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Shotguns

Taurus ST12 Shotgun

Taurus ST12 shotgun

The Taurus ST12 shotgun is a pump action, 12 gauge scattergun being made in Brazil.  The Taurus shotgun falls into the tactical arena, not in the sporting category, and is marketed as such.  The shotgun is not currently imported into the United States for civilian sales, but it is exported from Brazil for government purchasers.

Taurus ST-12 shotgun

The ST12 was first shown at the 2011 LAAD (a military arms expo that held in Brazil every two years,) but has yet to be shown by Taurus at the US-based SHOT Show.  In its stock configuration, the shotgun is obviously designed to appeal to the military and law enforcement markets.

The Taurus ST12 has a chamber that will take 2 3/4″ and 3″ shells.  The full-length tube magazine will take seven shells.  Barrel lengths of 18″ and 20″ are available.  The barrel has a stand off attachment for breaching duties.

ST12 muzzle device

The gun uses a fore-end with a Picatinny rail on the bottom.  Presumably, one could attach a vertical grip or another device here.  There is a short tri-rail attached to the extended magazine tube that would allow a shooter to attach a white light or another device.  The front sight is a red fiber optic.  While I would prefer ghost ring-style sights, the fiber optic is still an improvement over a brass bead.

The Taurus shotgun’s buttstock uses a M4-style six-position stock with a rubber recoil-reducing pad.  The stock can also fold to the left of the gun, which allows a significant reduction in overall length.  In some photos, the stock appears to be the ATI tactical shotgun stock they make for the Remington 870.  In other photos, the stock is shown from the right side of the gun, concealing the folding point.  On those, the pistol grip now has more of a M4 look and the Taurus logo.

Taurus ST12 features
Click this photo to see a larger image of the various shotgun features.

A heat shield covers the barrel.  The receiver is made of aluminum.  The ST12 uses a cross-bolt safety like the one used on the Remington 870 line of shotguns.

It is unknown if Taurus has any plans to import the ST12 into the US.  If they do, the price will certainly be a critical factor for the success of this shotgun.  Remington and Mossberg have a pretty tight grip on the tactical pump gun market, and those companies already have reasonably priced offerings.

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Shotguns

New Saiga-12 Shotgun

Saiga-12
The all-new Saiga-12 shotgun. Note all of the changes from the original guns.

Izhmash announced the development of a new Saiga-12 shotgun variant for practical shooting competition.  Saiga-12 fans will likely notice a few differences just from the photo:

Saiga-12

My Russian is not very good, but from what I was able to determine, the new Saiga-12 sports several new features, including:

  • long Picatinny rail on top of the receiver for optics
  • a new muzzle brake
  • compatibility with AR-style buttstocks
  • a new “push button” type magazine release
  • a flared magazine well
  • some type of integral hook on the magazines for carrying on the belt in competitions
  • reworked gas system
  • longer forearm
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Shotguns

Diamondback RTS Shotgun

Diamondback Shotgun

We found the Diamondback RTS shotgun at the 2012 SHOT Show. It is a working prototype right now, but Diamondback hopes to have them shipping sooner rather than later. We’ll keep you updated. (Update: The latest on the production of the Diamondback shotgun is at the bottom of the article.)

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Shotguns

SRM Arms Model 1216 Shotgun

I was able to handle the SRM Arms semi-automatic Model 1216 shotgun at 2012 SHOT Show. (Please note that you can click here for the latest news from the SHOT Show.) One of the interesting features of this particular scattergun is the revolving high capacity magazine. Instead of a single magazine tube, the SRM 1216 has four tubes that quadruple the amount ammunition loaded.

Changing magazine tubes is accomplished by flipping a simple thumb lever located on each side of the front of the magazine. This releases the action and the entire tube assembly is rotated by the operator.

I tried rotating the magazine tubes and found it to be very intuitive. It is obviously much faster than stoking a regular tube full of loose shotgun shells to up your ammo.

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Shotguns

Safety Harbor Firearms: New Shotguns!

Safety Harbor Firearms

Safety Harbor Firearms

Safety Harbor Firearms is rolling out several new shotguns ahead of the 2012 SHOT Show.  All three are short-barreled shotgunsfrom the company’s KEG line.

Two new models of KEG 12 (Kompact Entry Gun) shotguns seem to live up to the line’s name as they are outfitted with breacher-style muzzle brakes.  Watching the video (below), it would appear the brakes do a respectable job of limiting recoil.

One of the new KEG12’s has a 7 1/4″ barrel, while the second uses a 10″ barrel.  Both have a one-shell extension on the magazine tube, taking capacity up to four 2 3/4″ shells (3+1) for the shorter KEG12, and five shells (4+1) for the longer gun.

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