Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
I’m an enthusiastic shotgun fan. It’s likely traced back to being a certified swamp ape from the great state of Florida. As a young man, I hunted quite a bit, and in the tight quarters of the Southeastern United States, a rifle was never really needed. Shotguns ruled, and I became quite apt with one. As such, I’ve always chosen the home defense shotgun.
I feel skilled with a shotgun, and it meets my needs. I want to fire as few shots as possible, and a shotgun acts as a repeating claymore for antipersonnel purposes. One round of 00 buckshot with eight pellets tends to stop threats in their tracks.
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Additionally, I have more concerns than two-legged varmints. If you looked at my side saddle, you might be confused as to why I have a round of birdshot and two slugs present. I don’t use either for two-legged varmints. I still live in the southeastern United States, and the slugs are for coyotes and hogs, who are on my fight-on-sight list. The birdshot is for venomous snakes.
Shotguns just work for me.
The Home Defense Shotgun
I like shotguns, and I own plenty of them. I have five that I own that I would turn to at a moment’s notice. These are my go-to home defense shotguns, and while I have a favorite, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up any of these to defend the homestead.
5. Remington 870
The Remington 870 doesn’t get the credit it deserves in the modern shotgun market. The 870 introduced mass production techniques, which drove down the price of shotguns and made them more accessible than ever. We also got a dual-action arm design that improved reliability and a tank-like shotgun. Since the 1950s, the Remington 870 has ripped and roared its way through the shotgun industry.
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The 870 series are pump-action shotguns available in the most popular calibers. They come in numerous configurations, but the Police Magnum or basic Express Tactical is the best choice. Their shorter 18.5-inch barrels make them better suited for defensive use. The 870 uses a standard four-round tubular magazine that’s easily extendable.
Part of the big reason I like these guns is the ability to accessorize them to your heart’s content. I’ve attached a Surefire light and Magpul stock to mine, as well as a Wilson Combat +2 extension. You can turn your Remington 870 into whatever you want it to be, which is massively beneficial for tactical purposes.
The 870 series are typically very well-made guns. You can feel the quality of the gun through the smooth action and consistent ejection. Everything about the gun feels tight and well thought out. It’s a sturdy steel receiver that’s assembled with care.
The downside comes from Remington’s historically silly decisions. Some will have dimpled tubes that prevent you from using magazine extensions. Some production runs have a terrible finish. Inconsistency is Remington’s biggest problem.
If you can get a good Remington 870, hold onto it. You’ll have a solid, easily customizable, and reliable defensive shotgun.
4. Mossberg 590
The Mossberg 590 series is the other American pump-action shotgun. It’s a tactical variant of the 500 with some key changes to please an initial military contract. This gun is produced in a ton of variants, including the A1 with a heavy barrel, a bayonet-ready model, NFA variants, and even mag-fed models.
The 590 series is the US Military’s pump shotgun of choice. Most are the A1 variants, with limited models of A2 serving with the United States Marine Corps. Mossberg makes plenty of variants of the 590 that are well-suited for home defense. I prefer the shorter 18.5-inch barreled model, but the 20-inch version gives you one more shot in the magazine tube.
Much like the 870, the 590 can be accessorized up the yin-yang. It’s easy to turn your 590 into whatever you want it to be. Lights, stocks, whatever, you can attach it. It even comes optics-ready, which is a benefit over the 870 series. Customization is a must-have for a home defense firearm.
The 590 might be a little sloppier in the action, but it’s a rugged and reliable weapon. The skeletonized shell elevator makes fixing the rare malfunction you might run into easily. These reliable shotguns are easy to find and quite affordable. It’s tough to beat the 590 series when it comes to price, quality, and availability.
The action might feel a little sloppy, but you’re not going to notice in a defensive situation. What you will notice is that Mossberg’s bead sight kind of sucks. It’s welded directly to the barrel and makes rounds like slugs, and Flitecontrol appears to hit high. Red dots, ghost rings, and higher beads fix this problem.
3. Benelli M4
The Benelli M4 is our first semi-auto on the list and arguably the most proven. It’s also the most expensive on this list. I could buy three shotguns on this list and not hit the M4’s price. What you’re paying for is one of the best semi-auto shotguns ever to exist.
This gun was specifically built for the US Military when it wanted a semi-auto combat shotgun. The Marine Corps-led program adopted the Benelli M4 as the Benelli M1014 Joint Service Shotgun. It arrived just in time to serve throughout the Global War on Terror. It’s most certainly proven and capable of being used in home defense.
The Benelli M4 operates with the ARGO gas system. ARGO stands for Auto Regulating Gas Operated. It’s a dual-piston gas design that self-regulates and self-cleans. Reliability is the gun’s big claim to fame. It will operate anywhere at any time. It works in a desert, a snowstorm, a jungle, and most certainly inside the average home.
The gas system helps limit recoil and creates a controllable, easy-cycling, and fast-firing shotgun. With very little practice, you can drop two rounds on target in under a second. The Benelli M4 wasn’t built for sporting use; it was adapted for tactical use. Benelli built the M4 from the ground up for tactical applications.
