A detachable mag fed 870 ain't shit without a chainsaw bayonet.
A detachable mag fed 870 ain't shit without a chainsaw bayonet.
Mag fed pump shotguns (I know, I just don't want to have to type out detachable box magazine every time) are super common in Canada because of a quirk of our gun laws - sort of the way we don't have "arm braces" for AR15s here. No point; there's no laws that make that useful. We do have laws that make manual action magazine-fed guns desirable for regulatory purposes.
Anyway, I'll tell you what I like about mag fed shotguns: all the same stuff I like about mag fed rifles. It does cut down on the quick handling, but you get used to it. I shoot a Valtro PM5 and it works very well.
Whether Remington can make it work I couldn't say, although I've noticed pump gun mags seem less finicky than semi-auto mags, presumably because you can apply more force, more slowly, and aren't just balancing spring rates to make it work.
I would consider one of the bird's head models as a vehicle gun because, being subject to Canadian gun laws, I have to transport guns unloaded. I guess you could side-load a standard bird's head if you kept a couple of rounds clipped to your visor or what have you, but personally as someone who side-loads infrequently, and inserts mags very frequently, I feel like my odds are better with the box mag.
I guess it's also true that even when I have sideloaded shotguns it's been full-length guns, not short-barrelled ones. I think my odds of getting my left hand in front of the muzzle are higher off a side load...this may be wrong and I have not tried it. But I would definitely have to work that reload quite a bit to feel safe, and I think I would have to stop going over the top to sideload, which maybe I should do anyway - currently I do it based on body position. If it's easier for me to get the shell in by going overtop, typically I've popped in the shell with my fingers and slid the pump ahead from above, pivoting my hand at the end of the cycle. I would never do that with a short gun, although maybe it's just a bad habit I should get rid of anyway.
Anyway I'm sure there's a substantial derp market for these but I think there's a potential application for certain jurisdictions. Some of that may overlap with derpage, of course...nobody would do it but technically you could open carry those bird's heads in Canada. I won't get into a huge thing on gun laws here but the only requirement for transporting them would be that they be unloaded.
This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff
They've even managed to make them look lame, too.
Part of me wants to like it because "quick reloads". But the rest of me thinks... no drop in rounds for a Tac load, no rack and roll for select a slug, no way to simply top off one or two at a time....
It would be re learning the shotgun almost from scratch.
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“A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.” - Shane
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
No plans to be the beta tester but I do hope it works.
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Any legal information I may post is general information, and is not legal advice. Such information may or may not apply to your specific situation. I am not your attorney unless an attorney-client relationship is separately and privately established.
The bird hunter in me wonders how a 870DM Wingmaster with the three-round magazine will swing on passing/crossing shots. Weight should be between the hands, and the DM magazine definitely does that. The same part of me figures that magazine release will snag quite often.
To be bird/duck legal, the mag would have to be a 2 round job. 2+1=3.
No arm brace? I hope for them it works. I volunteer to test fire for them. Give me three shotguns and a pallet of ammo and I’ll tell you how it goes. I wish they sold the tac14 without the mag dimples. Not a big deal but I didn’t need to waste my time on bumping them out.