Top 5 Semi Auto Shotguns

welcome back everybody this is eric and chad here with iraq veteran 888 today we have another top five guns video for you and we're going to be diving into the world of semi-auto shotguns all right now we've done a previous five guns video on the top five combat shotguns we thought that we would focus strictly on semi-autos here in this particular video we love our semi-auto shotguns here on the channel and 12-gauge semi-auto shotguns offer a lot of flexibility and they can certainly be a force multiplier and you can really lay down some lead and defend yourself with a good load and a shotgun and with a little bit of proper tactics these things can really be useful for home defense and for personal protection you name it okay and the shotguns on this table represent a lot of different price points okay but they're all great quality units that i personally would trust my life to anything on this table regardless of the price but we are going to show off several different price ranges of shotguns okay um so we'll just kind of dive into it and we're not going to go in any specific order but i do feel that maybe the first shotgun we want to look at would be the mossberg 930 because it does represent um you know a very good value for the cost you know they are very reasonably priced they are um this is a shotgun that jerry mitchell uses in competition a good bit if you guys aren't familiar with jerry mitchlich you need to familiarize yourself with jerry mitchelly because he is one of the most renowned shooters in the entire world but the 930 is a semi-auto variant from mossberg very similar in style to the 590 and 500 series of pump action shotguns uh one thing to be said about the majority of the shotguns on the table they are all gas operated so they do pick up gas just ahead of the chamber area and then send that back onto some pistons that operate the action and then extract the previous spent shell and then chamber a new round to then fire sim auto does mean that the action is semi-automatic in form you do not have to pump these actions to get them to run you basically just squeeze the trigger until the magazine tube is empty or the magazine in the case of the vapor but the the gas operation of these shotguns allow a lot of accessories to be added on and not really hinder the function of the gun that's why a lot of these shotguns are set up in a more tactical format uh the 930 here has a short 18 and a half inch barrel got a little uh magpul mount with an old light warrior flashlight on the front with a little pressure pad some ghost ring sights you have a rail system up top if you want to put a red dot or something on there but just know that these shotguns are all available in more like sporting configurations as well and also longer configurations that are set up more for like three gun and competitive shooting so the 930 is really a great shotgun and uh you know they can be had for a very reasonable price okay um the 930 in this basic form this is not a jm model but jerry has this competition model that's called the 930jm and then the new 940jm has just been released and it's the newest version of his competition shotgun and uh i like the 930. i think that they're a solid performer um i will say i've talked to a few people that have used 930 over the years as well as people that have worked on the 930 over the years um i wouldn't consider them like a drop it down the mountain shotgun okay uh they they are they are rugged uh they are very very capable and uh they come in at a very very reasonable price point um but if you're looking for a shotgun that you can shoot 500 rounds through every weekend and do that for two years straight without even having to think about replacing a part or something breaking on it it may not be that particular shotgun that you're looking for okay um but this is a great shotgun for somebody that wants an entry-level auto loader and when i say entry level there are cheaper semato shotguns than the 930 but this is really one of the ones that i would can i would trust my life to this gun yeah there's a lot of imports that are under around the 400 price point maybe 500 price point but they're very questionable in their construction and material choices and such uh parts breaking quite often uh some of the imports are just not very good i mean the the moss work here is an all-american made product that's right but import is not necessarily a bad thing i mean we have several shotguns on this table that are imports okay uh what we primarily mean in that statement i guess i'm sure i can speak for chad is when we mean like some of the some of the lower price like kind of economy imports and autos those are ones you might want to vet a little bit better i would take them and really shoot them a lot and make sure they're going to work okay but the 930 is certainly one you can trust um let's move down the line a little bit the vepr 12. okay now i have to admit all right i recently got turned on to the vepr i've known about the vepr 12s for quite a while and i've just kind of never got around to buying one and recently i picked one up through big daddy unlimited um they had them in stock i went on there and snatched one up and uh and i always wanted the model that had the uh the folding stock mechanism uh this one's still pretty new so it's a little bit stiff but man these are just fantastic shotguns man they've got a chrome line gas block and they are gas operated with a long piston so a long stroke gas piston operation just like a standard ak would really use it is an ak based system they use their proprietary you know basic mag well so the mags don't rock into the gun they literally just drop in and snap into place so it is a magazine fed shotgun as opposed to a tubular magazine fed shotgun that stays fixed to the shotgun most shotguns have a fixed magazine tube which means you have to load loose ammo into the gun this you can have pre-loaded magazines ranging from a five round box eight round box 10 round box 12 round box and you can get up to 30 round drums for this gun so they are certainly capable okay and uh and man they're just a