Review & video: Celik Arms Buck Master Gen 2 Tactical PB12M shotgun

A good mate bought a Buck Master when they were first released in Australia and he loves it. We went out pig hunting and flushed porkers from long grass around a dam. It was the usual chaos as they scattered. I swung my rifle one way and the other, trying to put a shot on one, without any luck, but my mate and his Buck Master drew beads on several and rolled them. I’d been out-gunned and was envious.

See our full test of the Buck Master in this video

Since then, button- and lever-release shotguns have relegated the straight-pull gun to flash-in-the-pan status. Meanwhile, the Buck Master has moved on to its second generation, an updated design that’s a bit stronger and more reliable, and it has also blossomed into a large range of variations including box-magazine models like this one.

This is the Buck Master Gen 2 M Tactical, the M designating the box magazine feed and the Tactical applying because of features like the raised front bead sight, the pic rail on the receiver and the lack of top rib on the barrel. It’s available with a choice of four different butts, this one being the standard one with adjustable comb.

The M is a $1500 gun, two or three hundred dollars more than the tube-magazine versions, depending on whether you’re comparing it with the five- or 10-round tubes. The Buck Master’s box holds five rounds.

The receiver has been changed to accept the box magazine. Instead of a magazine tube protruding from the receiver’s nose, there’s a slimmer, solid guide rod.

Celik Arms Buck Master M Tactical review — The M Tactical is one of a number of variations on the Buck Master theme

The gas system is basically the same, but some of the parts are different. A return spring fits over the guide rod, bearing against the action bar that also runs over the rod. The spring pushes the action forward to close the action; a gas piston pushes it backwards to open the action.

We Australians are only just reacquainting ourselves with gas-operated guns. Since 1996, semi-autos have been so heavily restricted that they’re effectively banned, and until recently there was not much use for gas-piston actions in anything but autos. However, since someone realised the setup could be applied to a different kind of repeater, we’ve embraced it. It’s effectively improving on the straight-pull bolt-action design.

So what we have is a bolt-action gun that ejects spent shells all by itself, and has a spring to return the bolt into battery. Between those two actions, there’s an interrupter that stops everything in its tracks, with the action open and the gun unable to fire. The shooter has to trip it to get things going again.

Like the Celik Arms Chimera PB223 rifle, the Buck Master’s unique design attribute is the reset button mounted on the fore-end. A catch inside the fore-end stops the action bar from springing forward after you’ve fired a shot and the shell has been spat out.

An aluminium skeleton inside the polymer fore-end gives the hold-open mechanism a lot of strength; some of the early models, especially with walnut stocks, would crack, but that looks all but impossible here.

The reset button is poised for your thumb to press; or perhaps your index or middle finger if you’re left-handed, though you can buy a Buck Master with a lefthanded fore-end. I found it easy either way. It is a position that provides beautiful fluidity to the whole cycle of firing, resetting, target acquisition and firing again. Neither hand has to loosen its grip, let alone release it, so the gun naturally stays in your shoulder, pointed down range, and held firmly in the shooting position.

The recoil is managed by a pliant recoil pad, the shotgun’s bare weight of 3.8kg, and the gas system which absorbs a bit of energy. A neat trick to reduce some of the felt recoil is to set the adjustable cheek piece so it angles down towards the front, encouraging it to come off your cheek when the gun kicks backwards on firing.

All this helps you stay focussed on target and bring the bead back down onto it fairly rapidly.

Celik Arms Buck Master M Tactical test — With its reset button on the fore-end, the Buck Master requires minimal disruption to your shooting posture and grip. Lefthanded fore-ends are available

The Celik is a fun and very controllable gun to shoot and as much as it suits hunting, it’d be very handy in competitions like three-gun as they’re run under Australian laws. I thoroughly enjoyed shooting it. It functioned reliably all the way.

The red hi-viz bead on the front sight post is clearly visible and the rail on the receiver acts like a very wide, U-shaped rear sight which, after a little practice, I realised was similarly instinctive in use to the usual shotguns rib that I am more used to. It just takes a few shots to wrap your head around it.

However, I took the better option and whacked my Aimpoint Micro red dot onto the rail for maximally instinctive shooting. Celik provides a rail so why not use it to best advantage?

The butt stock on the Buck Master is familiar. I’ve used it recently on a number of Turkish guns and rifles and have come to really like its shape. It may look too angular to be comfortable but the opposite is true.

