Tom,
I traded for a Turkish-made 20 ga Khan at a gun show as an attempt to see if I would like shooting an O/U, having shot SxS's all of my life. After <1000 rounds at the trap range, one of the ejectors broke. I was unsuccesful in getting any response from them via their website email links. I was able to get the part, in the white, with the help of a nephew living in Izmir while visiting there this spring. A local gunsmith finished and installed it for $50, and I have already shot another 500 rounds without incident. The jury is out on how long this gun will hold up though. The ejectors and most of the action appear to be castings, which is not necessarily an inferior process-for all those who are interested in a good general discussion of castings vs. forging, I suggest checking out www/sfsa.org/sfsa/pubs/cvf/ecs.html
Upon visiting with a few local gunshop owners in Izmir, I found that Huglu and Sarsilmaz are considered the best quality guns produced and sold in Turkey (none of them had even heard of Khan). One dealer said that was because the barrels are manufactured from European steel, exact source unknown, as opposed to Turkish steel. Huglu of course has been active in the U.S. market for a number of years now, I would guess with limited success. Sarsilmaz' website claims they have been producing guns since the 1880's and that they currently are the 3rd largest producer of small arms in Europe, their main production facility address actually being given as Kaynasli, Duzce, which is on the Asian side of Turkey. Perhaps they make this claim based upon the geographic location of their sales market. The area around Konya, in the middle-southern region of Turkey has at least a dozen or more small arms manufacturing plants...some even claiming to employ all of the village citizens, reminiscent of the early oil towns in the eastern U.S.
Whatever configuration of fit, finish or embellishment S&W puts on these new guns, if the steel going into the barrels and actions is not up to the task, why spend any amount of money for them? And, if there warranty issues after the sale, who is going take care of fixing your gun and at what cost?
best,
skatr2
