S&W Shotties

[JaxNovice]

Can someone give me the high level overview of the S&W 1000 Series shotgun line? Who makes them, quality etc..

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

[rcmodel]

Mossberg made the old discontinued 1000.
The new one they just announced last year is made in Turkey.
I couldn't spell it if I knew the name of the company.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j219/rcmodel/KTOG/1224.gif
rcmodel

[JaxNovice]

Anyone know if they are worth buying?

[dfariswheel]

The S&W 1000 was made in Japan by Howa FOR S&W.

The story starts with the S&W Model 916 pump shotgun.
It was an absolute disaster for S&W. Quality was so bad, S&W actually discussed recalling them all, just to protect their reputation.

Determined to do better next time, S&W contracted with Howa of Japan to make two shotguns for them.
The S&W Model 3000 was a pump gun that was a close, but not exact copy of the Remington 870.
The Model 1000 was a semi-auto that was "similar" to the Remington 1100.

At the time S&W was making a move on trying to capture the police market and they had lines of leather goods, ammunition and of course their pistols, and they wanted to use the Howa produced shotguns to try for the police shotgun market.

To make a long story short, Remington cleaned their clock for them with the great Remington 870, and S&W soon began dropping the ammo, holsters, and shotguns, to "Get back to our core market of pistols".

After S&W dropped the gun, Mossberg picked them up and sold them for about one year as the Mossberg 1000 and 3000.
After Mossberg dropped them, Howa imported them for a very brief time then stopped production.

Both guns were good quality shotguns, but simply didn't have anything extra to offer over the Remington guns, and the guns just didn't sell well enough to stay in production.
Owners of the Howa guns are usually well pleased with them, but do report the "O" ring problems as causing trouble.

The 1000 auto is prone to disintegrating rubber "O" rings in the gas system, and these need to be replaced from time to time.
Gun Parts Corporation bought all of S&W and Mossberg's parts and sell the parts under BOTH brand names.

[bannockburn]

JaxNovice

S&W did offer an interesting variant to the 1000 line; the Model 1000S Super Skeet Shotgun. This was a shotgun designed around the 1000 action specifically for skeet. It had a recessed 25" barrel which incorporated a unique ported compensator to soften recoil and minimize muzzle jump. The stock had a right hand side palm swell, as well as a specially contoured trigger. Barrel weights, in the form of different weight end caps, were included to change the point of balance. You could also get an extra 28" field barrel if you wanted to use it for hunting. Retail price back in 1982 was a little under $900 for the complete 2 barrel set. The only reason I mention all this is that earlier this year I found one, LNIB with the extra matching field barrel, at a gun show. At the time, I wasn't sure what it was; I wanted to do some research on it before I bought it. Well, it was gone by the next gun show and I missed out on a really nice shotgun. The asking price, by the way, was $400.

[rbernie]

The Model 1000 was a semi-auto that was "similar" to the Remington 1100.
I have both, and the 1000 is actually not very similar to the 1100 in so many ways that I have difficulty seeing it as a overarching design inspiration for the Howa. I think that the Howa/S&W 1000 was a unique design that attempted to meld a number of design elements. Notable in their difference is the receiver (alloy instead of steel), the BHO (receiver mounted button vs. load gate latch), and the gas system. Maybe the trigger group is similar - I've never really had either's FCG apart too much to see how they work. Certainly, the profile of the receiver is similar but that's true of many other disimilar shotguns.

The biggest complaint with the S&W 1000 is that the mag capacity cannot be extended past four 2 3/4" shells due to the use of a gas piston at the end of the mag tube. For field use, that's not an issue - but it sure did put the kabosh on any utility in the tactical arena. In this regard, the 1100 (and 11/87) have a clear advantage.

The 1000 auto is prone to disintegrating rubber "O" rings in the gas system, and these need to be replaced from time to time.The o-ring (actually, a square faced seal) is pretty durable by itself. The issue comes in when some industrious and well-meaning but misguided soul sprays solvent down the mag tube to clean it. That usually winds up melting the seal pretty well, and the resulting goo can be a mess to clean up.

We use a 4mm-5mm section of heater hose as a replacement - it works quite well and is actually more durable than the original. :)

I like the S&W for being a bit handier than a 1100 (due to the alloy receiver) and fairly priced for a working shotgun. Chokes are integral to the barrel in most cases - finding a barrel threaded for removable chokes is fairly rare (since they made so few). When you do find one, keep it. They use WinChokes, by the way....

[The Deer Hunter]

S&W makes good pistols. Don't know about the M&Ps but the shotguns and bolt action rifles are made under contract for cheap and then S&W engraves their name on them and ups the price.

Well they advertise the barrels as being made by T/C but I think both T/C and S&W are owned by the same master company so thats cool. But its not like the mind child of S&W. I just see it as a way to inflate profit.