Space Marine 12GA Shotgun? - Smith and Wesson M and P 12
Updated
24 months ago
Good morning everyone, this is Travis with gun.deals and today we are looking at the Smith and Wesson M&P 12 Gauge.
Smith and Wesson is not known for their sci-fi worthy shotguns, you know, they’re known for their M&P pistol series, their M&P AR-15 rifles, and they’re fantastic revolvers.
To see something like this that looks like it belongs in starship troopers come out of Smith and Wesson, it was a bit of shock, I think, especially for shotgun nerds like me. We were fairly surprised that Smith and Wesson would take such an unconventional route.
What are you looking at here, well, clearly this is a 12 Gauge shotgun, as I said, it’s a pump action, but it’s also a bullpup, that means the action is behind the trigger, so all the heart and soul of the weapon is right here.
This weapon also has dual tubes, so if you’re looking down it, it has two magazine tubes, you can get a total capacity of 14 rounds with 2.75-inch shells. That’s a lot of lead for shotgun, that’s double the normal capacity, and at the same time it’s fairly short. Look at this thing, it’s much shorter than your normal pump action shotgun, in fact, it’s barely any longer than a Mossberg Shockwave. This thing is 27.8 inches long, a Mossberg Shockwave is a 26.3, so it’s just a little bit shorter or a little bit longer, has a stock and 14 rounds or ammo, that’s an incredible feat.
Obviously, this gun is a lot like the Kel-Tec KSG, the design, but I think it’s worth saying that KSG wasn’t the first bullpup dual tube shotgun, that came out of the NeoStead out to South Africa, it’s a similar idea, but I think, Smith and Wesson did it a fair bit better and today we’re gonna dive in why I think that.
The Smith and Wesson M&P 12 Gauge is unlike any other shotgun I’ve even handled. So, let’s just talk about the manual of arms because they’re kind of unique for this weapon.
My favorite feature is how you switch tubes, so instead of having a switch back here, it’s actually right here on the pump, it’s right there, if you can see it, so then I push, push. When you’re aiming and you run out of ammo or you need to switch tubes, it’s fairly easy to do so.
Quick, easy, simple!
As you get back here we have the pump release, which is on the trigger guard, which is ambidextrous. We have the safety, which is ambidextrous, we have the shell lotuses that you press down to help you load a shell into the magazine tubes, they’re not needed, but you can use them, and last but not least, we have the ability to expand the chamber to help clear malfunction.
Let’s kind of see how that happens. Press the button under here, you pull it outwards, now I have more room to work in case I have a malfunction in there. Let’s close that back up, fairly simple.
Loading the gun, now that would be probably the biggest challenge and one of the downsides to a bullpup is that the chamber, the magazine tubes, are back here, so you have to loaded it through here. So, it is a lot slower than a normal shotgun where I could just shove shells, you know, at the bottom of the receiver.
The real question is are you gonna need to reload. What’s the likelihood in a defensive situation that you fire 14 rounds of buckshot and you need to reload.
Now, you have to reload, the gun does come with chokes, you get I think three chokes. You also get this unique M&P grip. This allows you to change the palm swell on the back to change the size, almost like kind of like the M&P modern handguns.
I believe Smith and Wesson actually designed the first replaceable backstraps, and the new AR-15 grip, which we see on the Smith and Wesson M&P 12 follow suit.
Across the top we have a sight rail, the weapon doesn’t come with sights, which is a little disappointing, especially at this price point, I would like some point of sighting system, but you can toss the red dot on, easy enough.
This barrel shroud- looking thing, those are m-spec M-LOK slots, so you can attach lights, accessories, whatever you need right there.
The pump has this vertical grip in place by the factory. Now, this is important because you really don’t want your hand coming off the pump and in front of the barrel while you’re shooting your gun. That’s a great way to figure out what life is like with only one hand.
This is attached via M-LOK, but it’s one of the most robust and beefy attachment systems I’ve ever seen, 12 Gauge recoil isn’t gonna knock it off.
