts from. If you're sheering bolts now, I'm sure other things will be falling off eventually.

[Deanimator]

No advice on the screw. Downside of cheap import shotguns. Good luck getting parts or expert advice. I guess you could just buy another one to pull parts from. If you're sheering bolts now, I'm sure other things will be falling off eventually.

Not a bolt, a small screw under fairly heavy inertia forces from a relatively large optic.

Other than requiring break-in, that brand and that model seem to have a good reputation... certainly no worse than Remington.

[Deanimator]

Ran fifty rounds (twenty five each) of 0 and 00 buck through it yesterday without a single malfunction.

Got my Leapers rail to replace the one that came with the gun.

Have to work this Sunday, so I'll be test firing with the +2 extension and the OEM spring on Tuesday (range is closed on Mondays).

If there are no malfunctions on Tuesday and the rail holds up, I'll consider it ready to go.

[raxar]

The screw is probably a standard pitch size, you should be able to get a hardware store replacement.

[jthrelf]

The shells jumping could be a tolerance stack issue. If the shell stop is on the smaller size and the rims of the shells you're using are on the smaller side, they may jump past.

[Deanimator]

The shells jumping could be a tolerance stack issue. If the shell stop is on the smaller size and the rims of the shells you're using are on the smaller side, they may jump past.

It's possible. On the other hand, I had zero failures to feed/ejection from magazine issues after I:

1. switched to the OEM spring and cap.
2. lubed the living shit out of the gun.

I won't get to shoot it again until Tuesday of next week. In the meantime I'm going to clean it, switch to the +2 extension and lube it, albeit not to the same extreme.

[Deanimator]

The shells jumping could be a tolerance stack issue. If the shell stop is on the smaller size and the rims of the shells you're using are on the smaller side, they may jump past.

After thinking about it, I'm thinking this might have something to do with the third party follower. At some time in the future, I'll switch to the OEM follower and see what happens.

[Deanimator]

I shot the gun Tuesday with the OEM magazine cap installed.

I got through twenty five rounds of Estate 00 with no issues at all. I didn't bother to shoot the other twenty five, since it seems obvious to me that the issue is the extension (and possibly the second party follower). Some time in the future, I might try the extension with the OEM follower and spring. I'm in no hurry.

The Leepers rail was still solid.

A couple of days ago, I got a 2,000 lumen Olight. I had to do some filing on the mount to get it to fit the Picatinny rail molded into the forearm.

I was going to take some pictures, but I was sick as a dog yesterday and wasn't up for it.

I'll try to get and post some pictures at least by Tuesday.