Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Stop the maddness... Thoughts on MC312?

So I saw an ad for a turkish made shotfun imported by EAA under the model 312.
Its a 24inch cerakote pistol grip camo stocke intertia and they sell under sub-$600. Really cool red dot mounting rail built in.

I have 4 turkey guns.. in Franchi Affinity 3 in 12 and 20 and a pair of Savage 301 in 12 and 20.
I have yet to take a bird with the 20's.

So this MC312 is catching my eye, but its only in 12 gauge.

I don't thnk I would hesitate if it was a 20.


If I could get totally comfortable with the chinese made 301 in 20, I'd take the red dot of the Franchi 20 and just use it for ruffed grouse. I am concerned about the quality a bit.
Maybe even take the red dot of the 12.

BUT if I went predator hunting again, that red dot equipped 12 is a nice gun. So far I use it to blast beavers on the farm ponds and turkey hunt.

Which is the tempation on the MC312 as a good dedicated gun...

Talk me into it, out of it, or into something els.
Franchi sells a similar version too that is $900-1000.

Oh.. I have an early franchi affinity 12 (before drill & tap) that runs flawless and its my duck hunt & late season ruffed grouse gun, but the matte black finish rust like crazy...
Thats my interest in updating my duck and turkey guns to cerakote...

Apoligies in advance for the rambling post...

HD

There's a proliferation of Turkish-made inertia shotguns out there. Quality seems to range from very good to not so much. I'm not sure where Girsan lies in that range. But I suspect at that price point there are some known issues.

One thing I like to do is Google "problems" for a specific gun I may want. In this case "Girsan MC312 Problems". It's like reviewing a product before buying and going to all the 1-start comments first. If I see a trend, then it probably is a real issue.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gir...amp;sclient=gws-wiz-serp&bshm=rimc/1

Feeding, failure to lock open on last shot, and ejection issues seem to be the most common complaints. For me, that would put me off a bit.

I won't try and talk you out of an inexpensive Turkish made gun. But I would suggest you get one from a company that will back it up. EAA would not be my first choice. CZ is a company with great customer service, and their 712 series are well-regarded guns. And Stoeger is owned by Benelli and falls under the Benelli/Franchi umbrella. These companies may cause you to have to increase your budget a bit. But I think you'd be happier in the long run.

Embrace the madness.....lol.
Glocks said it on the quality range.
At one point, I had about 8 or 10 turkey guns. It started simple enough, I wanted a backup gun for my main gun. Then I wanted a backup for my backup, and so on and so on.
I can tell you, I learned a lot from messing with all of them, but life got a lot easier for me when I decided to go 20 ga. and sold all the rest. Now I have my primary gun (Wby. Model 459 20 ga) and my backup, a Remington 870 20 ga.
Nothing wrong with having several, but I have a pump and a semi auto so I feel like I am covered. I did have to go to my backup a few years back when I shot a turkey with my 459 and the bolt handle came flying out. I looked but never found it (it would have been a stroke of luck to find it in the leaves as I didn't have a clue which way it went). I got a new one coming from WBY, but hunted with the 870 for the rest of the year.

Calming down.

So do you guys think the savage 301's are a good back up?

I'm not opposed to spending a little more to get the franchi version, but my gun gluttony & guilt and overflowing gun safe is getting me.


What would Cerakote services cost?

The 301 is fine. I've looked at them and frankly they seem as good as the old H&Rs I like, and maybe a bit better.

I have an MC312 synthetic. Beautiful gun. Machining is top notch. Handles target loads and 3" steel effortlessly. However mine doesn't eject a certain brand of 2-3/4" steel load. Apparently the guns have to break-in a bit, and mine hasn't reached 100 rounds through it yet.

I saw something to that effect saying a break in is needed.

I know my Wby SA-08 needed a few boxes of high brass shells shot thru it before it worked right. My shoulder was jacked up at the time so I gave a kid that I know $10 bucks and 3 or 4 boxes of shells and told him to see if he could shoot it fast enough to turn the barrel red...
First box had some issues, but part way thru the second box, everything smoothed out and and it ran the rest just fine. Never had an issue since.

I disagree If you want a dedicated single shot turkey gun. In the long run you would be better off Going with a NEF

Ive tried a few single shots between H&R, older savage, and NEF and had poor luck with broken parts or quality. My Savage 301 has been good and came in set up for turkey. My concern on the 301 is based on my history of american made single shots failing.

The 301 is a good solid no frills shotgun, I had one and if the kid down the street hadn't needed a gun for turkey hunting it would still be in my safe. Really liked the light weight as the season hikes got longer towards the end.