The Benelli M4 has some downsides. It comes neutered with a five-round tube due to 922R, and a fixed stock. It’s expensive to upgrade, and the controls are pretty small. Getting the Benelli up to speed takes effort, but it can be worth it.
2. Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol
Beretta makes some fantastic shotguns, but they all have the downside of being quite expensive. To appeal to the modern market and bring out a shotgun that cost less than a grand, they adapted the American-made A300 into the Ultima Patrol. This new, gas-operated, semi-auto shotgun has made a big splash and takes our number 2 spot.
This American-made design lacks some of the fancier features of the 1301, but I couldn’t suggest two shotguns that cost nearly two grand. Ultimately, the nicer features of the 1301 wouldn’t make a fight-ending difference. The Ultima Patrol comes equipped with many nice modern features and delivers a simple but reliable semi-auto option.
The gas-operated design is always a plus, significantly reducing recoil and allowing for fast follow-up shots. Beretta did a fantastic job of balancing the gun and ensuring it was not front-heavy due to the gas-operated action. The gun features a 19.1-inch barrel and 7-round capacity. It’s pretty modern, and there are no 922R worries.
The Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol comes with excellent ergonomics. Everything is huge—and easy to access and control. The stock is adjustable for the length of pull. It’s optics-ready and comes with a variety of M-LOK slots for accessories.
My #1 Home Defense Shotgun: Mossberg 940 Pro Tactical
My favorite home defense shotgun sits by my bed, which is the Mossberg 940 Pro Tactical. The Mossberg 940 replaces the 930 series and makes several improvements to the design. One of the most prominent being in the reliability department. It was a massive upgrade to the 930 series and didn’t just improve reliability.
Like the 930, this is a gas-operated semi-auto shotgun. Mossberg overhauled it and worked with Jerry Miculek on the original 940 design to improve the ergonomics. This led to bigger controls that were more accessible and easier to activate. Users can adjust the LOP using spacers.
The Tactical variant of the weapon features a shorter barrel and a less competition-focused design. This means a shorter 18.5-inch barrel and an all-black, no-nonsense finish. The gun has a simple high viz front sight, but it’s also optics-ready in more ways than one. You can attach a rail, or there is a direct cut for a Shield RMSc/K cut optic.
The gun handles like a dream with soft recoil and high reliability, and the optics cut is tough to beat. It’s fast cycling at the range and perfect as a repeating claymore. The 940 Tactical delivers plenty of firepower with its seven-round tube, but there is a five-round option if you prefer a lighter gun or want to create an NFA-friendly design.
The big problem with the 940 Pro Tactical is a lack of space to mount accessories. I ended up replacing the handguard to mount a light. That’s a bit of a pain, but the gun’s worth the squeeze to me.
The Home Defense Shotgun Isn’t For Everyone
A recent video fo a man defending his home recently went viral. It was a shootout that saw over a dozen rounds fired and both the home intruder and home defender wounded. It’s those kinds of situations where I like the shotgun. I like the eight pellets fired per trigger pull. It’s a show-stopper and often ends the fight with a single round fired.
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Yet, it’s not for everyone. Shotguns have high recoil and are fairly long in NFA-free configurations. I’ll argue the low-capacity point, but that’s for another time. Ultimately, the shotgun isn’t for everyone, but it shouldn’t be cast aside just because the AR is so popular. When you need to shut a threat down with a single shot, the shotgun gets it done.
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Travis Pike is a dedicated firearms writer, a Second Amendment Advocate, and a subject matter enthusiast for all things firearms. He is an amateur competitor with dreams of one day not coming in 4th place at a local defensive match. If he’s not putting text to word processor, he’s likely spending time with family, enjoying Florida’s Nature Coast, or drinking hipster beer. As the resident Florida man he has a preference for obscure guns and calibers.
Experience
- Hunter – Long time deer and hog hunter in the swamps of Florida
- Instructor – Volunteers to teach basic firearm safety classes to kids, adults, and cats
- Wannabe Competitor – Has recently dipped his toes into competitive shooting and has happily discovered an expensive hobby.
- Marine – Served five years with the infantry before transferring to the First Civ Div.
The Mossberg 590S will digest a mixed load of shorties, 2 1/2, and 3″ shells. With shorties alone, I believe it will hold 13 in the tube.
I’ve used a Winchester Ranger 120 pump 12 gauge for years for home defense, purchased in the early 90s, loaded with 00 buck, with some mods like shortened barrel, fiber-optic front bead sight, heat shield, light attachment, extended tube and TacStar tommy gun-style pistol-grip stock and fore-end. The tough ugly little thing even shoots well at the skeet range with birdshot, for short to medium range shots.
I like my Winchester SXP Extreme Defender.
I’m with Loyd Barnhart — a good .410 or 20 gauge is preferred over a 12 gauge for less recoil, and they still have plenty stopping power. A cheap double barrel coach gun is the least I’d use for defense — you don’t know if a follow-up round is needed or a second intruder is present. Single barrel/shot guns don’t allow that. A Rock Island Armory .410 pump is under $300, as is a Mossberg Maverick 88 in 20 gauge. Those are full length shotguns though. A Savage Arms Stevens 320 Security is under $300 and a better choice for in-home use.