blast to shoot they're so much fun to shoot they are and uh the other thing too i mean just when you compare them to something like a saga 12 which um you know eric's had a few sega 12s over the years and such but they require a lot of work to get them to run really really reliably the vepr was running right out of the box i mean the thing just really did not skip a beat ran with the drums i mean ran with everything we could stick through it uh they're just a wonderful option uh for an okay based semi-auto shotgun they are i mean and that's the thing you know i've known about them for a long long time so i had a little bit of a mental mental uh fluster there yeah on on that uh stock mechanism on the outside to fold it you have to reach and grab this little lever so you need to sit and watch tiger king one night and just start working that stock you know you know i mean but when you go to close a stock you have to you have to grab this little lever and push it over to get it to unlock so it does lock shut but you know i've known about the vector a little bit um for quite a while and uh and i've always just sort of been like oh i'll get one whenever and then i recently got one and they really are fantastic shotguns i like the sega 12. right now in terms of an ak-based semi-auto shotgun the vepr is king 110 this shotgun is king of the kalishnikov shotguns 100 well let's go with a belgian import all right so this is a fn slp which means self loading police and um this particular model is the tactical model uh which means it has the pistol grip stock uh as well as the factory rail system so you get a three pieces of picatinny rail all through and throughout on the magazine tube um i've just got one of the i believe that's a olight warrior that is on this uh particular gun as well in one of their mounts and i've just got it set up for push button but it's a very bright light i like to have a weapons light on my shotguns and we have this one outfitted with an m60 sling uh you know nice padded sling this is a relatively stout shotgun too but these things run like the dickens and the uh the action is pretty similar to the newer like winchester xs sx3s the more sporting shotguns it just has kind of a delayed system with gas operation but these shotguns have been around for a long long time and they have a very well respected track record uh i mean it's really hard to beat a good quality semi-auto shotgun but really for home defense i mean these things are just killer the only detriment to some of the semi-autos that we have on the table is they are a little bit sensitive on lighter loads so most of the semi-auto shotguns that you're going to encounter they do require like some heavier loads save for one that's on the table we'll talk about a little while but these are meant more for running like high brass birdshot high brass buckshot you know like combat loads out of these things but yeah and if you are going to run bird loads out of a lot of these guns you probably want to stick with a good high brass bird load uh you can certainly get into like i mean i like the number eight high brass bird loads um the ones that we have had a lot of luck with over the years are the remingtons that come in the uh the silver and green box and they have windshields the green shells well the sts is run good but so do the uh the black shells with the high brass on them it's like a high steel uh base on them and you know you get a heavy number eight like a one in uh one and one quarter ounce or one and three eighths ounce bird load these things will run it like the dickens and and also carries some pretty good energy even with bird shot and uh and that's great if you're a three gun competitor i know a lot of three gun guys will usually use a little bit heavier load so they can punch out there a little bit more range and bust those clays when they're out competing and especially when you combine that with a 24 inch barrel or even a 26 inch barrel some competitors use a really long shotguns you get great velocity you get a good tight tight spread and you can really reach out with a good choke and bust those clays at longer ranges and some of those three gun courses are set up to challenge the limitations of what certain shotguns can do and you've got to have that shotgun that's set up to bust a clay at 30 yards or 40 yards or whatever distance they might try to screw with you you do for sure speaking of competitions brings us to our next shotgun which is the remington versamax so the versamax is an american-made clone if you will of a benelli m4 which we'll get to in just a moment but this particular burst max is set up more like a sporting competition type setup you've got a longer barrel you've got a vent rib with just a single fiber optic side up top you've got a nordic extension on the front for a little bit extended capacity very nicely radius shield port and radius lifter so you're not pinching your fingers when you're doing the speed reloads this is also a gas piston operated gun it picks up gas right ahead of the forcing cone and the from what i understand the burst maxes will run a wide variety of shells much like the benelli wheel but like i said this one's set up more for competition use it does have some plugs in the receiver up top you could put a rail system on top if you'd like to standard push button safety just like pretty much anything else we've got a pistol grip stock kind of a tactical setup here from mesa tactical but overall a wonderful gun and these come in at a lower price point than the benelli m4 which it is patterned after they do and uh what i will add to the versamax um the versamax is certainly remington's highest quality autoloader and uh i gave this particular gun to john uh he's one of the guys that works with us and i wanted him to have like an awesome semi-auto shotgun so i hooked him up on the versamax and he loves this gun and i do too and uh you know this is uh obviously mesa tactical stock and all um the thing about the remington is i would say the price point on these starting out is very very similar to the slp so if you're shopping for an slp um don't overlook the versamax