Hawk 982 Review & Shell Latch Staking Adventure

[cgculber 6]

After recently parting ways with my beloved Saiga 12 to purchase an equally beloved 1980 Suzuki GS1000, I got the bright idea to "replace" my 12 gauge with a pump action.  

 

Not wanting to spend $500 - $1000 for a real remington 870, I decided to settle with the IAC Hawk 982 Chinese knock-off.  I figured for $200, I could afford to do the maintenance myself.  Plus, I like the stock sights and furniture better than any other pump I've come across at gun stores.

 

Anyways, I finally got around to buying the damn thing last week from a real friendly group of fellas here in Raleigh, NC.  I drove straight home and immediately stuffed 5 shells into to test if the gun would cycle properly.

 

One pump... nothing.

 

Another pump... nothing.

 

Furious pumping.... F*cking nothing.

 

This is straight out the box bull shit.  I pull the action bars back about half-way and immediately notice the shell stop is just missing clearance by a fraction of millimeter.

 

I then drive straight back to my friendly neighborhood gun store and ask to speak with the gun smith.  I didn't ask for a refund or anything like that (all sales final ya know); I just wanted to get some help figuring out what the problem was with the shell latch.

 

I was promptly informed that they had parted ways with their gun smith and asked to leave the store.  Real nice guys over there.

 

Anyways, I checked the internet and learned that this is actually quite common for remington 870s and not just particular to its chinese twin.  With the Hawk 982 (and similar knock-offs), its common for these guns to be shipped full of cosmoline (rust protectant) which gunks up the works.

 

So for two days I proceeded to run marine oil through the gun and then blast it with the hair dryer in attempt to work all of that shit out there.  

 

Still nothing.

 

Next I decided to breakdown the gun completely and just clean it all by hand.

 

I found some nice directions (http://www.rem870.com/2011/12/07/remington-870-disassembly-and-reassembly/) and as I removed the trigger assembly I heard *cling* followed by another *cling*.

 

Both shell latches fell out of the receiver.  

 

"Hmm, nothing about that in the dis-assembly directions..."

 

Now I'm a little confused since everything I've read indicates that these little bastards are supposed to be "staked in" with a special "remington 870 staking tool (not included with purchase) ".  

 

"Uh oh."

 

Anyways, I went ahead and cleaned everything thoroughly, and fortunately (staking tool be damned), I was able to finagle everything back together and am happy to report that the gun is in semi-good working order.  That is, about every 3 pumps or so will cycle 2 shells.  Not bad.  Not 100%, but better than nothing.

 

Next steps will be to replace both shell latches with real remington 870 shell latches (unless someone suggest otherwise) and re-stake properly with the staking tool.  As for the the shooting, I'm pleased with the feel of the Hawk 982 and love the sights. It's a simple device and once I get the reliability worked out, I'll be fully satisfied with my purchase.

 

What does this have to do with Saiga 12s?

 

In short, I feel that this experience is yet another affirmation of the reliability of the Saiga 12 platform.  I can't even begin to tell you how many lectures I received regarding the superior operation of a remington 870 pump as compared with a semi-auto shotgun (similar to other revolver vs semi-auto pistol lectures I've received).  Whereas I do not think its fair to compare this Chinese knock-off with all reminton 870s, I do think that anyone preaching the superior reliability of a pump action WITHOUT carefully considering the shell latch mechanism is completely full of horse shit. 

 

 

Here's a video of out-of-the-box operation.  I found that if I banged on the side hard enough I could shake loose the shell and clear the latch.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzkzNbcHkII&feature=youtu.be

 

Again, I don't recommend the Hawk 982 to those unwilling to take the time to fix the shell latches and clean the cosmoline... *cough* dad *cough*.  But I do recommend it for those on a budget or anyone who wants a cheap gun to practice gunsmithing or SBS projects.  Also, do consider the shell stop during the life and upkeep of a pump action.

 

 

 

 

[BigChongus 765]

There's nothing inherently wrong with the shell latch system provided they're staked correctly to begin with. Also, I think it's worth pointing out that fewer people will have out-of-box reliability issues with 870s (or Mossies for that matter) than they will with S-12s.