The Catamount Fury 2 is a magazine fed, semi-auto shotgun imported by Century Arms from China of all places. I bought this shotgun on a whim from a member of my shooting community because it was priced right ($400) and frankly looked badass. I do want to apologize in advance for what could be considered an incomplete review of this fun rifle. My range only allows the use of slugs so I have been unable to test any shot loads out of this rifle. The Fury 2 is for the most part a Saiga clone using the same AK-47 action. The rifle functions and breaks down just like any other AK style rifle. The Fury is a 12-guage shotgun that is capable of firing both 2-3/4″ and 3″ shells. It comes with three screw-in choke tubes: cylinder, modified and full. It has an adjustable gas system with two settings. One dot for less gas and higher pressure/velocity shells and two dots for more gas and lower pressure/velocity shells. From what I gather and read this shotgun can have some issues with lighter target loads. With those loads its imperative to have the gas setting correct. I can’t speak personally about these potential issues. I have been shooting exclusively Herter’s Select Field Rifled Slugs and have not had any malfunctions with the exception of the bolt not holding back when using the 5-rd magazines. I’m not sure if this issue is unique to this particular ammo or possibly these particular magazines. I found this to be the case while shooting on both the high and low gas setting. Interestingly, my gun came with a couple of 10-rd magazines and the bolt did hold back after the last round without fail on these longer magazines. The Catamount Fury II sports a receiver mounted top rail and short lower rail underneath the gas block. I installed a red dot on the top rail and a sling swivel on the front lower rail. One minor complaint is that it is essentially impossible to use the AK style safety without completely removing your hand from the pistol grip. The Fury II also comes with a cleaning rod & brush and although I have yet to use them, they seem decent quality.

The Catamount Fury II disassembles just like any other AK style rifle. A button on the rear of the dust cover allows the cover to hinge open exposing the guide rod and spring as well as the bolt carrier group. The gas tube is also easily removed as is the gas block itself. The ease of which the rifle is broken down, cleaned, and re-assembled is a big plus in my book.

Shooting the Fury II is quit simply a blast. Pun intended of course. It shoulders well, isn’t overly heavy at just under 9 lbs., and is relatively well-balanced. Using an inexpensive Dagger Defense red dot sight the gun is reasonably accurate at the short ranges I am shooting: 50 feet and 25 yards. As you can see from the target I was able to produce a fist sized hole in the target with little effort or measured aim. I did only a cursory zeroing of the Dagger Defense sight as you can see from the impacts being right of center. Frankly, as soon as I got rounds on paper I was more consumed with unloading rounds as quickly as possible than worrying about just how on point my sight was. As much as I might try, I couldn’t help but pull the trigger fast. Speaking of the trigger, it’s pretty fantastic in my opinion. It has a fairly long take-up traveling about 1/2″. It is smooth and consistent though and when it breaks, it breaks suddenly and sometimes quite unexpectedly.  According to my Lyman Electronic Trigger Gauge the trigger breaks on average with 2 pounds and 11 ounces of pressure. That’s a pretty light trigger for a semi-auto shotgun I suppose but the trigger feels so smooth and crisp and with the substantial take-up I never felt like the gun fired until I was absolutely ready for it to. The trigger reset is quite nice as well. The trigger resets with about a 1/4″ of travel with a distinct and tactile click.

I expected a lot of recoil and muzzle rise but instead was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to stay on target and make repeat shots. My only complaint would be in how quickly I kept finding my magazine empty. Was that really all ten rounds?

As I mentioned previously I had no malfunctions with the gun besides the bolt not locking back on the last round when using the five round magazines. The magazines themselves are a bit tricky to insert requiring just the right amount of tilt and upward pressure. I am sure with practice they will become much easier to manipulate but for the time being  I found it awkward and uncomfortable. The magazine release does work well and the magazines come out much easier than they go in. I should mention that there are some reports of excessive wear occurring on the bottom of the recoil spring assembly where it hits the back of the lower receiver. Some folks have even reported not being able to pop the dust cover off due to this problem. This video: Catamount Fury Troubleshooting & Disassembly by The Late Boy Scout does a great job examining the issue. I can’t speak to the problem personally. Mine has shown no signs of wear with the limited shooting I have done with it so far. I also haven’t been able to determine if people are seeing this wear after a few hundred rounds or a few thousand. We shall see.

All in all, I am thrilled to have picked up this gun. It’s a relatively unique firearm and I always get a few inquiries from other folks at the range. Haven’t met anybody yet that has ever heard of it. My only concern is how much it’s going to cost me to shoot. Blasting through 150 or so rounds of shotgun slugs in a short time is no problem with this beast. Paying $45 to 50 dollars each time could become a problem.

JD