Home-Defense Shotguns: Are Magazine-Feds the New Thing?

The recent introduction of magazine-fed versions of the Remington 870 and Mossberg 590 pump-action shotguns have led to immense interest in the new designs, but we have not jumped onto the mag-pump bandwagon because, in our view, these shotguns are not without some trade-offs. Some of our shooters see nothing wrong with the tubular-magazine-fed shotgun, which can be topped off on the fly by a trained shooter. Others on our team question the balance of the converted shotguns and the loss of the natural pointing characteristics of the tube-fed pumps. (We use the term “converted” as a means of describing the modifications made to existing pumpgun designs). Despite our misgivings, the magazine-fed pump-action shotguns have been at the top of our test list, so we acquired a Remington Model 870 DM and the Mossberg 590M. To make for a broader field of reference, we added two proven tube-fed pump shotguns. The Remington 870 Tactical features Magpul furniture and XS sights, and the Mossberg 590 Tactical has a heat shield and a SpeedFeed Synthetic Stock. Then, to cap it off, we added a Saiga-style JTS M12AK shotgun, a magazine-fed semi-auto. This allowed us to compare two familiar shotguns against the magazine-fed versions of the same shotguns, as well as a previously tested magazine-fed semi-auto style that ranked well. The test was very involved and very interesting.