Since when is the Benelli M4 neutered, is that recent? I just bought one this year, in Massachusetts of all places, with an 8 round tube. That’s 10 rounds with one ghost load and one in the pipe.
12 GA Benelli M1 Super 90 with extended mag.
I am 65 and know the world refers to me as a FUDD, but I do not care. I like shotguns. I began shooting shotguns with Dad when I was in third grade. I am in the Jones sub-category of generations: born between 1954 to 1965, not a Boomer and not a Gen X either, traits from both generations. There are a lot of folks older and younger than I am that did the same thing. Grandad or Dad trained us on shotguns and we hunted all manner of game with them. We got proficient on them and knew how to properly handle them. I quit listening to people say in videos or articles how I do not need a shotgun, how using one for home defense would result in sure failure, and my family will be shredded due to overpenetration. What these same people seem to conveniently leave out of their rants is the lethality of a 12ga 00-buck load delivered center mast on a bad guy at across the room distance. What they also leave out is most people, under stress, will aim a long gun BETTER than they will a handgun. Why? More points of contact with the weapon. More big muscles vs small muscles in the work. Fine motor skills deteriorate under stress. Combining one’s lifelong use of a shotgun with using it for defense you get good aiming, better lethality, and confidence, which counts for a lot in a stressful situation. I like my Mossberg 590A1, shoot it well, and do not have to worry about where the safety is or how it works. However, that is me, not someone else. As you said, shotguns are not for everyone, but some of us can run one like a scalded dog so if we choose to use one for defense, that just might be the right choice. I recommend people choose what they have the most confidence with. Questions, doubts, that comes and goes does not feel right feeling? You do not need that. Confidence counts, a lot. I enjoyed the article!
I have always been a fan of and still rank the shotgun as the number one home defense weapon.
I was thinking about the FosTech origin 12… Comments?
You’ve got me by three years but we seem to have been cut from the same cloth. I was raised on a farm and a shotgun was your main operating tool for hunting. I don’t fit in either generation being born at the very end of the boomer generation. I see the pros and cons of both generations.
I’m all about shotguns for home defense and I’m not sure how those people think that you’ll shred your family and go through walls any easier than a handgun or rifle round. I’ve read a lot of comments on here on a lot of different articles and most of the time I keep my mouth shut but it occurs to me and what I have found is that dog, horse and gun people are all in the same boat. All they have to do is buy one and all of a sudden they’re an expert. They are dismissive and insulative to us older folks who have forgotten more by accident than they’ve ever learned on purpose but here we are… Safely protected at home with a shotgun lol!
My favorite line to hear from “those” people… “Well I would’ve done this…”, lol!
All true. However, I cringe when I see an article praising the effectiveness of the repeating shotgun, especially the pump shotgun because it’s not the bedeviled “semi-automatic” portrayed as evil in the news media. The pump shotgun in the hands of an experienced hunter/shooter is, in my opinion, the one very effective weapon that the gun grabbers just might regard as being not possible to ban. I would prefer to keep the awesome effectiveness of the pump shotgun as a kind of insider “trade secret.” I’m guess I’m hoping to deceive the deceivers. My 2 cts. This is a very true and fine article. Stay safe. j
All of these things pale in comparison to the humble ugly Siaga 12. Piece of cake to carry a mag of bird shot and a mag of slug and another mag of buck. Those cheap Turkish pump shotguns shoot very well and have chromed bores. $100 on gunbroker all day long.
I prefer #1 buck in 12ga don’t go through walls that easily
Not one affordable but the average home owner. I prefer #1 buck in 12ga don’t go through walls that easily
Not one affordable but the average home owner.
My choice for a home defense shotgun is a .410 double barrel Coach Gun. It is light… easy to handle…load/unload/reload; can be managed by anyone with a wide selection of ammo choices: 3″ 4’s…buckshot…slugs…and specialty defense loads. Easy to get on target…easy to load/shoot/reload…and hit what you’re shooting at.
BEING 80 YEARS OLD AND RAISED IN THE SWAMPS OF SOUTHEAST GEORGIA I AM VERY FAMILIAR WITH SHOTGUNS AND BUCKSHOT. I HAVE NEVER SEEN 00 BUCKSHOT WITH 8 PELLETS. ALL I EVER HAD WERE 9 PELLETS. WHY WOULD THEY DOWNSIZE THE NUMBER OF ELLETS WHEN YOU CAN USE ALL YOU CAN GET? OTHER THAN DOUBLE BARRELS I ALWAYS CHOSE A PUMP OVER SEMI AFTER A MILITARY CAREER AND RETIREMENT DUE TO RELIABLITY AND EASE OF CLEARING JAMS IN PERIODS OF ANXIETY!
KelTec KS7. I love mine. It eats full size and mini shells without issue. Small, light, maneuverable. Should be here!