Today we're reviewing a semi-auto shotgun from a company you may have never heard of - Wimberley Arms. Wimberley Arms states they are "on a mission to redefine the perception of Turkish manufacturing. By combining the benefits of skilled artisanal labor with cost-effective practices, we maintain rigorous standards without resorting to white labeling our guns or designs to third parties. Each component undergoes thorough validation and engineering to ensure it meets our uncompromising quality." Today we're taking a look at the Wimberley S12 Premier in 12ga. Let's go!. Let's get into it.

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

WIMBERLEY S12 PREMIER

Here is what Wimberley has to say about the S12: "Introducing the S12 Premier: the showstopper in our S12 lineup. While it might sound like a black-and-yellow affair, this model takes it up a notch with dazzling gold accents instead of mere yellow. Equipped with a polished flat lifter, stunning wood furniture, and a laser-engraved bolt, it also features a finely tuned gas system for an ultra-smooth shooting experience with minimal recoil. Whether you’re hitting the field or dominating the sporting clay course, this shotgun adds a touch of flair to your performance. Think of it as the high-end ride of shotguns—complete with bling. Watch out world, time to channel your inner baller!"

This is a Turkish-made shotgun. However, Wimberley firmly stands behind their product as they claim to have stress tested a bunch of other shotguns to gain some clarity about how to make their product perform above the rest. Today we're going to find out how this S12 will hold up.

Wimberley has a couple of options in their S12 line-up. This is the S12 Premier. Other options are shown below.

S12 Standard - $598

S12 Field - $698

S12 Elite - $825

• Specs

  • 12 gauge semi-auto gas system
  • 3" chamber.
  • 28" barrel 
  • Comes with 3 Mobil chokes. Looking for aftermarket chokes? Check out Carlson's Chokes Use Code "targetfocused20" for 20% off.
  • The length of pull is 14 1/8" 
  • Drop at comb is 1 3/8"
  • Drop at heel is 2 3/8"
  • No spacers of shims in the box for stock adjustments.
  • 7lbs 4.8oz
  • We got an average trigger pull weight of 7lbs
  • The trigger has a decent amount of pre-travel or 'sponge' before it breaks.
  • MSRP is $789 

• Ergonomics

  • Very standard recoil pad with a bit of squish. Rather skinny. The top of the pad is straight plastic to help the shotgun from snagging on your clothes. Nice detail.
  • The pistol grip is a bit narrow. Allows for a decent grip angle on the trigger.
  • The forend is nicely tapered and textured with adequate grip area for hands of all types.
  • Rear-mounted triangular cross bolt safety. We appreciate the little touch of texture detail on the safety. You'd typically expect a tiny dot of a safety in this price range
  • Standard silver-colored bolt handle.
  • The bolt itself has a very unique look to it sporting a laser engraved checkering type pattern.
  • Basic, but nice-looking controls throughout.
  • Loading port is slightly milled out.
  • Receiver is silver aluminum, the trigger is gold.
  • Vented and flat rib has a small fiber on the front. The receiver and barrel is a matte black.
  • The receiver is optic-ready
  • The furniture is of dark standard-grade wood. This is a pretty sharp-looking shotgun for the price point.
  • This is a forward-heavy shotgun (Due largely to the gas system)
  • This is a good-looking gun with some unique features. You may not want to walk all day with this in the field though. I can foresee the forward balance making this a great clay gun.

• Recoil and Reliability

  
  
  • We clean and lubricate every shotgun before we review them. Regardless, this shotgun needed a little extra break-in time before it began to spit out and cycle shells reliably.
  • The recoil felt decent. It was controlled and straight back into the shoulder.
  • If you wanted to lessen the recoil even more,  A  Falcon Strike recoil pad would make this S12 hard to put down.
  • This shotgun mounted and swung nicely. Pointing it felt very natural.
  • The more we shot, the more consistently it cycled, and the more we noticed that the recoil management was great. On clays, it shot true to where I was looking.
  • If you can speak to the reliability of a Wimberley, please let us know how it's held up on the  TFL COMMUNITY!    
  • In the grand scheme of shotguns, we're not sure that this one is going to be among the most reliable, but it'll absolutely get the job done enjoyably for this price point.

• Breakdown/Quality of Build

  • Any time we look at the quality of a Turkish-made shotgun, naturally there's a bit of skepticism. But this shotgun seems to be constructed well.
  • An example of this would be the extra barrel nut under the forend cap. This holds the barrel in place and takes tension off of the forend. This should lead to better longevity of the shotgun.
  • Being a gas gun, the internals had a fair amount of carbon build-up from just a few boxes of ammo.
  • What Wimberley has going on here for less than $800 is pretty dang good.
  • Love the single-pin design on the trigger group
  • This shotgun has a lot of parts. Remember to keep track when you break it down!
  • Another good and unique feature is the use of a metal lip on the forearm where it meets the receiver. This does a great job of stabilizing the shotgun and creating tight tolerances all the way around. It's not the classiest look but at this price point, it is effective.
  • We have no reason to believe that this shotgun won't hold up over time if properly cared for. Very solid.

• Speed Shooting The Silvertip

  • In every review, we typically do a speed shooting test where we hand throw 3 clays and record the time it takes to get on the clays, and shoot all of them. This test reveals a lot about the functionality of the gun such as mountability, target acquisition, trigger, recoil, and reliability. 
  • Before we got it on the clock, we shot around with the Federal Prairie Storm. The recoil was a bit more but it was straight back into the shoulder with no cycling issues.
  • The fastest split time we achieved was a .18
  • The more we shot this shotgun, the more we loved how natural it was to point. We hit almost every clay we shot at. Not every shot was a record time, but it was certainly an enjoyable gun to shoot. 
  • The biggest letdown while speed shooting was the trigger. There was quite a bit of pre-travel that prevented us from getting a fast time. For explanation, the pre-travel led me to believe I had already pulled the trigger and was mentally already getting to the next target when the trigger hadn't even gone off in the first place.  

In conclusion, the big question is "How is this shotgun any different than other shotguns in this price point?" And to that, we'd say a couple of things. First, the design, aesthetics, and ergonomics are more unique to this shotgun. For some, this may be worth paying for. Secondly, This shotgun felt and handled nicer than a couple of other guns at this price point. It mounted very well. The biggest lowlight for us was the trigger slop. Otherwise, this is a shotgun worth consideration if you're looking for an all-around shotgun at a budget price.  

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