Preface
Admittedly I am more of a rifle junkie than a shotgun enthusiast, but I can appreciate a good shotgun when I need it. I grew up hunting waterfowl and upland game in the western US, and for the most part I could do everything I needed with any of the classic pump-shotguns. But with time, and more mature tastes, I’ve broadened my inventory of shotguns. Over under shotguns carry a little more attitude, they bring a little more class to the game. Almost like K-cans, sports cars, and expensive glasses, they tend to be more of a luxury item. You can do anything with an autoloader or pump-gun, but it takes a touch of shooter’s vanity to give up capacity and reloadability with an over under. In today’s review, we are taking a look at a new over under option from European American Arms, the EAA Balikli Blue Label over under shotgun.
European American Arms
EAA Corp is a firearm supplier that specializes in getting quality firearms at affordable prices. The company prides itself on importing firearms that are more about quality function than looks. This obviously has an appeal to many Americans who only care about putting holes through the X and meat on their table.
Browsing the lineup of EAA firearms you will find some very familiar looking firearms. This appears to be in part because EAA sources firearms very similar if not cloned from popular guns made by the best manufacturers. You’ll find models with great similarities to popular firearms made by companies like Beretta, Browning, and others.
By importing products like these from EAA’s european and other partners, American gun owners can get a great price on a firearm comparable to much more expensive names.
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 built in the very typical design, with a break-action and single trigger. The set of barrels are cut 28-inches long in the 12 gauge model, and bored for chokes at the muzzle. Its vented rib also features a fiber optic orange bead at the front to aid in aiming.
The stock is fashioned from walnut, another famous Turkish export. The Balikli Blue Label shotgun is more of an affordable option than typical over under guns, 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 preselect which barrel fires first.
Specifications
| EAA Balikli Blue Level Over Under Shotgun | |
| Finish | Walnut / Black |
| Caliber | 12-Gauge |
| Capacity | 2 Rounds |
| Barrel Length | 28-inch (12g) 26-inch (28g, 20g, .410) |
| Length of pull | 14.5-inches |
| Overall Length | 45-inches |
| Weight | 6.35-pounds |
| Included Chokes | Skeet, Imp Cyl, Mod, Imp Mod, Full |
Shooting the Blue Label
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 1oz target loads. Perhaps a little different than a typical trap trip, but we enjoy the hand-thrown clays. Shooting the light loads in these open mountains barely even justified ear protection. We all had fun figuring out the lead to break the clays, and the seemingly antiquated process of opening the action to reload.
Quality
Break-action shotguns are almost as simple as you can get, which should make it pretty easy to manufacture. I guess what I mean is this simple design lends itself to be made right. During all of 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 nicely 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 finish looks like a bead-blasted finish, with a pheasant motif engraved as is typical. Smooth controls with robust lock-up came as no surprise due to the simple design. I guess if you are the guy who shoots Perazzi or Guerini you’d probably notice more difference than I. But for the average American shotgunner, this gun’s fit and function were as good as you could expect for this price. You can tell its a sub $500 gun from Turkey, and that’s fine by me.
Shootability
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 a chamber and breach, you get a shorter length than a similar barreled pump or auto. Swinging the 28-inch barrels was very 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 make 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 our youngest boy had no problem handling the feel and recoil from this gun.
Reliability
It’s hard to come up with something much more reliable than a break action. There are so 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 of the chamber, making them easy to grab, but it doesn’t eject them clear.
