I don’t know if this is the influence of former VP Joe Biden, but there are a lot of new shotguns hitting the market. A couple of years ago, Charles Daly introduced introduced a couple of triple barrel shotguns, and the traditional shotgun manufacturers have introduced “tacticool” versions. They also have some lever action design shotguns.
Remington got in the act with a magazine fed version of the venerable 870, the 870 DM. DM stands for detachable magazine. Advertised for law enforcement or home defense use, it features quick change magazines. The gun comes in “Tactical” and Magpul versions, with different stocks and other bolt on accessories. It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t know if it will negatively effect the vaunted 870 reliability. I also don’t know if it’s a practical home defense gun.
Mossberg has a similar version of their 590 series shotguns. These feature 10 and 20 round detachable magazines. I don’t think I’d really want to lug around a shotgun with 20 rounds in the magazine. I’m thinking that a belt felt version can’t be far off.
Tavor has a shotgun version of their bullpup design shotgun. In addition to being a bullpup design, the TS12 has three rotating magazines. Depending on the type of shell this arrangement offers up to 15+1 round capacity. Definitely not a duck, skeet, or trap gun. This is meant for self defense and law enforcement use.
Two of the magazines are accessible for loading or unloading at the same time, one from the left side, one from the right.
This is not a light weapon and becoming comfortable with the manual of arms for it would likely take lots of practice.
Kel Tec makes that KSG which also uses a multiple magazine system. Two magazines, one on each side, with a selector switch to choose which magazine you want to use.
I will digress a bit to say that there are some advantage to having multiple magazines. The big one is that you can load each with different types of shells. Not a bad idea, as long as you remember which one you’re selecting.
One of the more intriguing multiple magazine guns came from SRM. Their gun is another bullpup design, but with a detachable four tube magazine. You could, if the need arose, carry a loaded spare magazine and instead of laboriously reloading, just swap a new magazine in. The gun has a MRSP of around $1,800 and the magazines are a bit more than $100.00 each, so it’s not cheap.
I also looked at a couple of guns from UTAS. One is the existing UTS15 pump action shotgun. This gun puts the magazines (two) on top of the barrel. That leaves room below the barrel, where the magazine usually goes, for a tactical light option. That light is an optional built in unit with the switch inside, not hanging off the bottom or side of the gun. There is a three position magazine selector switch. It’s a bit counter intuitive as pushing the lever to the left, causes the right magazine to feed, and vice versa. Putting the selector switch in the middle cause the tubes to alternate rounds. As always, it’s important to become familiar with a firearm before you HAVE to use it. Plenty of range time is in order with any new firearm.
Besides, going to the range is fun, right? Or it should be.
I also got to see a pre release version of their UTS15 A. The A stands for automatic, because this is a semi automatic shotgun. The 15 A uses some of the same features as the semi auto version, but also features a quick release bolt cover for clearing an malfunctions that might occur.
The dual magazines seen from above. The magazine selector is the lever just below. I have no practical purpose for this gun, and it’s pretty expensive. Still, I found myself wanting one.
One interesting item not in the Exhibit Hall was from Aridusindustries. This is a quick detach shell carrier for Remington and Mossberg shotguns. The idea is to allow shooters to have multiple carriers loaded with shells and be able to swap them out as needed. There are other products as well, all intended for the shotgun market. This is start up company, so if you’re into shotguns, it’s worth a look.
That’s a quick look at some of the newest products for shot gunners. Tomorrow I’ll have a couple of handgun pictures and notes. And, if I can get it to upload, a catchy video of some innovative marketing.
Ridiculous gimmick guns. So within a week there will be fifty bloggers and two know it all “gun righters” who will start calling them standard capacity. Tacticool is the new weapon of the anti-gun left. So how long until Feinstein waves one of those in the well of the Senate demanding a ban on “assault shotguns”? I see lots of bumpfire in those gimmicks. Wanna take bets on how long we have to wait before one gets photoshopped at a mass shooting and someone wants to ban ALL repeating/multi-shot shotguns “for the children?”
Two thoughts.
First, whether or not something is “ridiculous” is the judgement of the market place, not individual commenters. It’s certainly NOT the province of attention whore politicians or high school idiots.
Frankly, I don’t care what Feinstein says because her oft stated long time goal is to take every gun out of the hands of the citizenry. She’s retiring and have no doubt that her replacement will have the same goal, but will possibly be less honest about it.
Unlike a bumpstock, a lot of design and development work went into every one of of those new designs. That costs money and gimmicks don’t often get that amount of investment.
Standard capacity is whatever the designer puts into it. There is no such thing as “high capacity”, it’s a term made up by the anti gun Left. It’s sad that any gun owner would adopt it and use it.