I’ve been on a shotgun kick here recently and wanted a new project. So I decided to get one of the Turk pump guns to see what they’re all about. My first experience with Turk shotguns was with my MKA1919 and it was a good experience. I’ve still got it, although I haven’t it shot it much since I stopped shooting 3G. After doing a bunch of internet surfing I decided to get the Copolla PA-1225. I got mine off GB and with fees and everything it was about $290. I knew there was a likelihood that there would be issues I’d have to deal with and I wasn’t disappointed because there were a few.
So why am I doing this? A couple of reasons. First, I look at this kind of like my SD9 project - a quest to see if there is an inexpensive option that may not be perfect or the absolute best option, but is good enough. Second, I like to tinker and I’d much rather do my garage gunsmithing on something that I’m not gonna be upset about if I screw it up royally.
Here’s a stock picture:
So what issues were there from the start? First, the LOP was stupid long (which I expected). Second, none of the screws were tight (which didn’t surprise me since I’d read about guns that was the case on). The front sight wiggled back and forth and I was able to remove the screw with my fingers. Third, the rail/ghost ring rear sight had an issue. The 1913 rail slides onto a narrow, .22 rifle like rail and is only held on with one screw (which I also knew about). The screw on this one, when I looked at it once I got it home, was at an angle. Removing it showed the hole was off center. Fourth, the magazine spring wasn’t replaceable from the factory (which I knew about), so I would have to deal with that to add a mag extension.
After thinking about it, I decided to chop the stock down, fix the problem with the rail and make sure all the screws were tight and Loctited.
I started with the rail. After thinking about it a bit more, I decided to drill and tap w new holes. I wanted to drill one right in front of the off center hole and to make that easier I cut off the first section of the 1913 rail, which allowed the whole rail to move forward a bit so that the very back of the rail covered the off centered hole and there was space for the new hole. After doing that I drilled and tapped 2 more holes to give the rail some added support during recoil.
Once I got that done, I had to figure out how to chop the stock down. The factory stock was completely hollow so there wasn’t anything to screw a recoil pad into once I chopped it. After giving it some thought, I bought a foot long section of 1” diameter acetal copolymer and cut off a couple of pieces to JB weld into the stock to give me something to drill into. Once I got that ordered, I measured how much of the stock I needed to chop to give me a 12 1/4” LOP once I added a limbsaver recoil pad I had laying around (ordered the wrong one for a Magpul shotgun stock a while back and never returned it). Then I got to cutting. Once the stock was chopped and the copolymer came in I cut off a couple inch long sections and JB welded them into place. Once those had cured I fit the limbsaver pad. The limbsaver pad I have isn’t one that’s supposed to be custom fit, but it worked.
Why 12 1/4”? Most of my shooting will probably be with a vest/PC on which will push that LOP out to 12.5-13”.
I was a little concerned when I loaded up some dummy rounds into the tube because they got stuck in the tube and the gun wouldn’t cycle them. But when I used loaded shells, it worked just fine. Inspecting the dummy rounds showed the brass rims were all jacked up. They’ve been used a bunch over the years. Time for some new ones.
One thing I still need to fix is the forearm. It is slick as snot, so I foresee some stippling in my future. Replacing the forearm with a Magpul or some other aftermarket forearm is out of the question I think due to how it’s made and works with the action bars. Then I need to figure out how to add a sling.
Work done so far:
I should be able to shoot it this week to see how it patterns. I’ll update this post as I go.