Revo Youth

There are very few shotgunners who have not at one time or another used one of the smaller gauges, with the .410 perhaps being the most prolific. For most of us it was perhaps their first taste of a cartridge weapon having graduated from an air rifle and consequently many look upon these little guns with affection. Back in the depths of time I first became acquainted with a folding hammer gun single barrel and then a bolt action version. Both of which were serviceable but were hardly the finest handling of sporting guns. The tiny 2 inch shells needed a following wind and a considerable amount of luck on your side if you hoped to connect with anything much beyond 20 yards or so.

DIFFERENT TODAY

Things though are quite different today; fully scaled double guns in either side by side or over and under format are commonly available from most of the major manufacturers. There are some aficionado’s of the gauge who suitably equipped with the heaviest 19gram shells available can pull down some surprisingly rangey pheasants.
The Revo Premium Youth; a sweet little gun at the price and not just for kids either However for most adults the .410 will remain a ‘fun gun’ for dispatching rabbits in the garden or for a spot of pest control in areas where a minimum of noise is called for. The youth market though is still very important for .410 sales and Webley & Scott capitalised on this with their Junior model though it appears that they have now replaced it with a 20 bore version…..

Sportsman Gun Centre has a knack for spotting profitable niches in the market and they have jumped in with their own Junior .410 called the Revo Premium Youth Over and Under. Made in Turkey and considering its price point of just £425 it’s cheap enough to make it something of a bargain.

NEVER MIND THE QUALITY

From an aesthetic point of view the Revo is quite pleasing to the eye when you consider its price tag! The action is highly polished and features plenty of scroll engraving, obviously it’s all done by machine but it is attractive and does help give the impression that this is a ‘proper’ gun. In profile it looks sleek enough and well proportioned with none of the clumsiness that some early budget .410’s built on 12 bore actions can have.
Wood quality is never going to get anyone overly excited on such an inexpensive gun but the fit is more than adequate and although there is a minimal amount of figuring in the walnut it has at least been stained to an agreeably dark colour. The machined chequering is also nicely done and gives a good purchase without any of the sharpness that can be found on some budget guns. Of course the woodwork is the key element on the Youth version, having been cut down to just 13”. This allows short armed youngsters to get a proper grip on things. To help reduce the already minimal recoil of the .410 shells a decent enough rubber pad has also been fitted. The drops have also been altered to accommodate the smaller frame with 55mm at heel and 35mm at comb as opposed to the 60mm and 40mm of the full sized version.

DOES WHAT IT PROMISES

Mechanically speaking your money is not going to buy you anything fancy but in typically Turkish style it does what is asked of it with a minimum of fuss! Generally speaking guns produced by the Turks tend to be pretty bullet proof when it comes to reliability. The simple non ejector action features a full width locking bar which locates under the monobloc for a positive and secure lock up which should be more than enough to cope. The single trigger seems positive enough by budget gun standards; the test gun did require a bit of a tug and broke around the 5lb mark. Similarly the safety catch was a tiny bit stiff but that may well be down to being a new gun and might ease off with use.

The barrels look well finished with a good even blueing and vented middle and top ribs. Don’t expect long forcing cones or any other ballistic trickery but arguably there really isn’t enough going on in a .410 shell to warrant it anyway. Chokes are fixed, the test gun being bored 1⁄2 and Full. For a youngster this is probably a good thing lest they start thinking too much about having the right choke and not enough about hitting the target. Chances are that they will spend plenty enough time having that par ticular debate with themselves when they get older anyway! The rib is a narrow 6mm affair topped off with a simple brass bead which suits the gun
per fectly.

UNFORGIVING

It’s been a while since I shot a .410 and the first few shots reminded me just how unforgiving they can be if you try to overextend yourself! I tried it on some long crossers and battues. Running before walking has always been a bad habit of mine so I went back to some of the closer birds and was soon middling them though with so little momentum in the gun due to its light weight the targets did need more lead than I would give the same if using a 12 or 20.

However it was surprising just how well the Eley Fourlong 12.5gram shells did break the targets especially when I went back to the trickier ones I had tried earlier. Of course you do need to be more accurate with this smallest of gauges, which in turn teaches the novice to limit themselves to taking on only those shots they know they can pull off successfully which in turn helps build shot discipline later in life.

Fatigue as you can imagine from a 5 1⁄2 lb gun is minimal while recoil was imperceptible and although the youth version is aimed at early teens and up only those with the slightest of builds should find it to be hard work. I tried both the Youth and the adult sized (14 1⁄2 inch stocked) versions of the Revo with 28” barrels. As expected I got on rather better with the latter though I think it may be an idea for Sportsman to offer the gun as a combo with both stocks so that dad can borrow it on occasion!

Overall the Revo has a lot to offer at a knockdown price, it looks presentable, shoots well and will probably give years of faithful service. Considering that .410’s are not the type of gun through which people shoot thousands and thousands of rounds a year one of these bought today will probably still be working well when the first owner is ready to hand it on to their children or grandchildren.