What’s in a name?
Daniel O’Dea goes bush with a Bushpig
As an eighties kid the term bushpig doesn’t evoke memories of the nicest of expressions. It generally related to something or someone considered ugly or in some way less redeemable, so when asked to review the new Bushpig shotgun my first thought was: “Why the hell would you call it that?” As it turns out, when it comes to shotguns this Bushpig is no ‘pig’ at all, and while perhaps not the prettiest shotgun ever designed it has several new, innovative and redeemable features.
So what is a Bushpig shotgun? Made by Turkish firm Axor Arms the Bushpig is a self-ejecting, button-release shotgun that’s both fed via a magazine tube yet is break-action. It’s a break-action repeating shotgun which really piqued my curiosity. What they’ve done is quite clever as in essence they’ve taken what would normally be a one-piece receiver and split it into two – an upper and lower receiver if you like.
The upper contains the barrel, bolt and carrier and magazine tube and the lower the trigger mechanism and cartridge lifter. The two receivers are hinged just forward of the cartridge lifter with a spring-loaded latch at the top of the tang locking the two parts tightly together.
You might ask next: What purpose a break-action repeating shotgun? Firstly and most evident is its compactness for storage, the gun arriving in a durable canvas-style padded zip-up bag measuring just 85x30cm. The shotgun when broken open has the top receiver rotate to almost 180 degrees, meaning it folds back on itself similar to some old Belgian-style ‘poaching’ guns or survival-type combination guns.
Likewise, the design inherently produces a very safe repeating shotgun because as soon as the gun is broken, it separates the ammunition source in the magazine tube from the chamber. Even if a round is chambered, it separates the hammer retained in the lower receiver from the back of the bolt and firing pin in the upper receiver, making accidental discharge impossible.
In the same breath, unloading the firearm equally becomes inherently safer. In most traditional designs for tube-fed magazine shotguns, rounds have to be cycled through the chamber to unload the gun. With this one the magazine can be both loaded and unloaded with the action broken open with no need to cycle rounds through the chamber.
Beauty being in the eye of the beholder I’d say the Bushpig is more utilitarian than stylish, but I wouldn’t call it ugly. The 7075-billet machined alloy receiver pieces naturally require more bulk to both accommodate the hinge joint and other hardware, as well as providing the necessary strength and durability that may otherwise be found in a mono receiver design. So the combined receivers produce an assembly that’s rather ‘blocky’ and slab-sided.
This said, forward and aft are completely traditional for such a design with highly functional polymer furniture by way of stock and fore-end. There’s a normally profiled barrel and magazine tube with a neat cap featuring a sling stud to match the one supplied on the buttstock. The upper receiver half also incorporates about 10cm of Weaver rail for mounting a red dot or other optical sighting system if desired. Standard iron sights are by way of a fixed-notch rear sight that’s part of the opening latch and a red fibre-optic front post.
The main fire controls incorporate the trigger and manual safety, which on this one is a standard cross-bolt button design at the rear of the trigger-guard. A well-knurled bolt handle extends generously from the right-hand side of the bolt, the magazine latch/cartridge lifter button is also on the right with the main button release on the tang.
Operationally the gun’s manual of arms is somewhat hybrid as some things can be done in more than one way. Let’s start with loading. With manual safety applied, to fully load the Bushpig you flip it over and feed each shell through the loading gate by placing a shell on the underside of the cartridge lifter, while pushing it down and forward into the magazine. You then cycle the action to chamber the first round then replace the round in the magazine using the preceding method (either that or place a round in the chamber, release the bolt forward and load the mag as described). This is the tradition method of loading just about any tube magazine-fed repeating shotgun design.
Alternatively with the Bushpig (again with safety applied), you can break the action and feed each shell directly into the magazine tube, which is readily accessible and exposed with the action broken open. At the same time, pulling the bolt fully rearward locks it open, allowing a final round to be placed directly into the chamber. Another rearward pull on the bolt handle has it released into battery and the action can be closed. Loading in this fashion, if desired the action can stay broken open until the firearm needs to be brought into service. In this mode it remains completely inert and incapable of firing, maintaining a higher level of safety than contemporary designs.
