During the Cold War, everything the Soviets had was cool and mysterious. SU-47s, A91s, and even the common AKS-74u all held an allure that’s hard for modern shooters to comprehend. For younger shooters, Russian arms and equipment are old news, while Chinese stuff is effectively a complete unknown. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity a few years ago to get some trigger time behind a very rare variant of the PLA’s standard assault rifle — the QBZ-95. 

QBZ HERITAGE

For the uninitiated, the QBZ-95 is a select-fire, short-stroke, piston-driven assault rifle chambered in 5.8x42mm. With its combination of odd angles and bullpup configuration, it resembles something from an ’80s sci-fi movie. But under the hood, like most modern assault rifles, it’s simply an AR-18 variant. While plenty of people refer to it as a Chinese AUG, its ergonomics and odd cartridge make it a very different beast. But back to the gun at hand, what is this rare variant I managed to get my hands on?

LA-K12 PUMA

The LA-K12 PUMA is a short-stroke gas piston-driven semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun. It feeds from five-round steel-body proprietary magazines and includes two in the box. Essentially, the gun is a bullpup magazine-fed Benelli M4. If you’re wondering why nobody else makes something like this, they do. It’s called the IWI Tavor-12. Unlike the Tavor-12, the controls on the PUMA are OK, bordering on terrible — but more on that later …

At first glance, the K12 resembles the huge number of tactical Turkish bullpup shotguns flooding the market currently. However, the gun was actually developed to be a beanbag-launching riot gun for internal security and police in China, but it found more success as a close-quarters weapon. 

That’s right, the engineers at Norinco who brought us semi-automatic versions of the PLA’s favorite Kalashnikovs in the ’80s and ’90s are behind this design. That’s also why it shares the same appearance and ergonomics as the Type 95 and Type 97 assault rifles. It was meant to allow soldiers familiar with those systems to pick up the PUMA and apply the same manual of arms, thus reducing training needs. With that out of the way, let’s start at the muzzle and work our way back to get a comprehensive understanding of the gun before we get to the performance and ergonomics.

QBZ SHOTGUN FEATURES

The LA-K12 PUMA ships with a 19-inch barrel with a muzzle threaded to M22x.75. Sounds odd, but this is actually the standard thread pitch for Saiga-12 shotguns, so there are plenty of readily available muzzle devices that fit it. The SGM breecher brake works great to reduce muzzle climb, while the quiet professional can install a suppressor like the SilencerCo Salvo 12 if they so choose.

Just behind the muzzle, the PUMA features a two-position adjustable gas valve with a high and low setting. The low setting, designated with a smaller hole, reduces gas pressure when firing slugs or powerful defensive ammunition. The big hole setting for high helps low brass and birdshot rounds cycle better. The high worked for both; it just increases felt recoil with slugs and buckshot. 

Meanwhile, the low setting often fails to cycle birdshot or competition loads.

The manual states that shooters should fire 50 rounds of full-power buckshot or slugs on high to properly break the system in before adjusting the gas valve. 

Just behind this is the giant polymer QBZ-style shell. The handguard is ribbed and features three sets of brass nuts embedded in the furniture. These were meant to interface with Picatinny rail segments, but since the gun never went into full U.S. importation, these rails never materialized. If you own one of these guns, you can try asking a Canadian gun shop if they can send you some, or possibly Norinco directly (good luck!).

Alternatively, you could have a gunsmith check the thread pitch on the nuts. Then, buy matching screws and a polymer rail segment and drill the proper holes. It sounds like a pain, but it wouldn’t be too bad if you wanted a vertical grip or flashlight mounted to the gun.

Speaking of grips, behind the forearm is the iconic swept pseudo half-grip found on all QBZ-based firearms. It’s very comfortable to use as an angled grip, but the tiny grip is awkward to wrap your support thumb around, even for guys with smaller hands. 

Above this, the K12 features a full-length steel Picatinny optics rail that provides plenty of real estate for mounting full-sized reflex sights like the Aimpoint Comp M2 or the EOTech EXPS sights. It even has enough space left over for a magnifier. One thing to note — the rail is relatively close to the charging handle, so don’t pick an optic with a large mounting adjustment knob, or you will definitely shred your knuckles charging the action. 

ODD ERGOS

Behind all this, the magazine well is reminiscent of an AR-15, but with what appears to be an AK-style magazine release lever. But that small lever is actually the bolt release, and the tiny button at the front of the left side of the magazine well is the magazine release. 

