Maverick 88 Bantam Youth 20 Gauge, 22-Inch

Description

The Maverick 88 Bantam is built for younger or smaller-framed shooters taking their first serious steps into field work or home familiarization — but it holds up just as well for any shooter who wants a compact, no-frills pump that can move between upland cover and the truck without much thought. The 20 gauge chambering is the right call here: the lighter payload and more manageable recoil let a developing shooter focus on form and follow-through rather than flinching, while still delivering genuine capability on birds, small game, and short-range clay work.

The twin action bars are worth understanding rather than glossing over. A single-bar pump can bind or cant under rapid cycling or if a round doesn’t feed cleanly; dual bars keep the bolt carrier tracking straight and parallel, which matters when you’re working the action fast or with cold hands. The anti-jam elevator controls shell presentation from the magazine tube to the chamber, reducing the chance of a rim catching on the receiver during feeding. Dual extractors grip the case head from both sides simultaneously, so a sticky hull after a hot string is less likely to cause a problem than it would with a single-extractor design.

The crossbolt safety sits in the trigger guard where it can be operated by the trigger finger without shifting grip — an arrangement that works consistently regardless of hand size. The bead front sight is purpose-matched to how shotguns are actually aimed in the field: you’re tracking a moving target and reading the barrel’s relationship to it, not indexing a rear sight. A synthetic stock keeps weight down and eliminates the finish concerns that come with carrying a walnut-stocked gun through wet brush.

Shipping and availability: This item must ship to a licensed FFL dealer for transfer.