BR-99 Total Win

[saiga488 0]

Giving everyone my honest review of the BR-99.  Before I do though here is my shotgun background.  For starters I am and always will be a Saiga/Vepr 12 fan.  Thats my "go to" shotgun platform hands down.  However, I did give the MKA 1919 a shot a while back and hated it.  I sat on the sidelines for quite some time waiting for a honest review on the MKA.  Once that came out I said "pass"....... Then the MKA XN version came out with much better reviews so I picked one up in the $700 price range.  Overall I was dissapointed with it for the price so I sold it pretty quickly and stuck with the Kalashnikov platform.  Here are the things I didn't like about the MKA: Fixed plastic feed ramp, stock, pistol grip, hand guard, sights, and just plain ugly as hell.  The aftermarket parts were available to make it like I wanted, but the total cost including the gun would be way beyond any of my Vepr/Saiga 12s.  Just didn't make sense at the time when I was totally happy with both my Saiga and Vepr 12.

 

Moving foward to the present.  About one week ago Centerfire Systems had a BR-99 "below cost" sale and they were so cheap I picked one up on sheer impulse.  I finally had a chance to shoot it today so here are my findings:  Fact #1 My MKA 1919 XN "DID NOT" run reliably with 1200-1250 fps ammo out of the box.  Fact #2 My BR-99 "DOES" run reliably with the same 1200-1250 fps ammo.  Fact #3 My MKA 1919 XN "DID" run reliably with the same ammo after I installed two gas booster bushings behind the bypass spring.  For arguements sake I am going to call the factory reliability between the two guns a tie.  My MKA did require booster bushings to run out of the box but its stupid simple to install so no biggie. 

 

Now for the the Pros and Cons of the BR-99 per my personal assessment and having already has a MKA before for comparison.

 

Pros - 100% reliable out of the box (so far).  Folding feed ramp to remove bolt for cleaning without taking receivers apart is just plain awesome!  From an engineering perspective this is by far my favorite upgrade over the MKA.  Continuous picatinny rail across upper receiver and hand guard.  Hand guard is more usable and comfortable.  I like the grip a little better as well, but thats toatally a personal preference.  Uses both MKA and BR mags (this is not yet confirmed by myself).  Gun looks WAY better from the factory.

 

Cons - Sights still suck.  Stock is still too long for me.  Mags don't drop free.  Eveything else that I disliked about the MKA that the BR shares still applies.

 

Keep in mind that my reliability assessment is based on the ammo below only!  I only had time to shoot 20 rounds per ammo type as well.  With that said though absolutely no failures of any kind and the bolt locked back everytime after the last round.

 

Conclusions - For the price I paid I am 100% satisfied so far.  As a matter of fact if the MKA was the same price I would still choose the BR.  I think its a better gun for the money.  If a person was going to add a bunch of expensive aftermarket parts to it though then I recommend buying whichever is cheapest.  Actually in that situation the MKA might have the edge due to more current aftermarket support and parts availability over the BR.  This couuld change at any time though.  My vote goes to the BR though.

Edited September 26, 2014 by saiga488

[SERBAK15 0]

great review saiga488...I have had similar results

[gunfun 3,931]

Thanks for the update, and background. Keep this up when you have a few more miles on her to give us a more meaninful picture too.

Any signs of cheap cast aluminum shaving off near the locking block?

[saiga488 0]

Thanks for the update, and background. Keep this up when you have a few more miles on her to give us a more meaninful picture too.

Any signs of cheap cast aluminum shaving off near the locking block?

 

Yeah no prob.  The gun is completely unmolested right now.  Even has the factory crap sights.  No signs of any premature wear, but I am only at the +/- 60 round count.  I may buy some inexpensive sights for it like the Magpul ones, but don't plan on dumping any money into it until I get some more range time with it.  Additionally, I plan to pick up a couple boxes of 1150 fps and 1100 fps low recoil ammo just to see how low I can take it without issues.  My guess is that I am already at its lower end limits by how far the 1200 fps shells were ejecting, but I only know one way to find out for certain........  I plan to continue updating as I spend more trigger time with this gun.

[Blackstuff 2]

I'm about 3000 rds into my BR99, most of it heavy competition use and its still going strong. The only times it has malfunctioned (over and above what you would normally expect) is when i've done something wrong (e.g. putting the barrel retention nut on the wrong way around and the barrel working loose, or putting a magazine spring in backwards leading to jams  )

 

It did suffer some scraping damage to the upper receiver, however i wasn't even aware of it until i read a thread on here about it happening to MKA1919's. After a fair bit of use and smoothing the top of the lock off it no longer does it.

 

I have limited experience with the MKA1919 first hand but the few i've seen have had problems. That said the guy who is currently winning the UK IPSC shotgun championship is using an MKA1919 so they can't all be bad!

 

TBH i think the whole BR99 Vs MKA1919 is pretty much a pointless debate. They're both budget shotguns and both have flaws, just pick one and go shoot it instead of bitching on like a bunch of girls

 

Last big comp i shot ~200rds 1 failure to fire @1:44, looks like the hammer wasn't cocked

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsKuIY6zZ7c

 

(Sorry, don't know how to get the video to be imbedded in the post!)

Edited September 26, 2014 by Blackstuff

[saiga488 0]

TBH i think the whole BR99 Vs MKA1919 is pretty much a pointless debate. They're both budget shotguns and both have flaws, just pick one and go shoot it instead of bitching on like a bunch of girls :

I have to agree. They are basically the same damn gun. Not much really to debate as far as which gun is better. The point of my thread was to debunk a couple of rumors that the BR was not as reliable as the MKA. It's just flat out not true with the two guns I had to test. Somethng to make note of though is that with any manufacturer quality control changes throughout a guns life cycle whether it be for the better or worse. My test subjects was a very early MKA XN and a late model BR. Might have made a difference.

Edited September 26, 2014 by saiga488