The Balikli Blue Label Shotgun
Turkey is famous for making shotguns, so it came as no surprise that EAA’s Balikli shotguns come from Turkish factories. The Balikli Blue Label over/under is a typical break-action design with a single trigger. The barrels are 28 inches on the 12-gauge model and bored for chokes at the muzzle, with a vented rib and front fiber-optic orange bead.
The stock is fashioned from walnut, another famous Turkish export. The Balikli Blue Label shotgun is more affordable than typical over/unders, so the walnut is a little more mainstream. The checkered walnut is matched to a handsomely engraved aluminum receiver. The mechanical single trigger fires both barrels, and the safety functions like most over/under guns, allowing you to pre-select which barrel to fire.
Specifications
- Gauge: 12
- Capacity: 2 rounds
- Barrel Length: 28 inches (12 gauge), 26 inches (28 and 20 gauges, .410 bore)
- Length of Pull: 14.5 inches
- Overall Length: 45 inches
- Weight: 6.35 pounds
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Included Chokes: Skeet, Imp Cyl, Mod, Imp Mod, Full
Quality
Break-action shotguns are almost as simple as you can get, which should make them easy to manufacture. I guess what I mean is: this simple design lends itself to be made well. During all our testing, I never found any kind of malfunction or problem.
While this shotgun isn’t meant to be some high-grade beauty like many other over/under shotguns, it is well made. The wood is finished handsomely, and everything fits snugly without gaps or edges. The checkering, while simple, is clean and grippy, and the rubber recoil pad softens the felt recoil while shooting.
The receiver sports a bead-blasted finish with an engraved pheasant motif. Smooth controls with robust lockup came as no surprise due to the simple design. If you typically shoot Perazzi or Guerini, you’d probably notice more difference than I.
For the average American shotgunner, this gun’s fit and function are as good as you can expect for this price. You can tell it’s a sub-$500 gun from Turkey, and that’s fine by me.
Shootability
Our first outing with the Blue Label was into the ice-cold Rocky Mountains. The kids and I ventured into the snow with a box of clays and some Fiocchi 1-ounce target loads – perhaps a little different than a typical trap trip, but we enjoy the hand-thrown clays. We all had fun figuring out the lead to break the clays and the seemingly antiquated process of opening the action to reload.
I do like the shorter feel of under/over-style shotguns. Since they don’t have an action designed to cycle shells from a magazine and are basically just a chamber and breech, they’re shorter than a similar barreled pump or auto. Swinging the 28-inch barrels was natural, and the textured rib and fiber-optic bead looked excellent when chasing clays through the sky.
The light weight of the Balikli Blue Label makes it easy to carry around. I’d love to take it on a pheasant or chukar hunt, but at this point in the year, it’ll have to be ducks or geese. Even my youngest boy had no problem handling the feel and recoil from this gun.
Reliability
It’s hard to come up with something more reliable than a break action. There are few parts to malfunction, and the simple operation is nearly impossible to screw up.
I know other over/under shotguns have spring ejectors to pop spent shells from the chamber. The Balikli Blue Label pushes the spent shells out, making them easy to grab, but it doesn’t eject them clear of the chamber.
The safety mechanism allows you to select which barrel fires first before moving to the firing position. Other than that, and loading the gun, there are few things you could do to experience a failure. The closest thing to it we experienced was not fully opening the action when loading, which would cause the shells to hang up on the breech.
Pros & Cons
Knowing the target audience for these guns, I think EAA did a great job on this shotgun. It is certainly affordable – which goes a long way in today’s firearm market – and it has nearly all the features that folks look for in an over/under shotgun.
There are few things I could say against this gun that I haven’t already mentioned. I’d like the spring ejectors, but really that’s about all I’d change.
The Balikli Blue Label would be right at home chasing Chukars along the foothills of the Rockies or stalking the mountain grouse up in the high country. I can’t wait for my next opportunity to take it afield. I’d expect any blue-collar hunter like me would be happy with this gun.
Final Thoughts
As I am more of a rifle guy than a shotgunner, I can approach the Balikli Blue Label with objectivity. I like over/under shotguns, and I’ve been lucky to shoot a few very nice ones. The simple design is reliable.
Most folks looking for a gun like this intend to shoot it either for clay sports or hunting. I can see this gun being very useful for those purposes, and at a significant discount over its typical competitors. With a price close to what you’d pay for a cheap pump action, you get the time-tested simplicity of a classic over/under. It doesn’t come with a bunch of bells and whistles or some intricate gold inlay, but it provides exactly what you need from a shotgun. Since shotguns are a bit more utilitarian for me, I think it’s perfect for that.
