I confess to being conflicted on the topic of mag-fed shotguns like this one:
As any fule kno, when it comes to MOAR FIREPOWER I am generally on the side of the angels, i.e. the MOAR, the BETTAH.
But having handled several shotguns of this type in the past, I have to say that I’m not sure they’re for me, simply because they are unbelievably cumbersome and unwieldy. Shotgun ammo is heavy, Bubba, and unless you are of the Ahnuld / Stallone type, these guns are a bitch to be around. (More so for anything on the naughty end, of course, but we can discuss that topic another time.)
My thought is that if you’re going to need ten or twelve shots of 00-Buck, that would be what we Old ‘Uns used to call a sticky situation, and I for one would rather employ an AK (or even an AR-15) which would give me all the follow-up shots I’d need, and more (20-, 30- or higher-capacity magazines, none of that 10-round stuff).
Remember, I’m not saying “Don’t get one”, but be aware that these are not movie guns to be waved around — at least, not for long.
I remember a friend once showing me his Franchi-SPAS shotgun, which could switch from pump to semi-auto by clicking a toggle and jiggling the slide: I could barely lift it, unloaded. It weighed nearly ten lbs, and the prospect of actually running around with the thing made me tired just thinking about it. (Unloaded, a decent over-and-under weighs about seven lbs, a side-by-side about six, and a Mossberg 500 about five.)
I can’t help but think that mag-fed shotguns fall into the same category: excellent concept, but unrealistic in practice. It’s like those sexy 50-round drum mags one sees for Tommy guns, AKs and so on: wonderful, until you have to work with them.