Yildiz Sporting HPS

Generally speaking, we don't get too excited about over/under sporting shotguns priced under $1,000, or even $3,000, most of the time. We've shot a lot of nice guns, and there's usually a reason cheap guns are cheap.

But the Yildiz Sporting HPS kept catching our eye. It's an Academy exclusive, and on paper it reads like a gun that should cost two or three times the price — steel receiver, ported barrels, adjustable comb, 30-inch barrels.

So we took it to the course to see if it could actually hang.

• MSRP: $770 (Academy exclusive)
• Available Gauges: 12 gauge
• Barrel Length Options: 30"
• Chamber Size: 3"
• Weight: ~8 lbs 6 oz (advertised at 8.15 lbs)
• Length of Pull: 14.5"
• Stock: Adjustable comb (raise/lower + cast on/off)
• Trigger: Mechanical, single selective
• Chokes: 5 extended chokes
• Extras: Steel receiver, ported barrels, tapered vented rib, vented side ribs, brass mid bead, fiber optic front bead, palm swell

Ergonomics

The Yildiz Sporting HPS feels like it knows what it's supposed to do. It's a steel-receiver gun at right around 8 and a half pounds, which sits in a good spot for a sporting clays shotgun.

The adjustable comb gives you both height adjustment and cast on/off — a feature you almost never see at this price. The adjustability here is a real win for getting the gun to fit.

The full pistol grip has a right-handed palm swell, the safety and barrel selector live up top, and the receiver is plain but cleanly finished. The wood is basic walnut, the wood-to-metal fit looks decent, and the checkering is clean.

One thing worth flagging — the barrel selector is unmarked, so there's no visual cue for top or bottom barrel. Minor, but worth knowing.

Recoil and Reliability

We ran Federal Top Gun 1 1/8 oz 1145 fps target loads through the Yildiz, and felt recoil was very manageable. With the gun held tight — owning the mount, as we like to say — it shoots really nicely.

That said, if we didn't get firmly into the gun, we could feel it coming back into our face a little more than we'd like. Some of that's comb fit, some of that's the basic micro-cell rubber pad. A FalconStrike on the back end would clean that up in a hurry.

One quirk worth flagging — the trigger reset is weak. There's no strong audible click or tactile feedback, and we caught ourselves pulling the trigger expecting it to fire and getting nothing. Once you know it, you adjust. But it's something to be aware of.

Want even less recoil? We love the FalconStrike recoil reduction systems.

Breakdown / Quality of Build

Pop the Yildiz apart and the build quality is honestly better than we expected. The steel receiver looks clean, the lockup feels solid, and everything goes back together nicely.

The inletting where the wood meets the receiver could be a touch tighter in spots — but at this price, we're not going to be hyper-critical. The ejectors are also a little weak. They work, they just don't kick the hulls clear with the authority we'd want.

One small thing — when you break it open, the barrels don't always stay fully forward. Sometimes when you drop a shell in, the barrel rolls back and the shell hits the top of the reciever instead of dropping cleanly. Minor, but real.

Shooting Experience

On the course, the Yildiz actually handles pretty decently. We crushed singles, took true pairs, and the movement was natural and smooth.

The 30-inch ported barrels swing smoothly, and once the comb was in the ballpark for our face, we were on birds without much fuss. The point of impact came up right around 50/50 on the splatter plate, which is exactly where we want a sporting gun to shoot.

Is it as effortless as a $5,000 gun? No. Does it shoot well enough that a new sporting clays shooter could compete and have fun with it? Absolutely.

Final Thoughts

Here's the deal — we're not going to put the Yildiz Sporting HPS up against guns that cost five grand. That's not a fair fight, and that's not what this gun is for.

But for $770? Steel receiver, ported barrels, adjustable comb, sub-4 lb trigger, tapered rib, 30-inch barrels — that's a serious feature stack at this price point. If it holds up for thousands of rounds (and that's the question only time will answer), this is a legitimately good starter sporting clays shotgun.

It's not perfect. The ejectors are a little soft, the trigger reset is mushy, and we'd want a FalconStrike on it day one. But for someone getting into the sport without a $3,000 budget, the Yildiz HPS is treasure, not trash. You can grab one over at Academy.

What do you think about the Yildiz Sporting HPS? Share your thoughts in the TFL COMMUNITY!

Whether our targets in the field or our targets in life, we'll only hit what we're focused on — live the #targetfocusedlife