Today we're looking at another Breda Shotgun. Breda is a long-established Italian shotgun manufacturer imported to the USA for a short stint a few years back, and now they are returning to the States! The company behind Retay Shotguns is now importing Breda shotguns. We were lucky enough to get our hands on and review the Breda B3.5SM a few months ago. Be sure to check out that review too (Watch here). The Icaro 20 is the 'little sister' to the B3.5SM. We've been loving Breda so far, so we're excited to bring you this review today. Let's get into it.

If you have experience with Breda shotguns please let us know your thoughts on the TFL COMMUNITY!   

The Icaro was designed to be a waterfowl shotgun

BREDA ICARO20

Here is what Breda has to say about the Icaro20:

• Specs

  • 20 Gauge inertia driven semi-auto - Only available in 20ga.
  • 3" chamber.
  • 26" or 28" barrels.
  • Comes with 5 flush chokes (Crio Plus). Looking for aftermarket chokes? Check out Carlson's Chokes Use Code "targetfocused20" for 20% off.
  • 6lbs 4oz
  • Unlike many manufacturers, Breda puts their trigger weight on their website. They claim a 5.5-5.9lbs trigger. Our average trigger pull weight was closer to 6lbs 10oz. 
  • Overall the trigger felt quite crispy. 
  • Length of pull is 14 1/4".
  • Drop at comb in 1 9/16"
  • Drop at heel is 2 3/16" - This Breda comes with 2 shims for stock adjustments.
  • MSRP is $2,100

• Ergonomics

  • The balance of this shotgun is good.
  • The first thing we noticed was the nice grip. The synthetic furniture does not feel like a cheap plastic. It's coated with something to increase grip. It has a 'soft touch' type of feel to it.
  • This Breda has a butt-pad that snaps on and off - No screws required.
  • The pistol grip seems to have a bit better grip area than other 20 gauges. Sub-gauges often feel thin/skinny in the hands. We appreciated the subtle extra beef on this shotgun.
  • The checkering throughout is subtle but very effective. The forend is quite similar to a Benelli (as are many aspects of this shotgun as Breda used to own Benelli)
  • Triangular cross-bolt safety placed behind the trigger.
  • The bolt release is slightly over-sized. We'd consider it perfect - It's not a too big and gaudy, and its not too small (As the smaller ones are difficult to use)
  • This Breda has a very nice textured bolt handle.
  • The loading port is slightly milled out. The magazine tube has a red follower. 
  • The flat and vented rib sports a small red fiber on the front.
  • There is a groove cut out on top of the receiver. This is to give your eyes more visibility when looking down the gun. We like the concept, but found that we'd often float our head with the gun shouldered.
  • The overall ergonomics and build of this gun are great. It feels great in the hands due to that 'soft touch' coating. This is the stand-out highlight of its ergonomics.

• Recoil and Reliability

  
  
  • The Breda Icaro 20 shot like a charm. 
  • Through shooting a wide variety of loads, the Icaro20 consistently managed recoil very well.
  • We had some reliability issues shooting the target loads. We eventually learned why this was and will share our findings with you soon.
  • If you can speak to the reliability of a Breda, please let us know how it's held up on the  TFL COMMUNITY!    

• Breakdown/Quality of Build

  • The first note we have is that this Breda is build like a Benelli - Both in quality and function.
  • For example, the top of the receiver pops off independently, similar to how the Benelli Ethos comes apart.
  • Likewise, the barrel and forend come off as one piece.
  • One thing we love about these inertia guns is how easily they come about. All we had to do to access the bolt was take off the forend cap.
  • Even simpler yet, if you wanted to take out the trigger group, it'd be as simple as popping out one pin.
  • Speaking of the trigger group, it is not made out of plastic. The Icaro trigger group is machined aluminum which feels very solid.
  • On the topic of build quality, Breda drills their barrels rather than hammering them. There are a lot of different techniques that manufacturers are now using to eliminate the possibility of imperfections and weak points that may occur from hammering (I.E Benelli does a crio treatment using freezing temperatures). It's hard to say what's best when every company has their own strategy but, it seems to make sense that their drilling process would result in better, more consistent patterns, as well as better overall longevity of the barrel.
  • We have no reason to believe that this shotgun won't hold up over time if properly cared for. Compared to other similar guns, the Icaro (and all Breda guns for that matter) really stand out as superior in the build quality department. 

• Shooting The 694

  • The more we became comfortable with the gun, the more we hit, and the more we like it. 
  • The recoil management is a pretty obvious top-3 highlight for us with this Breda.
  • Overall this shotgun feels great in the hands. We thoroughly enjoyed shooting it. However, we were still having trouble cycling the target loads.

The Icaro Didnt Cycle Target Loads. Here's Why: 

After shooting many rounds in an attempt to break in the Icaro, we still couldn't get the target loads to cycle. We took the gun apart looking for answers, and found none. What we did find through is that this Icaro bolt had a higher pull weight than another Breda shotgun we had on hand. So we reached out to Breda, and there response was that the Icaro shotgun was tuned specifically for waterfowl hunters. It has a tighter recoil spring, and apparently that's on purpose. They found that the tighter recoil spring led to more reliable cycling with waterfowl loads when shot in cold, Icy, and wet conditions. This made total sense to us. Breda said that if you want this shotgun to shoot target loads, you can send it back to them and they will give it a tune up, and put in a more universal recoil spring. 

So its not that this shotgun is bad and unreliable, it was simply an intentional decision by Breda to optimize the Icaro for waterfowl hunting. We think that's pretty cool because after shooting this shotgun, we think that it is a phenomenal sub-gauge waterfowl gun. We would bring this shotgun on a duck hunt with no hesitation. But like we said, if you'd like this to be an all-around shooter, you'll have to connect with Breda to get that tune-up.

Whether our targets in the field or our targets in life, we will only hit what we are focused on, so live the #targetfocusedlife