Test: Huglu Victor P-Tac Tactical and P-Tac Home Defence, the affordable pump-action shotguns

We have already presented one of Huglu's guns here at all4shooters.com: the Huglu HT-14 over-and-under shotgun designed for clay pigeon shooting, which impressed us with its price/performance ratio. In this article, however, we would like to take a look at the Turkish co-operative's pump-action shotguns. As the "Tactical" and "Home Defence" in the model names suggest, they are typical representatives of the tactical and home defence genres respectively. Incidentally, it seems that the same Huglu "Victor P-Tac" models are also marketed under the somewhat alarming name "Atrox" – on the manufaturer's website the only difference between the "Victor P-Tac Tactical" and the "Atrox Tactical" is the barrel length, which in the Atrox Tactical is a bit shoter at 47 cm instead of 51 cm. The Victor P-Tac Home Defence, on the other hand, looks no different from the "Atrox Standard" model. 

Both Huglu P-Tac Tactical and P-Tac Home Defence shotguns come in a simple cardboard box with enclosed operating instructions in English and Turkish. The box also contains a small box with a choke wrench and four interchangeable chokes: full, three-quarter, quarter and cylinder chokes. And that's it for the similarities between the two guns. The Tactical version also comes with a flash suppressor and a fabric bag. The visually impressive Victor P-Tac Tactical and the rather plain Victor P-Tac Home Defence differ not only in their appearance and price.

The Huglu Victor P-Tac Tactical in detail

Let's start with the Tactical version: the aluminium receiver comes standard with a mounting rail and a ghost ring sight, which unfortunately didn't appear particularly stable. The rear sight is only held in place with slight spring pressure – more on this later. If you want, you can fit the flash hider instead of a choke. The interchangeable choke barrel has a front sight carrier with a red front sight protected by two solid ears and is covered by a heat shield by about two thirds. The protruding mounting screw is somewhat unsightly. However, due to the favourable price of around 350-380 euros (depending on the country you live in), you can turn a blind eye. Overall, the workmanship is very neat and there are only minimal burrs on the polymer parts.

The unusual, visually impressive telescopic stock is adjustable in length by around 90 millimetres and has several sling swivel mounts as well as four round holders for spare cartridges. It's nice to see something different from the usual AR-15-style push stocks. Both when extended and retracted, the stock provides a high degree of stability. The three detent settings have hardly any perceptible play. The push button on the left-hand side for length adjustment is also stable and prevents any unintentional adjustment. The asymmetrical rubber recoil pad, which adheres very well to the shoulder, and the free-standing pistol grip made of non-slip polymer with finger grooves ensure a very stable grip. Despite or perhaps because of the finger grooves, the pistol grip is suitable for small, medium and large hands. In contrast to other asymmetrical recoil pads, the grip is equally suitable for right and left-handed shooters. To accommodate accessories, the polymer fore-end has a short Picatinny rail on the underside made of the same material. The fore-end could be a little grippier for fast sporting operation, although the Tactical shotgun is basically sufficiently easy and quick to fire.

The controls and the loading port correspond to the usual standards; the manufacturer has not optimised or oversized anything specifically for sport. This is not necessary, as there is little to criticise in terms of operation. The safety is perhaps a little stiff, but the trigger is really good. The average trigger pull weight of 1,900 grams feels much lighter in action than the digital trigger scale indicates. The trigger breaks crisply with a barely perceptible first stage travel – great! The loading port is sufficiently large so that the shooter can easily reload two cartridges at once with a dual load with some practice. Only the quad load, in which four cartridges are loaded at once, does not work reliably – here we should once again remember the very favourable purchase price of the non-tuned shotgun.

Huglu Victor P-Tac Tactical technical specifications

Huglu Victor P-Tac Home Defence features 

Now to the Home Defence variant. The impressive name indicates the actual purpose of this shotgu. The Home Defence differs greatly from the Tactical, especially in terms of its appearance, while the recommended retail price of around 330 euros is even slightly lower. However, the Home Defence does have to do without some of the features of the Tactical version.

