Emak Savunma Over Lord PB12 shotgun

The button-release Over Lord is a light and handy 12-gauge repeating shotgun for hunting, presented in a package that’s both classy and thoroughly effective.

The repeating shotgun market is now extremely competitive in Australia and one of the key tricks to succeeding in it is to give customers a repeater system that works more efficiently than any other — something the Emak Savunma Over Lord makes a good claim for.

It is an inertia-operated bolt-action gun with a push-button release — not the first of its kind but in this case the release button is set in the right side of the receiver, just above the trigger, where your trigger finger can reach it. It’s a very logical bit of design that requires an absolute minimum of disturbance to your grip on the gun. It works well.

To chamber a round after each shot, a flexy-fingered person might have to do nothing more than lift their finger upwards, press the button and then return it to the trigger for the next shot. My joints aren’t quite that flexible so I found I had to relax my grip on the small of the butt just enough to get my fingertip up to the button. Hardly a big deal.

Meanwhile, you maintain your cheek weld, the gun stays jammed into your shoulder and your fore-arm keeps the muzzle pointing where you want it.

You’ve probably noticed the Turkish walnut stock. How could you miss it? This beautifully figured timber on its own would be several thousand dollars’ worth on a European gun but it’s just the way this $1125 Turkish gun came. I can’t promise you’ll get one just like it but I did see a couple of others that were quite pretty, if not this good.

There are synthetic-stocked versions available as well as barrel options including rifle-style sights and a longer 28-incher. 

The one on test is the most basic, a 20” gun with simple hi-vis front bead and no dovetails for mounting a red-dot or similar optic. It’s an unassuming, straight-up scrub gun that points quickly. It is designed to be aimed intuitively with minimal thought, and quickly.

In a practical sense there’s not much difference between a 20” and 28” barrel. The chief factor is handling: the extra mass of a longer barrel will generally swing more smoothly onto a moving target but the shortie points and aims very quickly and is much easier to carry in the scrub, where it’s less likely to snag on things.

Load for load and choke for choke, you won’t see much difference at all in the pattern, and any advantage in velocity and therefore range from the longer barrel is minimal.

I ran a variety of ammunition through the Over Lord, from 28g (1oz) 7½ target loads to 36g (1¼oz) buckshot and slugs. All loads cycled reliably, even the lighter ones. The factory rates it for a minimum of 32g (1⅛oz) all the way up to a hefty 57g (2oz), which you’d be hard pressed getting from the 70 and 76mm (2¾ and 3”) shells it’ll take. 

Emak Savunma supplies three screw-in chokes with the Over Lord: full, modified and cylinder. Patterning the gun with various combinations of loads and chokes revealed good performance and consistency with all types of shot. It demonstrated that the three-choke set is all you’ll generally need and, with the right load, you’ll be set to hunt anything from rabbits and foxes to pigs and goats, and even birds if you get your swing right.

As it was, there were plenty of feral goats around when I had the gun to test and it was devastatingly effective on them within about 40m using 16-pellet buckshot. In fact, I dropped two goats with one shot from 35m away by aiming at their nearly-overlapping heads.

The short-barrelled gun made it easy to stalk within 20m of the nearest nanny in the mob of eight goats, and then facilitated quick movement from target to target, each of which was either stationary or relatively slow moving (even a running goat is no rabbit or duck!). My first three shots stopped the older nannies, giving me time to drop another two younger ones, reload and finish the last of them as they milled about in confusion.

I didn’t encounter a mob of pigs but, with five shells in the gun, I reckon you’d have a chance to get at least three and possibly all five shots away before the survivors had scattered beyond range. It’s all a matter of being able to work the button quickly enough, which is simple and requires very little practice before muscle memory takes over.

The Over Lord really does handle quickly, not just for its short barrel but also its light weight. Empty, it’s exactly 3kg, and you can only add a maximum of five shells so it’s never a hefty gun.

The stock has 40mm drop at comb and 62mm at the heel, which for my elongated bonce was not quite enough to get comfortably low enough to sight along the rib, though I could do it. Two average-sized friends who used the gun had no trouble.

With that kind of fit and lighter weight, as you’d expect, I felt the recoil in my cheekbone while my mates felt it in the shoulder, but none of us considered it a problem. The inertia system removes some of the recoil transferred to the shooter. This is a pleasant gun to shoot, which enhances your ability to take advantage of its quick cycling.

The 360mm length of pull is fine, and the Over Lord has neutral cast. The trigger lets off at a fairly consistent 2.5kg (5.5lb), which is fine in shotgun terms.

The trigger group is unique to the push-button design, made so that if the bolt fails to stay locked back after a shot and flies forward on its own, chambering a round, the gun is not left cocked like in a semi-auto. It ensures no one can convert it from button-release to semi-automatic.

The operation is as you’d expect. When you pull the trigger on a live shell, you release a hammer which strikes the back of the firing pin. The inertia of recoil initiates rearward bolt travel, first forcing the bolt carrier backwards and then, as a cam in the carrier makes the bolt head rotate out of its locking lugs, the bolt follows. The extractor hook pulls the shell with it and an ejector pin trips the shell out of the ejection port.

The carrier forces the hammer back into the cocked position, where it stays. When the carrier is all the way back, a catch in the right side of the receiver latches onto it and holds it back.

In the process, a shell is released from the tubular magazine and lifted towards the chamber by the feeding ramp. And that’s where it stops. That’s your cue to raise your trigger finger and press the release button.

The return spring in the butt then slams the bolt carrier home, and the camming slot in the carrier’s top rotates the bolt head so its pair of locking lugs engage in the slots behind the chamber. You’re ready to fire again.

The safety is a trigger-blocking unit that slides left and right behind the trigger. You can engage it with your thumb and set it back to fire with your trigger finger (assuming you’re right-handed).

Maintenance is simple, especially with this being an inertia gun of few moving parts. Keep it reasonably clean and well lubricated and it should give years of service; there’s no gas mechanism to clog up.

Disassembly takes a minute or so without tools: undo the fore-end nut and remove the fore-end and barrel; yank out the charging handle to allow the bolt carrier to slide out of the receiver; and that’s it for most purposes. If you ever need to remove the trigger group, just knock out the retaining pin with a hammer and punch.

Every part of the gun is well finished. Quality appears to be good throughout — it shows that Turkey’s gun-making industry is capable of making decent-quality guns at a low price (and you might be surprised by how many guns of European and American brands are now made in Turkey). The metal is finished in a gloss black where it’s not polished.

At $1125, the Over Load is competitively priced, roughly in the middle of the market for push-button, lever-release and straight-pull shotguns, and it looks like good value there. Its key selling point is the conveniently placed release button, a functional design that certainly has strong appeal.

The Over Lord with a 20” barrel is a quick-handling, quick-shooting and very effective scrub gun that’s versatile enough to extend its role to being a good all-round 12-gauge.  

SPECIFICATIONS

• Manufacturer: Emak Savunma, Turkey
• Action: Button-release inertia-operated repeater
• Gauge: 12
• Magazine: 4+1 tubular type
• Barrel: 20” (28” available)
• Chambers: 76mm (3”)
• Chokes: Screw-in, flush; full, modified, cylinder
• Sights: Hi-viz front bead (other options available)
• Stock: Turkish walnut (synthetic also available)
• Weight: 3.0kg
• Length: 105cm (41”)
• Length of pull: 360mm
• Drop: heel, 62mm; comb 40mm
• RRP: $1125
• Distributor: Hunt’s Shooting Supplies