Yildiz TSE Pro

Yildiz are one of the Turkish makers that have always produced very fine quality shotguns from the get-go. They are good value for money and not built to a price. The new Pro TSE 12g is one such example of an over and under shotgun designed for competition use, but its steel proofed nature also lends them to sporting uses too. The deeply blued chrome moly steel barrel barrels and high-grade walnut would not look out of place on a gun twice the price. In fact, outwardly it looks very much like a Perazzi from the action design but this model sports and all steel action for durability as well as less felt recoil for extended shooting sessions and an adjustable stock design. All in all, a very impressive looking gun and specced gun for the money.

Stock

Wow, Yildiz do know how to put a decent piece of wood onto a gun, but then again, they are Turkish with the last remaining really good walnut supplies. You can choose from standard nonadjustable stock with grade 3 wood from £1395 to this Grade 4 adjustable model at £1795.

This model grade is definitely a four, but even a five-plus compared to other makers, and it has a lovely deep colouration and rich depth to it. You also have very striking dark figured veins running throughout the stock and forend too which is perfectly matched to each other. The finish though is a bit shiny hard set oil or thin lacquer and I would rub this down and hand rub some decent oil into it to enhance the stock further.

Being a Pro target or clay gun primarily, this stock has a very decent weight to it and in my hands meant the balance was such that the 30-inch barrels seemed to weigh nothing at all, making for a very fluid swing. The recoil pad is quite thin and made of black soft rubber, but it mounts very smoothly without any snagging the jacket. The pistol grip area is large with a deep rake and more than enough space for my big hands and I really like the palm swell to the right-hand side.

Checkering is well-executed with generous panels to both this and the forend grip, although a little shallow. The rear stock has the addition of a rising comb that is 7.5-inches long and is raised by loosening two Allen keys sited into the right side of the elevating comb piece. It allows the shooter to adjust the height so they can gain a perfect head stance and cheek weld to the stock whilst maintaining a perfect vision down the rib.

The forend is equally generous with a wide tapering 2-inches to 1.5-inch width as it finishes in a rounded nose tip with a slight rounded underside for good palm support.

All in all, a very nice looking, feeling and handling stock.

Barrels

These are 30-inches on this model (28-inches available) and, as with the action, have a very good deep bluing to them. This is very well done which makes the whole Yildiz Pro stand out for all the right reasons and looks right against the lovely stock. These are 3-inch chambered and magnum proofed so good for steel loads too. They have very wellfinished chromed bores and a standard-length forcing cone area that shot some impressive patterns down range.

The Pro comes with five flush fit chokes which are 2-inches long and look stainless steel to me. Better still are the two extended chokes included in the set. These are nearly 3-inches long and stick out of the muzzle by ¾-inch and supplied in ½ and full choke. They are a hand fit with a dimpled edge and have a blue anodised collar to the end. The top rib is 7mm wide with a matt finished serrated edge and a single red dayglo sight at the muzzles.

You also have 19 cut vents to the top rib that have the cut shape altered sequentially so you have a nice almost zig zag pattern. The mid rib is solid for 18.25-inches from the muzzles and then is left open to the receiver, the whole giving a good balance to the gun.

Reliable action

Locking up is maintained by a very sturdy and highly polished monobloc system with large cutaways in the bottom side area that fit around the actions side wall abutments. You then have two steel bolts that move forward from the action face that lock into the barrel cut outs aka Boss style. This and the side wall abutments really give a solid and sturdy lock up to the Yildiz Pro. This is all very similar to a Perazzi, I am told, and as such I have no complaints as I probably would not notice the difference.

The ejectors are equally good being large and wellpolished and they gave a good grip of all the test cartridges rims for positive ejection.

The whole action is large and very well-finished and heavy, to be honest, which is the point of this specific Steel model, but I like that as it soaks up recoil and is reliable for many thousands of rounds. It firstly is very tastefully finished with only small decorative ribbon along the action edges and then the whole deeply blued and polished, very classy, like the barrels. It is all you need and makes the Pro look far more expensive than it is.

The action is inertia driven so the first shot sets the second hammer ready to fire and the safety is manual, which I prefer, and the usual barrel selection is by moving the safety in the rear position left or right.

Field test

We shot quite a few clay loads through the Pro and three stood out that shot great patterns and had minimum recoil too. I fitted the ½ choke to bottom barrel and I like to use this as it gives a nice indication of a barrel’s performance and pellet spread without overcrowding the pattern and deforming pellets through a tighter choke. However, because the Pro comes with two extended chokes, I did try the ½ choke extended too.

A really good lighter load that I like, and my son does too, is the Gamebore Blue Diamond cartridges with their 70mm case with high 12mm brass head and uses Gamebore Diamond shot. We had the fibre wadding in 24-gram loadings of No 7.5 shot and is designed for high volume clay shooting. This load was very light on the shoulder and as usual gave superb patterns of 228 total pellet strikes with 77 inner and 151 outer hits. Interestingly, I fitted the ½ choke extended to see the difference and sure enough a higher pellet total of 239 distributed 96 inner and 143 outer hits i.e. a bit tighter pattern. Both were very even and what a nice all-round clay load.

Eley Superb’s are always an excellent performer too, as they have a light recoil and its silver casing that has colour coded print to shot size is a nice touch.

We stepped up the load size to 28-grams but downsized on the shot size to No 8 which gave 373 pellets at 30-yards on the pattern board. 213 pellets in the outer sectors and 160 pellets within the inner 15-inches. No clay is getting past that hailstorm! We tried Hull Steel Game, just to see. Yes, more recoil from the 32-gram load of FE4 steel shot size but still well manageable from the good stock design. This is a plastic wad loading to save the bore a bit and gave a total of 138 No FE4 pellets strike the board at 30-yards with 91 outer strikes and a well even inner hit rate of 47 pellets.

Conclusion

As soon as I picked up the Yildiz Pro you knew this is a quality-built Turkish gun; not all are. It’s very well designed and fit and finish is very good. The walnut stock was knock-out and handled perfectly for us with good degree of natural hold and did not kick much at all.

Raytrade Ltd now market the Yildiz range so it will be represented by a professional outfit which this marque deserves, if you are after a good quality reliable and great looking 12g the Pro will not disappoint.