stevens savage 512 o/u reveiw

[JaMail]

So I looked through the forums before I bought this and did not really see anything useful, I did find posts on the interwebs asking about this particular model, so I am going to both review it and post data as I add rounds fired.

A buddy took me to shoot some sporting clays a few months ago and I was hooked, I had done a little (under 100 rounds) of desert shooting when I was a kid, but only a mag of saiga 12 in the last 15.

I liked the sporting clays alot and wanted to try skeet so I started looking at O/U's and semi's.

I finally found a low priced O/U model (Stevens 512) and started looking for one to buy.

I purchased this used from a California friendly Gunbroker Vendor after reading a little about the guns on the interwebs and shouldering a couple of them at Turners one night.

It was listed for 349 but I had gotten skunked on two other auctions, so I paid 40.00 extra and did a buy it now to get the special edition black receiver. It had a small chip/scratch on the pistol grip.

379 for the shotgun,
20 for the s&h (very well packed in newspaper in the original box with the oem chokes) shipped withing 24 hours of payment
75 at riflegear for the transfer fee + DROS

474 total.. for something that is almost 800 at Turners.

Majority of the negative comments I read online was that fit and finish was lacking, and that the gold pheasant decal looked cheap.

Fit & finish on mine is pretty damn good in my shotgun noobie opinion, I looked at some of the higher priced guns at turners and at triple b clays and fit and finish is good with one exception. The only thing I can think of is that the reviews of the finish I read were all 4 to 5 years old and the Q/A has improved since the stevens came out 5 years ago.

I 100% AGREE that the gold pheasant decal is cheap looking. the engraving behind it was ugly and all around unpleasant to look at.

When I looked on Gunbroker the vendor I found seems to have multiple models of the 512

1) Gold decal version (looks cheap and ugly)



2) Black plain receiver (looks plain and classy)



3) Silver version 1 lightly engraved (the best looking version IMO)



4) Silver special laser engraved version 2 special scene ( tied with the one above.)



I didint really care about the looks, I just didint want something that was going to be obviously ugly.

I tried shouldering a couple at triple b and at turners and the gold wing felt good to me.

Only negative at this point is the small latch under the forearm has a tendency to slightly lift after a couple of shots, so if i place my hand wrong, it scrapes / pinches the skin, no pain involved, but the skin lifts.. Like a really shallow papercut. If I hold it and shoulder it correctly no problem, if I put my hand a little to far forward it peels the skin. I havent had a chance to take it apart and see if the spring or the wood is not set correctly.

Round count when I bought it? no idea.

First time I got to shoot it was at Don Zieglers skeet clinic (my first time shooting skeet) after the clinic was done we were able to do one quick round.. I think I hit somewhere around 15 out of 25 in that round which I dont consider bad since the last 5 shots I could barely see through my glasses due to the rain.

Round count
11/04/11 = 100 part of the day in the sun/rain/drizzle
11/12/11 = 125 sprinkling/drizzle
11/19/11 = 75 nice day




I hope this is useful to someone on a budget considering buying one of these .

[JaMail]

let me know if you want more pics.