Why?

At first, this layout seems totally nonsensical and awkward at best. But a close examination reveals there’s some method to Norinco’s madness. If you grab the magazine while keeping your thumb on the left side, you can release the magazine with very positive retention. Then, when a fresh magazine is inserted, wrapping the thumb around the magazine well drops the bolt and chambers a shell. 

Is it perfect? No. Do I personally like the layout? Hell, no. It’s awkward and counterintuitive, especially to shooters familiar with Western designs. Small controls in unconventional locations combined with a bolt release that would be very easy to hit when swapping magazines accidentally seems to be a surefire recipe for malfunctions in combat, especially to those trained on more mainstream weapons. 

Behind the magwell, the big-bore QBZ has an even stranger ergonomic choice — a fire selecting dial. Again, I’ll just be frank, I hate it. But I understand why it was designed that way. The K12 is a bullpup firearm, so the designers wanted to make sure that while in a shooter’s armpit, they didn’t accidentally disengage the safety. 

And in all fairness, its development predates IWI’s forward selector solution to these ergonomic shortcomings. 

But a flippin’ dial?!

To properly use it, you take their support hand (assuming you’re right-handed) and pinch the raised portion of the dial to rotate it from safe to fire. About the only thing it has going for it is that it’s very positive. It clicks in both the secure and fire selector positions. This solution has to be among the worst fire selectors on any bullpup design. Even the Steyr AUG’s antiquated cross-bolt safety is a vast improvement over this.

The final complaint about ergonomics lies at the rear of the gun. The K12 features a smooth rubberized buttplate that does a good job of absorbing recoil, but a terrible job of staying on your shoulder if you’re wearing anything but a bone-dry BDU or Canadian tuxedo. After all, why would they think that a compact, lightweight 12-gauge shotgun would need a threaded buttplate? It’s not like shotguns are known for their stout recoil …

Enough bitching about the ergonomics, let’s get to the good part — performance.

LA-K12 PUMA PERFORMANCE

We put around 250 rounds of full-powered ammo through this K12 and another 500 rounds of low-brass birdshot and competition loads. Initially, the reliability was subpar, with low-dram ammunition struggling to chamber subsequent rounds. But after 50 rounds of slugs and buckshot, the action smoothed out considerably, and the gun ran flawlessly.

Recoil wasn’t as bad as you might imagine, but slugs will still beat the ever-living snot out of your shoulder after a few boxes. As far as patterning, it’s a cylinder bore 19-inch barrel shotgun. The pellets go in the general direction of your target for roughly 50 yards, then do whatever they want.

With an SGM Saiga combination choke/brake, all double-aught pellets reliably struck a man-sized target at 35 yards. With pricey Federal Flite Control ammunition, that number jumped up to nearly 60 yards. The brake also did a fantastic job of cutting the recoil impulse and making the gun much more pleasant to shoot. Overall, the gun’s reliable enough for serious use once properly broken in.

LA-K12 VERDICT

Because of the scarcity of this gun in the United States, I have to give two separate verdicts on it. If you live in Canada and you can get one for a reasonable price of around $1,000, it’s a solid purchase, especially if you want something decently compact that looks like a QBZ-95.

As for the U.S., here’s the skinny. These guns were about to be brought in by DDI Inc. when that company still existed. A handful of them were sent to writers like me and resellers to better understand the product before offering it for sale. This is why you’ll find videos on the gun from U.S. content creators and websites like Atlantic Firearms. But you’ll notice no guns are for sale, and if you Google it, there’s no price history. 

They were intended to retail for close to $600 back in 2012 or so, but as far as I could tell from calling the importers, retailers, and a few influencers, there are only about 20 in existence in the U.S. right now. And given that it’s the only QBZ-based firearm available to Americans, prices on the gun could reach as high as $25,000. Sounds crazy, but take a look at the semi-automatic FAMAS that Century Arms imported in the 1980s, the MAS 223. The last one to sell at auction went for nearly $30,000!

And if the trade war with China continues at its current pace, we’ll never see these guns imported ever again. So, it’s a seller’s market for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the LA-K12 is a very cool gun from a collector’s standpoint, but it’s not practical for someone who just wants a handy shotgun.

That said, if you have the money, really want one, and see it for sale, buy it ASAP. You’ll either never see it for sale again, or not until it hits an auction site in 20 years for enough money to buy a new car.  

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