You smile when you pick up an ultralight bird gun. You can’t help it. Sure, it’s a relationship that may someday end in tears after one missed long crosser too many, but it’s hard to resist the charm of a wand for the uplands. If you hunt steep hills or heavy cover, where shots are close and going away, and those long crossers are few, a featherweight shotgun is a joy. Retay’s new ACE Upland UltraLight joins Benelli’s Montefeltro Ultra Light and Browning’s Sweet 16 and 20-gauge A5s in the sub-6-pound semiauto weight class. It also sells for half the price of either of those two, making it more than worth a look. I had the chance to test the Retay ACE Upland UltraLight at my range. Here’s my full review.
Quick Overview
Specs
- Length: 47.25″ with 26-inch barrel
- Weight: 5 pounds, 10 ounces with 26-inch barrel in 20-gauge
- Barrel: 24- or 26-inch barrel (tested), with vent rib, small red front bead, five flush Crio-pattern chokes, one extended IC choke
- Action: Inertia semiauto
- Trigger: 8 pounds
- Capacity: 2+1
- Finish: Two-tone gloss/matte black receiver, blued steel
- Stock: AA walnut and Airy recoil pad
- Chambering: 3-inch 12-, 20- and 28-gauge
- Price: $1049
Pros
- Lightweight
- Good looks
- 60/40 poi
- Patterns well
- Points well
Cons
- Heavy trigger
- Light guns swing poorly
Retay expands its ACE and ACE-R inertia semiauto lines (the only difference between the two is a humpback receiver on the “R” model), adding several variations and offering it in three gauges this year. The Upland Ultralight has all the features of the ACE line: a trigger group that pops out with the push of a button, an “inertia plus” bolt designed to never bump out of battery, the Airy recoil pad, and a deep-drilled barrel. Like all of the ACE line, it is well fit and finished.
The ACE Ultralight saves weight with a shortened, two-shell magazine. My test gun weighed in at 5 pounds, 10 ounces, which is plenty light. The shorter mag tube moves the balance point rearward so the gun sits on your finger right below the charging handle when the bolt is closed. This gun has a two-piece receiver that makes it easy to get at the inside of the gun in the field if you need to. The safety reverses, and the stock has shims to help the ACE Upland Ultralight suit as many people as possible. It has an enlarged bolt release but, thankfully, a normal-sized charging handle instead of an extended one.
The wood is billed as AA Walnut. The furniture on my test gun was fairly light in color and, while the grain wasn’t exotic, it had some figure and looked classy. The Airy pad received a makeover, too. The old, distractingly ugly clear insert is gone, replaced by a dark gray translucent piece that’s much easier on the eyes.
Test Results
I shot my test gun from a bench at 20 yards. The patterns were centered and maybe two inches high, which would put it four inches high at 40 yards, which is a fine POI for a bird gun. The gun came with an extended Improved Cylinder choke, and the pattern results with it were scary. The IC put almost 100 percent of a Winchester Super Pheasant load of lead 5 shot into a 30-inch circle at 25 yards, and most of those pellets were in the 20-inch core. I measured the choke at closer to .020 (Modified) than IC. Super Pheasant is quality ammo, but that’s still an impressive pattern. I’d likely switch to the flush IC or Cylinder for my hunting, but it is great to have a gun that can reach out if you need it to. It’s easier to open patterns up than to tighten them.
On the skeet field, the gun performed about as I thought it would: it was great on the short stuff, and on incomers and going-away and quartering birds. The gun’s balance and light weight made crossing shots a challenge, which was no surprise. I had to make an effort to put the muzzle where it had to be, and shooting shouldn’t require conscious effort. After skeet shooting, I stood five steps behind a traphouse and shot low-gun to simulate shots at flushing birds. Trap targets, with their unknown but shallow angles, were no problem for this gun. The Airy pad does a good job of mitigating the recoil of such a light gun. The gun functioned perfectly with factory ammo.
Because I never notice trigger pulls when I am shooting, I was surprised to find this one hit the 8-pound mark when I checked it. My own Retay ACE has a 5 ¾-pound pull, which lies within the 5-6 factory specs, so I am willing to believe this one is an outlier. Retay assured me they would stand by their gun and adjust any heavy triggers.
Final Thoughts
I thought I was immune to the appeal of a superlight semiauto, but the more time I spent with the Upland Ultralight, the more I liked it. Yes, the trigger on my gun was too heavy, but Retay promised to fix it. Other than that, this gun delivers exactly what it’s supposed to, and at a great price. It’s a light-carrying, hard-hitting upland shotgun. It’s made for long walks behind dogs, where there are many steps between flushes and the shots are mostly short.
Why Trust Us
For more than 125 years, Field & Stream has been providing readers with honest and authentic coverage of outdoor gear. Our writers and editors eat, sleep, and breathe the outdoors, and that passion comes through in our product reviews. You can count on F&S to keep you up to date on the best new gear. And when we write about a product—whether it’s a bass lure or a backpack—we cover the good and the bad, so you know exactly what to expect before you decide to make a purchase.
*WARNING - DANGER AHEAD*
THE FALL JOURNAL COMING SOON
