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Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore

Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore

Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll all tell you that I like Lincoln shotguns. Of all the smoothbores I’ve owned or tested, be them budget models or some of the most exotic and expensive you’re likely to find, when it comes to my own game shooting its still my forty year old over-under Lincoln game gun that I reach for. In all the years I’ve owned it, apart from basic cleaning and maintenance and the occasional service, all it’s ever needed as regards repairs is a new firing pin and a toplever spindle. It’s this factor that has always set Lincoln shotguns apart from the rest, there almost unfailing reliability, longevity and pure ability to shoot seeing Lincoln enjoy a dedicated and enthusiastic following.

Purpose Built

Forming part of the Premier range the new Compact continues the Lincoln traditions the difference being this new 20g has been built with specific shooters in mind. As the Compact name suggests, this over-under has been designed with young and female shooters in mind, the Compact’s overall dimensions, handling and design especially suited to the more diminutive or lightweight shooter. But whilst some will baulk at the very mention of a shotgun such as this, I for one know two lady shooters who find shooting with a full sized 12-bore an extremely tiring affair.

Reason being, both are quite small, one of them only just over five feet tall and very slender in build. Likewise, it’s more than common to find a young lad or a girl who wants to shoot with a gun like Dad’s but they’re too small. Enter the Premier Compact, a 20g shotgun that isn’t politically correct since someone somewhere will no doubt complain that this Lincoln is prejudicial towards full sized male shooters. Wells how’s about this, smaller it might be but it doesn’t half make for a cracking little skeet gun for shooters of any size.

The unusual aspect of the Compact is that is was conceived, designed and built as a 20-bore which means the over-under mechanical boxlock action has been neither scaled up or down.

Apart from the fact the action doesn’t look like something it actually isn’t, it also means the lines of the action and stock head look right. In other words the Compact besides feeling balanced also looks balanced, instead of some sort of mechanical amalgamation.

Waxing Lyrical

On assembling the Compact the first physical aspect you’re immediately aware of are the size of the stock and forend.

Finished in what’s described as a wax polish, the matte surface allows the walnut’s grain to stand out whilst ensuring the furniture is fully protected against the elements. Whilst it might be smaller than normal the soft honeycomb recoil pad means that due to the excellent angles and dimensions the Compact dials out the attendant kick associated with larger loads.

Nicely finished with crisp machined checkering, the slimmed down grip is elegant with comfortable curvature, the slim neck and stock head flowing into the rear of the action and stippled fences. Likewise, the forend, the narrowed Schnabel shape tip benefiting from a reduced lip whilst the slender profile once again has been conceived to accommodate smaller hands.

Basic Coverage

The action itself is a prime example of the traditional Italian mechanical boxlock, a design that has served the Lincoln name extremely well for decades and one that forms the basis of hundreds of Italian over-under shotguns of all makes and gauges. Finished with a bright satin effect complete with rose and scroll engraving, basic game scenes of snipe, partridge and woodcock have been added to emphasize the Compact’s true metier although as we’ll see this gun is a mean little clay breaker when it needs to be.

The items that aren’t undersized are the big, bold gloss black trigger-guard, the big non-adjustable trigger, top-lever and lozenge shaped safety and barrel order selector all of which add to the Compact’s usability.

Echoing the gloss black surface of the guard, the 28” monobloc barrels are superbly finished, the solid mid-rid and low vented 7mm top-rib all classic game in execution and looks whilst the 3” chambers and full set of flush-fit choke tubes mean the shooter can load up with the most potent of 20g loads, the chrome lined barrels steel proofed and ready for an evening’s duck flighting.

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Small Is Beautiful

It’s when you get into the Compact’s physical size that you start to fully appreciate the designer’s work. Weighing just 6lbs 3oz with a balance point exactly 1” in front of the hinges and an overall length of 44½” the Compact lives up to its name.

Similarly, drops at comb and heel are just 1 3/8” and 2 1/8” whilst the 13½” length of pull is perfect for those with shorter arms, as is the 4lbs 8oz break of the trigger.

Hooked Up To The Arrow

Laser Shot, my initial mount combined with the short stock initially made the Compact take on a high shooting attitude. No problem, all I needed to do was make small physical adjustments and seat the butt slightly higher against my shoulder although smaller shooters won’t find a problem, their slighter body size allowing the gun to sit correctly.

Fitting ½ and ¼ chokes and loading up with Eley CT20 competition loads, fifty sporting and a similar number of skeet birds allowed the Compact to display its lightweight alacrity.

What I had to get used too was the fact that the Compact is one of the fastest swinging shotguns I’ve ever had hold of, to a degree the first few crossing birds were well and truly missed in front, supposedly one of the hardest things to do on skeet. To say the Compact’s muzzles fly onto their target is an understatement, the behaviour akin to an excited puppy as the gun enthusiastically seeks out the next thing the shooter might want to pull the trigger on.

Combine this with the lightness and crisp feel of the trigger and even though there’s the merest hint of creep, you’ll have sent your charge of shot on its way.

Throw in a late afternoon’s crow bumping around Huntroyde Estate with a box of 28g Eley VIP filled with 6’s plus a decent dose of slowing down and the Compact once again proved that small is beautiful. Not only is the gun nice and light to carry over extended distances, balance and weight or rather the lack of it means the gun is against the shoulder and pointing in the right direction before you’ve realised.

Add in the ability of the well timed long stroke ejectors to let fly the spent cartridge cases into the waiting open palm and the Compact as a whole is one of the best 20g packages I’ve used for quite a while. Granted for me it was on the small size, my thumb and nose a little closer together when I’m shooting than I’m used to. But as shotgun designed for physically smaller shooters, nothing else currently comes close.

At Last

Irrespective of the fact the Compact is a great little skeet gun no matter how big or small the shooter might be, I can now say that at last there’s a good quality shotgun for smaller shooters. On far too many occasions I’ve seen females and juniors struggle under the weight and size of an average 12-bore, often mis-mounting them or leaning backwards in an effort to counterbalance the length and weight. Well no more and at £849 or even less if you shop around, the more diminutive shooter can have an affordable over-under that was designed and built just for them.

But just because it’s smaller than your average 12 or 20-bore doesn’t mean the Compact thinks small. With 3” chambers and excellent handling, irrespective of the fact the gun is bias towards shooting game, the Compact more than holds it own around the clay layouts.

So when your dearly beloved or pint sized offspring say they’d love to take up shooting but can’t hold your gun, here’s the perfect answer to the problem, the Lincoln Premier Compact, a make and model based on a shotgun I’ve owned, used and enjoyed since I was sixteen, which by my calculations is well over forty years ago, the Compact’s three year warranty almost superfluous!

PRICE: £849

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

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  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

  • Lincoln Premier Compact 20 bore - image {image:count}

    click on image to enlarge

gun
features

  • Calibre: 20-bore
  • Capacity: 2
  • Barrels: 28”
  • Action: Over-under mechanical boxlock
  • Stock: Walnut sporter
  • Weight: 6lbs 3oz
  • Chokes: Flush-fi t multi
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