My adjunct instructor, John, actually bought a 20 ga Pardner Compact with a synthetic stock, NOT a Protector. I cocked an eyebrow at it when he pulled it out of the case, I have to admit. It's pretty heavy, and even though it's an 870 clone it's not completely built like an 870 - I would have to guess based on the design that there's not a lot of interchangeable parts.
We started the day by checking zero with slugs at 50 yards. The Pardner did okay - not amazing but easily combat accurate. Then we moved on to some patterning with buckshot - the Pardner again did okay but not amazing. I would not take it to 25 yards if I had any potential collateral damage behind it, though, but that's also due to the load John was using - bigger shot and a higher quality load probably would be a better choice. All slugs and buckshot were Remington, and buckshot was 3" #2 buckshot.
Then we went into loading drills, movement, alternate positions, etc. We ran about 200 rounds, some of those very, very fast, and the Pardner didn't have any issues. Once during a loading drill there were some hiccups, but John thinks he was short stroking the slide, so I'll chalk that up to user error. Other than that, I was impressed by this little shotgun. And of course, my 870 ran like a champ, as always.
If you have a limited budget, I would recommend this shotgun - I think he paid $170 OTD.