All in all it’s a unique shotgun setup, it’s something, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Sure, there is definitely comparisons to the Kel-Tec KSG, even the aforementioned NeoStead, but I think the Smith and Wesson M&P 12 is the best of the dual tube bullpups. It’s very, very easy to use ambidextrous, and I think it’s more oriented towards combat instead of just ‘look at this cool gun’.
At the range this thing is a blast to shoot because you have 14 rounds of ammo, you don’t ever really have to slow down to reload, you can just keep going and going and going, and it seems like you’re never gonna empty the gun. If you’re really used to a pump shotgun like a normal like a 590 or an 870, you almost have this muscle memory of “Wait, how many rounds have I fired?!”, and you’re gonna keep going after that, it’s pretty great. Recoil wise, like any pump shotgun, it’s fairly stiff. I do think bullpups offer more recoil than most, but it’s still not uncontrollable.
One of the main downsides is the stock and the length of pull, it’s over 14 inches, which is a bit much for a combat oriented shotgun. It really makes it tough, especially for smaller shooters to assume a good squared up stance to really deal with that recoil.
In terms of recoil, one of the things you can do and one of the things I like about this gun is this forward grip, so I use a push-pull style of recoil mitigation, so I’m pushing forward with this hand and I’m pulling back with this hand like I’m stretching the gun. This forward grip really gives you a great index point to just stretch that gun out.
We talked about how you can open the chamber so you can clear malfunctions, I’ve only ever done that for fun, I’ve never had a malfunction with this gun and that includes with 2.75-inch rounds, 3-inch rounds and even those mini shells. This thing will handle mini shells, which is pretty neat.
How many you can feat in there?
I don’t know, I only had 10 on hand and I could tell you all 10 fit in one tube.
Shotguns can be used for kind of a wide variety of tasks, you can hunt with them, you can shoot clay pigeons with them, you can defend your home with them, you do a lot of things, but I think this shotgun in particular is gonna get pigeonholed into the defensive or tactical role.
It’s just not gonna be a great gun to swing at clay pigeons or to hunt deer with, it could be used for that, I’m not saying it couldn’t, but it’s definitely purpose built for defensive use.
Let’s talk about it being a bullpup, so it offers a few challenges, which we’ve spoken about, reloading, that’s the challenge, but you have 14 rounds, so maybe that’s not an issue. If you have a malfunction, trying to clear a malfunction in a defensive situation, even with the ability to open the chamber, is still gonna be very difficult, so keep that in mind.
The bullpup platform also has plenty of strengths and it’s super short, again, it’s a little over 27 inches long, that makes this, I mean, the same size as most short barrels, actually this makes this smaller than most short barreled shotguns, but, you know, need a stamp and you don’t need to worry about only having five of four rounds, you have 14 in a bullpup platform, plus with the bullpup platform the center of balance is different so you can actually hold it up fairly easily with one hand and even aim with one hand.
When you go to fire you’re gonna need to work the action with the second hand, so you’re still gonna need two hands overall to operate this weapon.
Right now, the shotgun market has had a bit of a weird turn, there has been a big push towards bullpups, but most of those guns are coming out of Turkey and they have a hit or miss reputation, they have hit or miss quality.
I think the Smith and Wesson M&P 12 Gauge offers an American alternative, that’s a high quality, duty ready weapon. It does have a different manual of arms, if you’re used to normal shotguns this is gonna take some time to get used to, but if you’re willing to lean I think it’s a very capable platform, it’s very interesting platform.
Yes, it does have a few weaknesses, what gun doesn’t, but it’s also kind of a unique turn and I’m glad Smith and Wesson decided to do something a little bit different when they came back to shotguns. They could have just made the same standard pump action everyone in the world does, but no, they did different and they did good.
So, check out the Smith and Wesson M&P 12 Gauge and let us know what you think below, is it a shotgun for you, are you gonna stick to your 590 or your Beretta 1301. Let us know, let’s start a conversation in the comments and I’ll try to jump in there and answer any questions you might have about this beast of a gun.
Now, if you excuse me, I’m gonna go to clean that thing to fight the bugs.
