On this week's #SundayGunday, we’re taking a look at a working-class over/under shotgun from EAA; it’s called the Balikli Blue Label, and don’t let its price tag fool you—this gun is a shooter any hunter should be happy to own.
The Blue label follows the modern trends in over/under shotguns by utilizing an aluminum receiver to reduce weight, beefed up with a steel insert in the rear of the action for durability, resulting in a lightweight upland hunting package that carries easy and swings right. It’s even got a nice pheasant engraving on the receiver for a touch of class.
Available in a range of chamberings including .410-bore, 28-gauge, 20-gauge and 12-gauge, the Blue Label sports 26- or 28-inch barrels, depending on gauge, unless you go with the .410, which is available with 26- or 18.5-inch barrels.
We had a chance to play around with the 12 and 20, and man are these guns lightweight. The 12-gauge weighs 6 pounds, 8 ounces and the 20-gauge model nudged the scale at only 5 pounds, 13 ounces.
Both guns sport a ventilated and serrated top rib and skeletonized mid-rib which provides a good sight plane for the eye to find the red fiber-optic front sight. Barrel regulation matches point of aim with about a 50/50 split between the two, which is just-fine for an upland gun of this sort.
The Blue Label sports mechanical triggers as opposed to inertia triggers, meaning if for some reason the first shell doesn’t go off, say due to a bad cartridge primer, you can pull the trigger again with confidence that the second barrel will still fire. It does features shell extractors rather than shell ejectors, so you’ll need to pull spent shells from the open action yourself, but it keeps you from having to bend over to police hulls during a hunt, so we like it.
The Blue Label uses a manual safety rather than an automatic safety. Call us old fashioned, but we like this feature as well. Just be aware of it, and act accordingly. Like most over/under shotguns, the safety slide also serves to function as the gun’s barrel selector, determining which barrel will fire first.
As for the stock, it’s a nice Turkish walnut, complete with a Schnabel fore-end and some welcomed checkering for a sure grip.
The Blue label ships with a full set of five Mobil-pattern choke tubes (Skeet, Improved Cylinder, Modified, Improved Modified and Full), everything a hunter needs to hit the woods and fields.
To learn more about the Balikli Blue Label shotguns from EAA, check out eaacorp.com. And of course, click the “join” button at the top of this page to become a member of the worlds largest gun club, the NRA.
