The S&W M&P 12 – A Sci-Fi Worthy Shotgun

Smith and Wesson have been out of the shotgun game for quite some time. Their repeating pump-action shotguns were never the star of the show, and their imported Howa guns weren’t quite the top seller. S&W clung to revolvers but embraced automatics and later the AR design. 2021 is the year in which they came back home to the shotgun market. The 12 gauge, pump-action, S&W M&P 12 was quite the shocker, especially to shotgun nerds like myself.

I eagerly contacted Smith and Wesson, and they happily sent me a loaner to test and review. After patiently waiting, I happily scooped up the M&P 12 at my local FFL along with a healthy dose of buckshot to give it a run for its money.

First Impressions of The M&P 12

Color me impressed by the awesome hard-cased box S&W sent the M&P 12 in. It’s much better than the cardboard box guns often come in. Inside the box is a healthy layer of foam, and of course, your M&P 12. Also inside the box is the normal paperwork, as well as three backstraps that attach to the new M&P grip, as well as a choke wrench and extra choke.

The chokes are a modified and cylinder bore option. The backstraps are a nice touch, but if you hate it, you can swap whatever AR grip you want on it instead. It’s an optics-ready gun, but you have to add your own. I added a Holsoun 510C. What makes this gun such a surprise?

Well, it’s a bullpup. Not only that, but it contains two magazine tubes to total the capacity to 14 2.75 inch rounds, 12 3-inch rounds, or 20 mini shells. This isn’t the first gun to do this. The KelTec KSG did it years ago. What’s a surprise is that S&W makes traditional guns, and this is far from traditional. It’s not just a simple clone of the KSG either.

What’s the point of a bullpup shotgun in a world where guns like the 590, 870, and even 1301 exist?

Bullpup Benefits

Let’s walk through this together. Shotguns are close-range guns that excel in CQB. In CQB, the shorter a gun is, the better. It makes it easier to handle, easier to retain, and easier to maneuver with. That makes them well suited for use inside homes and buildings.

Bullpup guns, in general, are harder to reload than standard configuration firearms. To help you prevent the need to reload, S&W added a second tube to double your capacity. The M&P 12 offers you twice the capacity of a Benelli M4. 14 rounds of buckshot is hard to argue with.

Saving size without getting into NFA territory is the biggest benefit to a bullpup shotgun. Well, that and ammo capacity. My 14 inch barreled Remington 870 can only hold five rounds at max and is still longer than the M&P 12.

M&P 12 Specifications

Just how short is the gun? Well, it’s 27.8 inches overall, and that’s only a few inches longer than it’s legally required to be. A 19-inch barrel keeps things legal and NFA-free. At the same time, the gun is chunky. It does weigh a little more than eight pounds unloaded.

The MSRP is $1,165.00, so don’t plan for it to be a budget-oriented shotgun.

Ergonomics In Action

What’s quite noticeable is that massive foregrip. It’s a smart option for a pump-action bullpup. The last thing you want to happen is for your hand to slip off the pump and in front of the barrel. It might result in the conspicuous loss of a hand. You can remove it if you so choose. Although, the grip is extremely well attached. It’s not just popped onto a Picatinny rail. S&W did a great job at ensuring the grip won’t break under the pressure of a pump-action and recoil.

The controls are mirrored and completely ambidextrous. We get an AR-style safety that works extremely well and has a short throw. The downside of the M&P 12’s safety is that it digs into your firing finger with every shot. To unlock the pump, you press down on a pump release just forward of the trigger that’s ambidextrous.

On the pump, we have a button that allows you to swap tubes instantly. There is a shell load assist button on each side of the gun that allows you to rapidly do an admin unload of the gun. These buttons also make the gun easier to load but are not necessary to load the gun.

Range Time With the M&P 12

I hit the range with so much excitement. I love shotguns, and I love weird guns, and this combines both of those. If you think the M&P 12 is heavy, wait until it’s loaded with 14 rounds of buckshot. With just birdshot, the gun weighs over ten pounds when fully loaded. Make that buck or slugs, and it easily goes up to 11.

One thing I wasn’t pumped for was the length of pull. It’s fairly long, and long LOPs kind of suck. At 14.25 inches, it’s longer than I’d prefer. Shotguns like the SRM 1216 and KelTec KS7 have 13-inch LOPS, and they are a fair bit more comfortable. For gorillas like me, the longer LOP isn’t so bad, but for smaller shooters, it’s going to be uncomfortable and make managing recoil tough.

Speaking of recoil, that 8 pounds of gun does a good job of absorbing recoil and making the weapon controllable. That forward grip also makes it easy to utilize a push-pull recoil mitigation technique. I could shove this thing into my shoulder and push on that forward grip with ease.

The pump action is super smooth, and the rounds eject out of the bottom of the gun. The M&P 12 provides a comfortable experience for both lefties and righties.

The Reloads

That bottom ejection port doubles as your loading point, and it makes reloading quite slow. Like painfully slow. Doing a tactical reload with the weapon shouldered isn’t happening. In fact, any kind of tactical reload isn’t really possible. The fastest way is to flip it upside down, and brace the gun against your body and then fill the tubes with shotshells.

Let’s be fair, though. The M&P 12 holds 14 rounds of buckshot. My Benelli M4 holds seven with six on the side saddle. Sure, I can reload it on the fly, but the M&P 12 holds more rounds than both the magazine tube and the side saddle.

The M&P 12 Reliability Factor

I fired a little over 200 rounds on day one with the M&P 12 and have continually put more and more shotshells through the gun. I’ve yet to have an issue. Even the cheapest Rio buckshot doesn’t cause issues. Those adorable little mini shells also work without a problem.

With a bullpup shotgun, the action is to the rear, so clearing malfunctions can be a huge hassle. S&W wisely predicted this potential problem and added the ability to open the action at the rear. Press a button, and you can then pull the stock away from the gun and open up the loading port wide enough to free any shells hung up in the loading port. I manufactured an issue with some dummy rounds, and opening up the action freed them with ease.

Mastering Control

For a little fun, I took the S&W M&P 12 and the Mossberg 590 with some clay pigeons. I dropped five on the berm and ran a little time trial between the two pump actions. I used a timer to see if one shotgun was faster than the other. I ran the drill three times and averaged the times between the two guns.

With the M&P 12, I was slightly faster. I averaged out to 3.20 seconds. With the Mossberg 590, I scored a time of 3.39 seconds. It’s a slight but noticeable difference. The M&P 12’s shorter design makes it easy to steer between targets. There is less swing to the whole thing, and all you have to do is do a slight body shift.

Shuck and Bang

The Smith and Wesson M&P 12 was a surprise but a welcome one. This bullpup blaster isn’t perfect, but it’s extremely high quality. Smith and Wesson certainly produced an extremely well-made shotgun that defies normal. Bullpup shotguns aren’t for everybody, so let me know what you think about bullpup shotguns and the S&W M&P 12.

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