Semi-Autos

When my editor gave me the opportunity to try out the new A350 XTrema Max5 from Beretta, I was happy to oblige. The last Beretta shotgun I looked at here was a prima donna – the Beretta 692 Sporting B-Fast over and under. While that one was certainly made to shoot and admire, I might have a little heartburn tossing it into a John boat in the middle of January. This 3.5-inch, 12 gauge A350 Xtrema Max5 model is all about maintaining a working gun reputation, but that doesn’t mean it skimps on classic Beretta features.

Introduced earlier this year as the company’s first-ever semi-auto shotgun, the Stevens S1200 is powered using a very smooth, fast Benelli-esque inertia recoil system but comes with a very unBenelli-esque price—starting at well under $600, for a semi-auto shotgun.

There are few firearms as versatile as the shotgun. The modern shotgun is a work of engineering prowess, but one seemingly insurmountable issue has been developing a semi-automatic that can fire the full range of loads. In these cases, you usually must revert back to a pump action. But what if you want one that can do everything?

Shotguns have always suffered one common weakness: Capacity. Although substantial when measured by either weight or diameter, the amount of ammunition that can be loaded into the gun is limited. Right? Wrong. SRM Arms has stepped up to the plate to take a swing at solving the capacity and reloading problems inherent in a 12-gauge shotgun with its 16-shot, semi-automatic Model 1216.

Benelli has done with the Ethos what many companies have attempted but just couldn’t quite achieve—they ‘ve figured out how to bring truly high-end features to a firearm the average man or woman can afford. And that my friend, is no small feat.

Shown in prototype form, the semi-automatic Wilkinson Tactical CR-12 on display caught my eye as I was walking down the aisles of the of the 2016 NRA Annual Meeting.

When the import bans made the Saiga shotguns much more precious, many of us went looking for an alternative. Today, we’re kicking the tires on a Vepr 12–and we like what we see. Could this Russian import be even better than the Saigas? It is much easier to find, and priced right. But how does it handle the abuse?

Everyone I know who owns a shotgun started out with a pump. Where do you go when you want something just a bit faster, or more responsive? Automatics have a reputation for being finicky–at best. But not the Benelli M4. This may be the most complete tactical shotgun in production today.

I was initially enamored with the RAAC MKA-1919, otherwise known as the AR-15 looking shotgun. It was the star of our 2012 SHOT Show coverage, registering over 80,000 readers within the first few days after release. Then I got a review gun, and in August of that year everyone got to read that the gun had some quirks. My review was one of the few that put the gun through its paces, and demonstrated that it failed more than it fired. But at the time, I was excited about a modification company that had exhibited with RAAC at SHOT. Guns can get expensive and the base price of the 1919 wasn’t that high. A couple hundred in mods I felt was reasonable for a niche specialty gun like this, assuming that it works well. That company never got back to me.