The aluminium receiver has neither a mounting rail nor a ghost ring rear sight. The barrel also has neither a heat shield nor a front sight mount, but it does have a ventilated, 8 mm wide barrel rib with a red front sight, which enables a fast target acquisition with a high-contrast sight picture. The biggest difference, however, can be found in the stock. This is a standard stock with a straight comb without any adjustment options. However, the testers did not find this to be a disadvantage here, as the shotgun's stock fitted straight away. The heavily ventilated rubber recoil pad is very well done. Thanks to the ingeniously curved design of the pad, it yields slightly when inserted into the shoulder and thus ensures an excellent grip. The shotgun sits as if glued on: top! The fore-end does not have a Picatinny rail, which is easy to get over for the reasons mentioned above. However, the handguard could be a little more grippy. Of course, the controls and the loading port have not been modified or optimised here either. The trigger does not quite reach the values of the Tactical trigger and breaks with a slightly longer travel at an average pull weight of 2,150 g.

The tubular magazine can hold seven 12/70 or 12/67.5 rounds. Together with an additional cartridge in the barrel, eight rounds are available so that you are sufficiently equipped for almost all common dynamic shotgun disciplines of the shooting sports associations. When using particularly short cartridges in 12/60 or 12/63.5, even eight cartridges fit into the magazine tube and with an additional one in the barrel.

Huglu Victor P-Tac Home Defence technical specifications

On the shooting range

Various shooting colleagues were again recruited for the tests. Both experienced and inexperienced shotgun shooters were able to "squeeze off" some rounds with the two Huglus. The accuracy test showed that the rather simple ghost ring reat sight performs surprisingly well. In combination with the red front sight, you have a very good sight picture. However, as there were a few inexplicable flyers, we wanted to know exactly what was going on and repeated the accuracy tests using a tried-and-tested reflex sight from Holosun. And lo and behold: the new groupings were considerably tighter and there were no more excessive flyers.

Unfortunately, the Tactical tended to jam several times during the test when cycling with most types of slug ammunition. The bolt could then no longer be opened easily after the shot and the fore-end had to be pulled back with force to get the empty case out of the chamber. There were also shotgun slugs that did not cause any malfunctions. It was neither the short 12/60 nor the long 12/76 slugs that worked without any problems, but those in 12/67.5 or 12/67 from the manufacturers Brenneke and Tunet. Was it due to the cartridge or case base length? In contrast, the Tactical showed no particular preferences in terms of accuracy. The short and moderately loaded Fiocchi 12/65 slugs in were just as accurate as the 12/70 Brenneke Orange Lightning. Most of the other 12/60 to 12/76 slugs also gave no cause for criticism.

Surprisingly, there were no problems whatsoever with the Huglu Tactical when firing buckshot. Without exception, all shotgun shells could be quickly extracted without any problems, regardless of whether they were light 24-gram loads with a short brass base or powerful 53-gram loads with a long brass base. Aha, problem solved? Did the Tactical simply need more rounds to break in? So I quickly switched back to slugs and lo and behold: the jamming was back, and with exactly the same candidates. Unfortunately, until the end of the tests it was not possible to determine where the problem lay.

But we still had the Huglu Home Defence and this test shotgun didn't shy away, but took its chance par excellence. No matter what this shotgun was fed with, there was not the slightest disturbance. The Home Defence converted shot and slugs into kinetic energy with equal reliability, making it a joy to use. That's the way it should be. Of course, the Home Defence's simple fibre optic front sight could not achieve the red dot groupings of the Tactical, but it could easily keep up with its accuracy results using the ghost ring rear sight. Due to the reliable functioning of the Home Defence, it can be assumed that the problems with the Tactical are probably an isolated case. In contrast to the writing guild of automobile testers, we usually receive our test objects exactly as they are delivered to the customer, namely without them being specially checked or even prepared beforehand. For this reason, problems can occur here and there during our tests. 

Conclusion: Victor P-Tac pump-action shotguns from Huglu

Anyone looking for a particularly inexpensive yet reliable and functional pump-action shotgun will find what they are looking for at Huglu. Whether it should be the Victor P-Tac Tactical or the Victor P-Tac Home Defence is decided solely by personal taste or the regulations for the disciplines in which the shotgun is to be used. In favour of the Tactical are the better features and the possibility to adjust the stock to your own body measurements as well as the slightly better trigger. Ultimately, it was not possible to determine why the shotgun did not cope with certain types of slug, as the Home Defence version, which is identical in terms of action, had absolutely no problems there. We therefore assume "in dubio pro reo" that this was an isolated case. Accuracy, on the other hand, can be described as very good. The Home Defence scores with its lower price. Its standard stock ensures a bombproof grip. The matt black coating of the metal parts appears to be very resistant, as no signs of abrasion were visible until the end of the test. In view of the very favourable prices, both models are clearly recommended for purchase.

Further information on Huglu shotguns can also be found on the manufacturer's English-language website.