Quote from: Ridge Rooster on April 28, 2014, 06:19:33 AM
Thanks Clark,
I know that you have done a good bit of shooting with your 935, so I respect your assessment on reliability. On a guess, how many rounds do you think you have fired through your 935? What about cleaning? Does the gun use a piston type of system? O-rings??
Ridge Rooster
One segment of my evaluation of any gun is to see how long it will function without cleaning of the critical components, so here's what I do with a new gun.
I take it apart and clean out any packing grease and oil. I clean the fire control unit and in the case of gas operated guns, I clean the critical components. I clean the bore of the gun.
After that initial cleaning process, the only thing I ever clean while evaluating the gun is the bore and choke when I switch shells, etc. I will fire the same shells and choke until patterns degrade significantly.
I did that to the 935. It has a very simple gas system that utilizes no rubber rings. It has a removable gas piston which can be easily cleaned with solvent and a brush and a cylinder which can be cleaned in the same manner. A pipe cleaner or toothpick can be used to clean the 2 gas ports if necessary. No further disassembly is necessary and should not be attempted.
I was in the process of evaluating a number of different home defence shotshells when the 935 arrived, so I took advantage of that to go through about 200 of those shells. All were 2.75" shells and the 935 cycled all of them without 1 failure to feed or function.
I fired 50 rounds of both 3.5" and 3" turkey loads with chokes that had worked well with the 835 and SSi-ONE through it. Since it had functioned flawlessly with 2.75" shells, I also shot 1 round of 5 stand and 1 round of sporting clays for another 125 shells. It had limited action in a goose pit and after that I took it turkey hunting, as I recall, about 4 times. I shot a couple of turkeys with it.
I've since taken it back to my range as I evaluate new shells, new chokes or some other product and put more rounds through it. The gun had a good trigger but it has become even a bit more smooth. It's not particularly light but what I'd want for a hunting gun.
In all that time, I have not cleaned the gas system or the fire control. The gas system is dirty but it still works as well as it did right after my initial cleaning. I have not pulled the fire control to even look at it but I suspect that it's dirty as well.
I've cleaned the bore only when changing shells or chokes. It's smooth and slick.
My only complaint about the gun whatsoever is that it is heavy. When loaded with 3 shells, it's a handful but frankly that helps greatly with recoil. It's front end heavy and I put an neoprene sleeve on the stock comb. I get no cheek slap that way.
It's a great gun, it works, requires very little routine maintenance and throws great patterns.
Thanks,
Clark
P.S. Mine has the 26" non-ported barrel and is finished in Mossy Oak Obsession camo.
