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Stevens 320 12ga Pump Shotgun Review

shotgun review Jun 30, 2022

       

Today we're going C H E A P. Dirt cheap with the pump-action Stevens 320 in 12 gauge. The one I'm shooting today is in "obsession camo". These Stevens go so cheap that I was able to find a field/security combo (2 barrels) from REEDS for less than $300!

STEVENS 320 

MSRP is $331 but I got mine for less than that at Reeds Sports

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QUICK SPECS

  • 12 gauge (20 ga as well)
  • 3" chamber
  • 22" Barrel 
  • 7lbs 4oz  
  • Length of Pull 13 1/4" 
  • Drop at Comb (N/A)
  • Drop at Heel (N/A)
  • Comes with 1 choke (extra full)

TRIGGER

  • 7lbs 6.8oz (Average pull weight)
  • Not extremely heavy but heavier than I prefer
  • The trigger didn't feel great dry firing it

ERGONOMICS

  • My first thought holding this gun was "It's not actually bad" which is true - for <$300 I can't complain!
  • I also noticed that this gun's grip points really didn't form fit to my hands. Getting a good grip felt unnatural in otherwise natural places to grip a shotgun
  • To add to the previous point, the pistol grip angle felt steep
  • If I wasn't looking to do a lot of serious shooting, then these issues are quite minor. The only thing that continued to bother me would be the short length of pull, and the inability to adjust it easily.
  • This model is drilled and tapped which is nice if you want to add an optic for turkeys!
  • The recoil pad didn't feel all that bad!
  • Standard fiber bead on front with vented rib
  • Overall this is a very standard pump shotgun
  • Not the smoothest pump action I've ran but It could be worse!

Breakdown/Quality of Build

  • The breakdown of this pump was fairly simple
  • The pump, slides, bolt, and firing mechanism all come off together
  • It has a rotating bolt head
  • Construction is fairly solid for this price point! One concern I later noticed while speed shooting was that when I tried to run fast, the forearm began to scrape across the receiver leaving some skid marks

 

RECOIL/RELIABILITY

  • Recoil is one unfortunate downside of pump shotguns. Let alone cheap pumps. These target loads got me in the face for sure
  • I figured we should try out a turkey load being that this is a turkey gun - Before even shooting it, I noticed the three-inch shell was longer than the opening in the action! (Like Stevens is warning you to NOT shoot the 3inch shell 😬)
  • This Stevens actually sent the turkey recoil straight back! This impressed me
  • Recoil is sometimes relative to gun fit so you may experience recoil different than me - OR you could invest in a recoil reduction pad like a Falcon Strike
  • I haven't had this gun long enough to truly test its "Reliability" It shot fine for this review - If you have this gun, let me know how it's holding up!

SPEED SHOOTING

  • I was able to accomplish shooting 3 hand thrown clays in 1.63 seconds

In summary, the Stevens 320 didn't really get me excited in any form or fashion but it is super affordable, shoots reasonably well, and it just may be the right shotgun for you.

Whether our targets in the field or our targets in life, we will only hit what we are focused on so live the #targetfocusedlife 

Stay Target Focused,

Steve