Hey there, channel fans and family. Today we’re looking at the Rock Island Armory Imports All Generations (AG) pump-action shotgun, a feature-packed 12 gauge built for shooters on a budget. The one I reviewed is the 12 gauge with a 28″ barrel (model PA12H28). I’ll be upfront: I’m not a shotgun snob. I know how they work and I know a pump from a side-by-side, an over/under, or a semi-auto, but I couldn’t tell you what separates a $3,000 Beretta from a $100,000 one besides prettier engraving. So I brought in some friends who actually are.
Disclosure: RIA provided this shotgun for testing and evaluation. RIA did not see the video before it was published.
Find the RIA All Generations shotguns here: slav.li/RIAShotgunG.
Why a budget shotgun?
I shot this video in 2020, when we had a record number of new gun owners. That same crisis also brought record unemployment, which put a lot of people on a budget. Shelves were empty of the usual suspects (Mossberg 500, Remington 870, even the Maverick 88), and the lesser-known brands were what was actually in stock. That’s exactly where a gun like this fits.
What it is (and who actually makes it)
The AG isn’t built by Rock Island Armory itself. It’s one of their imports: the shotgun is made by Derya Arms in Turkey, where it’s called the Carina. RIA brings it in as the All Generations, and it comes in 12 gauge, 20 gauge, and .410, with barrel lengths including 18.5″, 26″, and 28″.
It’s meant to be a utilitarian shotgun: versatile enough to have fun busting clays, and reliable enough to take hunting. It’s not a gun to show off on a rack or impress your snobby shotgun friends. It’s a modern, and dare I say tactical-looking, pump.
Features
- Adjustable polymer stock. This is the standout. You get both length of pull adjustment (via removable spacers) and comb height adjustment (loosen one wheel, raise or lower the cheek riser, lock it back down).
- Polymer forend that looks eerily similar to something you’d find from Magpul.
- Cross-bolt safety, like you’d find on many rifles (the last one I touched was a Ruger 10/22), instead of the tang safety on many pricier shotguns. That’s one of the ways Derya keeps the cost down.
- Lightweight aluminum receiver with the metal parts in a black finish.
- 5+1 capacity.
- Vented rib to help dissipate heat, with a front bead (no mid bead).
- 3″ chamber, so you can run just about anything, including larger slugs.
- Three choke tubes included: full, modified, and improved. For brand-new shotgun folks, the choke controls how wide your spread is, depending on what you’re doing with it.
At the range
We put over 100 rounds through it at the range, and close to 200 total counting an earlier session. No misfires, no jams, and no short-shucking. My friends tried just about everything short of mechanically disabling the safety and couldn’t get it to misfire or slam fire. They liked the trigger control and reset too.
The one thing we forgot at the range was rifled slugs, so I loaded three and shot at a 100-yard target. That sucked on my shoulder, but they cycled just fine. One heads-up: with heavier-recoiling loads, if you don’t have a really good grip on the forend, your hand can run up and you might cut yourself, or it’ll just hurt a little. The first time I shot it without a recoil pad, the strap section of the forend was butting against my thumb. With a recoil pad and a better grip the second time, it didn’t bother me much.
What the shotgun guys thought
I can talk your ears off about precision rifles or race guns, but for shotguns I wanted opinions from people who shoot them a lot more than I do. My buddy Nick, who I’ve known for eight or ten years and who shoots a lot of shotguns, and our friend Rosey, who is a genuine shotgun snob as I’m finding out, both from the Coalition of NJ Firearms Owners (CNJFO), ran it with me.
The adjustable stock got the most love. According to Rosey, comb and length of pull adjustment are normally found on guns that cost several times more, and that kind of comb add-on on a $2,000 to $3,000 wood-stocked gun can run $300 to $500 by itself. On a shotgun, fit matters more than on a rifle: with a rifle you’re often prone or on a bench and can adjust your body, but with a shotgun the bird is gone by the time you fiddle. Rosey was able to raise the comb high enough to see all the way down to the bead and clear the hump of the receiver. You could literally mark the comb setting for each family member, pull spacers to make it a youth gun, or add extensions for someone six-foot-five.
A few other notes from the guys:
- The action is nice, and the sling point looks like a Mossberg 590-type setup.
- The sighting plane on the rib is deliberately dull, so you don’t get glare in bright sun.
- The vent rib is standard width, so it’ll take common 12 gauge rib accessories, like a magnetic hi-vis front sight with interchangeable orange, green, or red inserts.
- There are no optic mounting points. You could probably get it drilled and tapped, or see if a rifled slug barrel with a rail ever becomes available, but this isn’t that type of gun.
- After close to 200 rounds, the finish was starting to show wear on the sides. According to the guys, every pump they’ve handled shows those wear marks. It means it’s tight enough to function without being sloppy. A pump shotgun is not a beauty contest.
- Made in Turkey? It didn’t bother Nick at all. There are a lot of great Turkish shotguns out there, many at the lower price end, but some really nice ones too.
- Fit and finish feels solid. One of them, a self-described wood-stock guy, said he could still see putting this black plastic gun in his safe for the adjustable comb and length of pull alone.
The price reveal
Before telling them the price, I asked what they’d expect to pay. The answer: anywhere from $350 to $700, call it a $500 shotgun. The MSRP back when I filmed this was $269, and I expected street price to settle around $250 once the market came back to reality. Pricing has surely changed since 2020, so check current listings.
Their take: it’s a great trainer and a great first shotgun for anybody. Every NRA shotgun instructor should have one for teaching someone how to mount a shotgun and break birds. Think of it as the Glock of the shotgun world in one sense: if a brand-new shooter knocks it over in the rack and scratches it, you’re not out $3,000. And for a new owner, you don’t need to spend $500 or $600 to get something that works while you figure out whether you lean toward trap, skeet, or hunting.
Bottom line
Usually I’d give you my bottom line, but Nick and Rosey knocked it out of the ballpark. Would they buy one for $250? Definitely. For a budget-friendly, adjustable, reliable pump that can fit everyone in the family, the RIA All Generations 12 gauge is an exceptional value.
Thanks to RIA for sending it over, and to Nick and Rosey from CNJFO for lending their shotgun expertise.
RIA All Generations shotguns: slav.li/RIAShotgunG. Gear I use: slav.li/amazon. Squat Squad perks: join the channel.
Keep squatting.
What was your first shotgun, and would you start a new shooter on a budget pump like this?
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