Shotguns

Way back when, “A man’s word was his bond.” But in 1901 the bond between two powerhouses in the firearms industry was broken.  T.G. Bennet, President of Winchester, and John M. Browning had come to an impasse over how JMB would be compensated for his latest creation: the Auto 5 shotgun.

New from American Tactical, or ATI, is their American Tactical AR-15 Shotgun that shoehorns .410 bore ammunition into a standard AR-pattern package.

It’s a banner day for pump shotguns.

We have waited a long time for this. Today, I am happy to report about the greatest leap forward in pump shotguns I have seen in my lifetime. This miracle of engineering is named the Remington 870 DM (Detachable Magazine). This has been a long time coming, and I am beyond excited to see it come from Big Green.

What would you think if I asked you about a Benelli M2 with a 25 round capacity? Work of science fiction? Only if micro mini shells have been introduced? Did I smoke rock this morning? Such a thing exists and it’s brought to you by our friends at Roth Concept Innovations (RCI).

Waterfowl hunters are a dedicated lot; heading off to the lakes and swamps before daylight, stringing out decoys, shivering motionlessly in the blind as the morning fog cuts through their best camo jacket, all for the sake of making the skies rain ducks and geese. CZ has just the ticket for those of you who are really serious about filling the skies with shot and bringing down every bird that comes in range, the CZ Swamp Magnum Camo.

Whether you’re a survivalist looking for a trail gun or a parent looking for a first firearm, the Stevens Model 301’s low cost, simple functionality and reliability make it a great addition to any collection.

I don’t envy the Aimpoint engineer who drew the Micro S-1 assignment. Developing a plug-and-play red dot for a wide variety of shotguns must have been a nightmare. Most shotguns aren’t designed with optics in mind. Fortunately for us, Aimpoint’s engineers figured it out.

What do you do if you don’t feel that a 12-gauge slug doesn’t have enough stopping power? OK, so maybe if you ever feel under gunned with a shottie slug you’re fighting Godzilla, but, hey, it could happen. You could try to stuff a 40mm grenade in there, but that requires all sorts of complicated licensing. A more realistic option might be to use a fragmenting projectile design. That’s exactly what Winchester Ammunition has done with their PDX1 Defender Segmenting Slug.

We saw a lot of cool shotguns at Range Day during SHOT Show 2017. Here are the top five.