On firing the Bushpig the bolt cycles rearward under gas pressure, ejecting the spent case, at the same time tripping the magazine latch to release the next shell from the magazine tube on to the lifter. When the bolt reaches its most reward travel it’s caught by a bolt catch. The release for this is the ‘button release’, conveniently located on the tang where you might find the safety on a traditional double barrel or over-and-under design and easily operated by the thumb. When this is depressed the bolt flies forward, collecting the next shell off the lifter and chambering the round. On firing again the process is repeated with a deliberate single press required by the operator each time to reload the firearm.
At completion of shooting the gun can be unloaded in two ways, either the conventional method of maintaining safe muzzle direction and cycling each round through the chamber. This can be a little complicated as the bolt catch locks the bolt back on each manual cycling, so both the magazine latch/cartridge lifter button and button release need to be pressed once each in that sequence to release the bolt forward each time.
Alternatively you can break the action open, rack the bolt to the rear to remove any chambered round then press the magazine latch/cartridge lifter button to release any remaining rounds. The rounds are under (magazine) spring tension, so you may wish to place your thumb over each case head and back them out one at a time. An orange-coloured magazine follower clearly indicates when the tube is empty.
TSA are Australian distributors for Bushbig and kindly set a few packets of 12-gauge Fiocchi 11/0 Buckshot and 7.5 shot sporting loads for testing. The manual states the firearm is designed to be used with 12ga loads from 28 to 38-grams only and is not to be used with 40-gram loads, which advisedly will void the warranty and may cause damage. Too light a shell won’t damage the gun but will likely short cycle, causing a failure to eject malfunction.
To my thinking 12-gauge shells in the 28 to-38 gram range will cover about 95 per cent of Australian practical field use applications in any case, with not many people I know using 1½oz (40-gram) shells. I’d note the Bushpig does have a 3” (76mm) 12ga chambering, so the gun would accept these heavier loads if attempted but, as with any firearm, always read the ammo specifications and be sure of what you’re feeding it.
I tried several loads of various type and manufacture and did have a few failures to eject with some lighter loadings, though the majority fed and functioned flawlessly. On the plus side, both the large charging handle and ability to break the gun open make clearing any malfunctions extremely easy, same for basic cleaning. The self-ejection system is very quick with the button release rather intuitive and pressing it after each shot soon becomes second nature. The fire controls are all well located and easy to use and as a gas-operated gun, recoil is pretty soft.
TSA also provided a ZeroTech red dot optic which made for a perfect pairing when used with solid slugs and which I found just as useful in general shooting. Once the red dot is zeroed to the centre of the shot pattern at the desired range, it makes things easy and does remove guesswork to an extent. The Bushpig comes with three interchangeable chokes which bear no mentioned in the manual but, to my best knowledge, appear to be Full, Modified and Skeet, a good feature which adds to the gun’s versatility.
The review gun was the BP20 for Bushpig with 20” barrel. There are two other models in the BP28 (same gun 28” barrel) and BP20XT, a more ‘tactic-cool’ version of the BP20 featuring a fancy stock with twin shell carriers and adjustable comb, ventilated barrel heat shield and a front rail section at six o’clock on the fore-end.
The Bushpig presents as a very practical everyday field shotgun which I can see appealing to sporting shooters and farmers alike. For the latter who may need to carry a loaded firearm in their vehicle, the additional benefit of being able to safely transport the gun loaded but broken in its carry bag, to be brought into action swiftly when required, along with the practical speed of follow-up shots from the self-ejecting button release system, make it a highly viable tool. Starting below $1000 looks good value too. More at www.bushpigshotguns.com.au
Specifications
Firearm: Axor Arms Bushpig BP20
Action: Self-ejecting button release
Calibre: 12-gauge with 76mm (3”) chamber
Capacity: Five-round tubular magazine
Barrel: 20” (510mm)
Barrel Spec: Hard chrome bore and chamber with screw-in chokes (3)
Front Sight: Fibre optic red bead
Rear Sight: Notched
Rear Sight Alt: Weaver rail (Picitinay)
Finish: Matt black
Stock: Black polymer
Weight: 3.5kg as tested (20” barrel)
Length: 1040mm
RRP: Around $900