The Charles Daly 101 is a single shot, folding shotgun made in Turkey and distributed by Chiappa. They’re based on the older Beretta FS-1/412. They use extractors (no ejectors) and have interchangeable chokes. They come with a variety of barrel lengths and come in 410, 20 gauge and 12 gauge. They’re also super cheap. I bought all of these on sale for between $130-$180 each.
Specs:
- Comes chambered in .410, 20 gauge, and 12 gauge
- .410 with 14″ barrel: 4.22lbs
- 20 gauge with 26″ barrel: 5.17 lbs
- 12 gauge with 20″ barrel: 4.96lbs
- No rib on the barrel
- Use Beretta/Benelli Mobil chokes
- Plastic buttpad
- Steel sling studs (nice to see on a cheap shotgun like this)
- Cheek riser on both sides
- Cross bolt safety
- Trigger weight: ~7lbs
Charles Daly 101 Usability
The primary feature on the 101 is that it folds in half. This makes the shotgun very compact to stow in a shooting bag or backpack or whatever. Check your local laws as concealing a firearm in a non-firearm looking bag is illegal-ish in Canada. In any case, the shotguns fold very nicely in half, cutting the overall length to transport them.
At around 4-5lbs the Charles Daly 101 is an insanely light shotgun. Whether in your hand or on a sling, they are very easy to haul around the bush. But that lightness comes at a cost:
Rough recoil. With a plastic butt plate and very low weight, these shotguns recoil a lot more than they look like they should. Not a big deal for the 410 but you will want a slip on pad for the 12 gauge if you shoot anything other than target loads.
Reliability
Reliability on these can be hit or miss for 1 main reason: poor lockup. The shotgun must be fully locked up in order to fire. If it’s not quite locked up, the firing pin won’t hit with enough force to light off the round. Ensure that your disassembly lever has room to go all the way forward when the shotgun is locked up, and if you press it back a bit or bump it back inadvertently, it won’t go off.
Disassembly
I don’t think you need to disassemble this shotgun but just in case:
- Fold it open
- Unscrew the big flathead on the pin it rotates on
- Unscrew the forend sling stud to remove the forend
One thing to note: you can change some of the tension of how much force it takes to open/close by adjusting how tight the flathead screw on the pivot point is.
It looks like the receiver for the 12 and 20 gauge are the same, the 20 just uses a thicker barrel. The 410 is smaller.
Overall
They’re cheap utility shotguns. I like the folding capability and they’re very light. They’re inconsistently finished so you may have to do some basic tinkering on yours if you want the lock tension tuned, swivel torqued just right, etc.