The straight pistol grip is at a neutral angle, and it has horizontal slots in its front edge to increase your traction on it, along with light stippling on the sides. Your trigger finger comes naturally to the trigger. Length of pull with the 15mm spacer inserted is just over 37cm. The adjustable cheek piece in its lowest setting will let large people get their eyes down on the sights without scrunching, unlike many guns, but will be appreciated by smaller people.

The fore-end has a nice, round profile with contours for your fingertips to get some grip on. The stippling on the base and sides is reassuringly more coarse than on the pistol grip. The position of the reset button will be uncomfortably far forward for anyone with short arms and even I, with fairly long limbs, would like it a little further back, but most shooters will quickly get acquainted with the need to place your hand near the button and keep it there.

The reset button needs a firm but not strong nudge to activate it. It’s an action that becomes second nature with not much practice.

At the other end, the trigger is one of the best I’ve used in this kind of gun, releasing at an average off 2.7kg and being both consistent about it and without creep — the lack of creep being an unexpected and very pleasant surprise. The 2.7kg weight is nothing to complain about in a shotgun.

There’s a trigger-blocking crossbolt safety in the back of the trigger guard.

After firing five shots — maybe six if you start with a round up the spout — and you’ll be ready to remove the empty magazine. A release button the right side of the receive is within easy reach of your trigger finger. You can generally expect the steel box to drop out, but this Buck Master was one of a number that came with a very tight-fitting magazine that was hard to budge. The issue, as the importer explained, is that too much paint was applied by the factory that made it.

The trick is to work it in and out until eventually it loosens up — which it does. At first it was wedged in very tight but in five minutes I had it working freely enough to go shooting, and by the end of the test it was fine. This apparently affected some, but not all, Buck Masters and it’s not expected to be an ongoing issue.

The Buck Master is sold with a single magazine that’s quick enough to fill. The shells slide in nicely and the spring is firm without offering uncomfortable resistance as you slot the last round in. If there’s much difference in the time it takes to fill a magazine compared with a tube, it’s only a matter of seconds. However, if you carry a spare magazine, the point becomes moot; you can be ready with another five rounds in a moment.

The obvious disadvantage of the box magazine is its size. You don’t notice it when you’re shooting, but there are a few situations when the slim profile of the tube-mag version is more convenient, but that’s the choice Celik Arms gives you.

You also get a choice of a 20-inch barrel like this one or 28-incher. As a scrub gun, it’s hard to go past the 20” one because it’s easier to wield in thick bush and quicker to point. The minor velocity loss isn’t going to worry you at the ranges you’ll be using it at, and there’s very little difference, if any, in the way it patterns.

Celik provides three screw-in chokes: cylinder, modified and full choke. They come in the usual little box with an installation key.

I ran everything from clay-target loads and buckshot to slugs through the Buck Master. The best choke for most shooting was the modified one, a good compromise that kept buckshot and BBs within acceptably small patterns out to 35m or so but also permitted rifled slugs to be used. If I was stalking or ambushing pigs or goats, I’d generally load a slug first, then buckshot. The slugs tended to hit in a 20cm group at 35m, centred a few centimetres lower than the middle of the buckshot patterns but not so that I had to adjust for it at close range.

The full choke worked nicely with BBs and numbered shot.

Celik’s quality is pretty good, and the gun seems very strongly made. Keep the working parts lubricated and it should last well. The gun is finished in a matte black coating that isn’t as strong as Cerakote and shows up some marks. The fit of the butt to the back of the receiver wasn’t perfect but elsewhere it was all very good.

Two sling swivels are fitted and you also get a small rail under the fore-end that’s very handy for fitting, say, a torch for hunting at night.

Disassembly for cleaning is straightforward. Being a gas gun, you will have to give it a good clean every now and then, but it showed no hint of gumming up during the test.

I can see this box-magazine Buck Master being a popular gun in Australia, especially where you find ferals in great numbers. Get in close to them and you can efficiently drop a lot of them, changing magazines as you go. You can repeatedly hit targets with deadly accuracy and depend on the Celik to run without stopping along the way.

At first I was not a fan of the fore-end mounted reset button, but having used it on the original Buck Master, the Chimera rifle and now this second-generation Buck Master, I like the sense it makes, ultimately keeping you in maximum control of the gun from shot to shot.

Thanks to Mudgee Firearms for logistical help with this test, and having a bunch of 12 gauge we could choose from at a good price. They’ll sort you out with a Buck Master if you want one.

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