but i would say apples to apples i mean if you're wanting a home defense shotgun either one is pretty hard to beat now obviously this has a 24 inch fit rib barrel so it's a little bit longer to get around in tight quarters the mesa stock does help with the length of pull keeping a little bit shorter but it is a rather long gun if it's a defensive unit you probably want to try to stick with an 18 inch barrel if you can help it just to keep it a little more compact to be able to move around in your bodement a little easier but the versamax is certainly an outstanding shotgun and um nordic components makes a ton of different extensions that you can get for all of the shotguns on this table um you can you can make a joker gun out of this thing on the giants i mean you've seen some of the competitors that have the long magazines that stick way out in front of the muzzle and that's normal nobody has time to reload yeah that's right but uh the versamax is an outstanding shotgun and definitely one of remington's best all right here's your baby okay all right okay so this is a law enforcement benelli m4 and this is certainly kind of near the top of the heap for some auto shotgun um you know there are a lot of semato shotguns out there but fewer have not only sort of just the cool appeal but also just the vicious functionality of the m4 the benelli m4 will eat anything you can put in it that says 12 on it including even some really light loads that would never run any other shotgun um it is an outlier for benelli's lineup because the m4 is gas operated it sort of is i mean it uses what's called the argo gas system so like many of the guns on the table it does pick up gas just ahead of the forcing cone where those pressures are really high because shot shells are inherently low pressure rounds so that gas has to be picked up really close to the chamber and in doing that you not only get the high pressure needed to cycle the action but you also get the cleanest gas too you know right when the propellant is getting burned up but the thing with the gas operated shotguns and this is one of the um requirements for the benelli because this is the marine shotgun i believe they call it the m1014 if i'm not mistaken um but 12 14. 10 14 or 12 14. we'll put a lower third we'll see who's right one of us is right i can't remember but maybe we're both wrong but you notice that this stock collapses nice and compact and that's what they're wearing body armor um the argo gas system will operate with a lot of things hanging off of the firearm like if you were to put lights lasers um infrared devices whatever the case might be you don't hinder the operation of the shotgun like you would on some of the previous inertia driven shotguns the benelli inertia system just operates on the recoil impulse so it takes the pressure from the shell trying to escape the chamber to function the shotgun okay but the more stuff you hang on that shotgun the less reliable the system is and the more powerful loads you have to run to keep that thing running properly and up up to snuff um but the m4 is probably the epitome of you know combat style semi-auto shotguns i mean it has pretty much all the bells and whistles i mean and just a wonderful wonderful gun with a long proven track record oh yeah and uh yeah i mean the marines use so it's got to be good they are certainly proven okay and uh the m4 does represent a considerable cost is not a cheap gun um they they do represent an investment yeah but they are very very high quality units and as chas said very proven service record i mean if the marines can stuff crowns down the barrel and they still work i mean i'm pretty sure that they're going to work for you okay i mean they may even have like crown colored uh shotgun shells you know i don't know but maybe they'll try to eat the shotgun shells i don't know maybe they have to make them look like something they wouldn't want to eat i i don't know but they work for the marines and if you know anything about the marine corps and their their guns you know that they keep things in their inventory until they are required to be held together with duct tape and bubble gum and hopes and dreams they keep their equipment until it is falling apart and is in danger of killing the operator okay the marine corps uses things to the ex the furthest extent of their life that they possibly can and that's just one thing the marine corps is known for is having guns that are on their way out so when i was in iraq and o5 i passed by a marine he had an fn produced m16 that was probably made around 1971 or two still in use there it was so is it it was all rattly upper upper and lowers all rattling all right so i never served but is it the navy or the air force that requires all the new fancy stuff where is it the army i don't know well i'm gonna tell you like this the marines will the marines will use it until it's in danger of hurting the operator but but if that tells you anything about the longevity of the m4 if it serves the marines you know it's good and that's one thing i can say about the marines is that they they use their stuff all right so if the marines use it you know it's good yep all right so every five guns video always has a wild card so every five guns video technically is a six guns video but we don't tell anybody but we don't tell anybody that all right so we were thinking about a wild card for for this video and you know i'm a huge benelli fan and like benellis and beretta's are some of my most favorite semi-auto shotguns and really just my favorite shotguns in general oh man a good wild card for this video would be something that kind of does both semi-auto and pump action so the benelli m3 now this is the only shotgun on the table that is not gas operated this is an inertia driven shotgun like i explained a moment ago it just uses the recoil action to cycle okay it doesn't have any sort of assistance from the gas that's coming through the barrel or anything like that but the m3 is unique in that you can flip a little lever up front and then you can put the firearm into a pump action mode okay so this is kind of the ultimate in combat or