Shotguns

The American shotgun market is huge, but it’s not necessarily ruled by American shotguns anymore.

The Benelli M2-G1 brings a new Rear Piston Operated gas system to a hard-use tactical shotgun. I fed it cheap birdshot, rusty water-damaged shells, suppressed strings, and rapid fire, and several hundred rounds later it still had not malfunctioned.

Shotguns are making quite the comeback in recent years. Somehow the gospel of the gauge has reached the ears of shooters, and more and more are adopting the tactical shotgun for home defense needs.

The Benelli Super Black Eagle 3 A.I. BE.S.T. is a premium waterfowl shotgun built to laugh at ugly weather, run filthy conditions, and throw impressively tight patterns. It is expensive, no doubt about it, but this thing feels purpose-built for hunters who want top-end reliability and field-ready refinement.

It is close: the Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol is a touch lighter, recoiled slightly less and ran the fastest double tap in our testing, while the Mossberg 940 Pro Tactical has the biggest controls and a factory optics cut that sits a red dot low. Our reviewer’s personal pick was the 940, but the A300 [...]

The Mossberg 590 Bliksem is not just a camo-coated conversation piece. It is a compact, optic-ready 12-gauge firearm with real defensive utility, slick factory upgrades, and enough personality to make a plain black shotgun feel downright boring.

The Tokarev TT 12 Pro is an AR-style 12-gauge shotgun that showed up cheap, ran clean, and refused to choke on low-velocity shells, buckshot, or slugs. For about $365, this box-magazine-fed semi-auto came to fight.

The best Mossberg shotguns have armed soldiers, cops, turkey hunters, and homeowners for decades. Mossberg makes the 500 and 590 pumps, the budget Maverick 88, the magazine-fed 590M, the non-NFA Shockwave, and the 940 autoloaders, plus field guns and over-unders. There is a Mossberg for almost every job and budget. Our writers have run them [...]

There are plenty of upgrades for the 870 out there, but these are my favorites. I think they give the old warhorse a welcome facelift.