The ultimate pump shotgun

[Nightcrawler]

I was thinking. If I had a gun company, and wanted to make a great service shotgun, here'd be my specs.

-20" barrel, heatshield optional.
-Optional interchangable chokes or cylinder bore barrel.
-Full stock, folding stock, or pistol grip only (let the shooter decide what he wants).
-12 Gauge, 3.5" chamber (they did it on the Benelli Nova).
-8+1 Magazine tube capacity with 2.75" shells.
-Ghost ring sights.
-Ambidextrious safety mounted on top of the receiver (like the Mossberg 500). Could be engaged regardless of whether the hammer was back.
-Solid steel receiver like the Remington 870 or Ithaca.
-Buttery smooth rotary bolt like the Winchester 1300.
-Sling swivel studs.
-Mount for side saddle.
-Optional weapons light mount.
-Parkerized or stainless finish.

There. The design would, basically, combine what I believe to be the individual strong traits of each of the Big 3 shotguns. The Remington's steel, the Winchester's smooth action and the Mossberg's great safety.

[Dave McC]

Sounds like a fine shotgun. But....

The big reason this hasn't been done is merely economics rearing its ugly head. R&D,tooling, training the work force, etc, means this thing will be expensive as heck and trying to establish itself in a market full of 8 million 870s,unknown quantities of 1200s, 37s, and the ubiquitous Mossbergs.

And while that rotary bolt is smooth, try out the ones on the TB and Frankenstein.

[George Hill]

Couldn't you just take a Mossberg and have a gunsmith polish all the internals and smooth up the action and trigger?

[Correia]

I think Dave is right. It would be great but the pump gun market has got to be the most saturated thing in the gun market. I think that the only way you could break into it would be if you offered something truly new or innovative. (Like a bullpup BPS, :p there I go again with my pet ideas.)

I think that there is some room for growth in the semi auto HD market though. There are choices, but they are rather limited (reliability with diverse loads, durability, stiff recoil, lots of tradeoffs), and the best of those choices can get rather pricey.

The Nightcrawler Ubergun would probably be pretty slick though.

[George Hill]

bullpup BPS - stop teasing.