duty use shotguns because you can really run any shotgun shell that says 12 on it with utmost reliability and not have to worry about a really really low power ammo cycling a semi-auto platform but we thought it'd be a kind of a cool you know entrance to the lineup here just because it is an interesting shotgun this is actually an early hk marked m3 so this is kind of one of the more highly collectible models this one does have some ghost ring sights and one of my favorite movies of all time this is one of the premier firearms in that movie you know in heat you guys are familiar with that but just overall just a really really cool shotgun and they don't quite run as fast as some of the other offerings on the table especially like the m4 but they are a very reliable and proven shotgun as well and these are actually still made today the benelli m2s the m3s the m4s they're still produced in a bunch of different varieties as far as competition use goes you really don't see people using m4s too much in competition but the versamax's the benelli m2s the 930s probably not the slps not as much i will say that the m2 is one of the mainstays and three gun competition the m2 is stone cold reliable they are wonderful wonderful shotguns i don't own them too but i've shot a lot of m2s and my friend barry that owns crazy quail has two m2s that are set up with those x-rail drums and they hold like 35 shots or some crazy amount of ammo it's like a revolving cylinder and when he runs his crazy quails he has the m2s on the line and he's out there running them and man i was always just so blown away at how reliable those m2s were and i always expected i'm thinking all right this gadget i'm like i'm watching just waiting for it to stop working you know because that's just me i'm i'm a pessimist thin clear plastic too pessimistic you know i'm like all right when's this thing going to choke and it's like it made it through the whole thing and then it kept loading and kept shooting i was so impressed the m2 kept running he can fit a box of shells in one of those things can i know and that's the thing i will mention something else about the m3 as well that i believe is is sort of an important distinction too uh a lot of people have asked us to do a video uh on the uh frosty sponsors the franchise 12. i'm sorry i've got my mind's gone it's been all right it's been a long day uh the spas 15 is also a really cool gun maybe if we can get our chance uh to to do a video on one of those we will but a lot of folks ask us about the frenchies past 12. well spas 12 has almost an iconic history to it and is a very very iconic and pop culture infused gun a lot of people associate it with jurassic park and other films and yeah yeah so anyway you notice there's a scene in jurassic park where um you know dr grant throws down the shotgun and it appears that the shotgun has failed okay and that there's a round sticking out and the gun jammed on that's because he didn't deploy the stock and allow that full recoil impulse to have a solid backing but however the word on the street okay and i've backed this up by talking a lot of people that have owned spice 12s over the years is if you want a convertible shotgun that can go from pump to semi the m3 is kind of known as like the spash 12 that actually works the splash 12 is a convertible shotgun that can go from semi to pump uh and it is a kind of an odd mechanism you have to flip a lever and then hold your mouth and jump up on one foot and then hold that is that in the instructions yeah and then hope that a part doesn't break while you're doing it and they are prone to breakage they are a wonderful shotgun that is certainly a really cool collectible but if you want a convertible shotgun to actually shoot and enjoy the m3 is pretty much your pony well you got to make sure too that the box of 12 gauges you're running has a bear on it you know and it's high brass because otherwise it's not going to run that shotgun yeah i mean i mean at this point the spas 12s are really more of a collectible i don't know if i would go buying as fast 12 to go to war with or anything but uh they are cool guns they deserve a mention and that's why i think the m3 is such an important link to this video to some of the other shotguns that we're going to look at in future videos because everyone associates with spaz 12 as being such a cool gun but the m3 is the one that really takes the cake because it's just so functional it works okay it is and just the the old m3s i mean they really really are sort of king of the hill when it comes to the convertibles i mean they do the best of both worlds quite well i mean you think of you think of things that combine multiple functions and they don't quite do those functions 100 but this shotgun i would say probably does the m3 is a formula that works and the m4 is hard to not like the m4 all these shotguns offer a little bit of something we thank all of you for watching today's video we hope you enjoyed it five guns are always fun we have many many more videos on the way we hope that you'll tune in and enjoy and thank you so much to all of the folks that support our channel directly whether it's purchasing man cans t-shirts over on the website or supporting us over on patreon if you see value in what we do and you love what we do and you wish to support us those are the most direct ways you can do so thank you for being a part of what we do and enjoying the content uh thank you for watching many more videos on the way we hope you'll tune in we'll see you next time see you guys [Music] you

Channel: Iraqveteran8888

Views: 419,336

Rating: 4.9307194 out of 5

Keywords: iraqveteran8888, iv8888, ar15, ar, ar-15, ar 15, 2a, freedom, liberty, gun rights, gun control, top 5 guns, top 5, meltdown, guns, gunsmithing, gun gripes, life liberty and the pursuit, five guns, top 5 semi auto ahotguns, semi auto shotguns brands, semi auto shotguns 2020, best semi auto shotguns, benelli m4, fn slp, mossberg 930, olight, benelli m3, remington versmax, vepr 12, 12 gauge, buckshot, slugs

Id: cG3OOTWc_sk

Length: 24min 56sec (1496 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020