Why not magazines?

A few magazine shotguns have been made for the civilian market. To my knowledge they were all bolt action, except for a self-dense semi-auto called a "street sweeper" which used a drum and was heavy as a boat anchor. They were very slow and awkward to use.
Mossberg started with a bolt action in 1933 and Savage has one now made for deer and turkey hunting(2 plus one in the chamber). Another problem on the Mossberg was feeding from the magazine. They soon went to a pump/tube design which was cheaper to make and more efficient. Also if the shotshell didn't rise up just right, it would jam. (I had one for one season) Think about that in rain and snow on the shells and you are loading with a friction type magazine. Now, we have 2.5, 2.75, 3.0, and 3.5 shotshells. How are we going to accommodate all those in one magazine.

Thomasss said:

A few magazine shotguns have been made for the civilian market. To my knowledge they were all bolt action, except for a self-dense semi-auto called a "street sweeper" which used a drum and was heavy as a boat anchor. They were very slow and awkward to use.
Mossberg started with a bolt action in 1933 and Savage has one now made for deer and turkey hunting(2 plus one in the chamber). Another problem on the Mossberg was feeding from the magazine. They soon went to a pump/tube design which was cheaper to make and more efficient. Also if the shotshell didn't rise up just right, it would jam. (I had one for one season) Think about that in rain and snow on the shells and you are loading with a friction type magazine. Now, we have 2.5, 2.75, 3.0, and 3.5 shotshells. How are we going to accommodate all those in one magazine.

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Google Saiga shotgun.

And one issue not mentioned yet is the fact that leaving shells loaded in a magazine for a period of time can cause the shells to flatten and deform. I have seen it happen with shotgun magazines left loaded over a period of time.

12Bravo20 said:

Some of us have actually used shotguns in combat. They do come in handy at times. With that being said. I don't want a box magazine sticking out of my shotgun when I have it strapped on me while using my primary weapon.

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Exactly. Shotguns are not the primary weapon for police (pistol) or soldiers (rifles/machineguns). If there was a huge demand from law enforcement or the military, we would see magazine fed Saigas or something similar all over the the place. Shotguns are powerful weapons, but they are typically not the preferred weapon or even the preferred long arm for the military and police.

Those forces like more precision and range, less recoil, more capacity and less weight. That combo doesn't play to the shotgun's strengths, so there's not much demand to shoe-horn magazines or other innovation into shotgun designs. The tube mag stays out of the way when you are using your primary but still holds enough to get the job done. Remember those underslung cut-down shotties attached to M4s or M14s? How many shells did they hold?

Victor252 said:

Exactly. Shotguns are not the primary weapon for police (pistol) or soldiers (rifles/machineguns). If there was a huge demand from law enforcement or the military, we would see magazine fed Saigas or something similar all over the the place. Shotguns are powerful weapons, but they are typically not the preferred weapon or even the preferred long arm for the military and police.

Those forces like more precision and range, less recoil, more capacity and less weight. That combo doesn't play to the shotgun's strengths, so there's not much demand to shoe-horn magazines or other innovation into shotgun designs. The tube mag stays out of the way when you are using your primary but still holds enough to get the job done. Remember those underslung cut-down shotties attached to M4s or M14s? How many shells did they hold?

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We just used standard 870's, 590's for the most part when I was in the Army. It's hard to beat the reliability of a tube fed pump action.

There are magazine fed shotguns from just about every manufacturer. It was a big new thing in the last 5 years..590M Mossberg. 870 DM Remington, Kalashnikov, Rock Island, Panzer, Tavor, etc....

I have a Dickinson XXPA AR12GA, that is a pump/semiauto, that has never failed to feed anything I have put in the mags. It was alittle different getting use to the 5 round mags, and they have a holder in front of the handguard, to hold a second mag at ready. It is like any new gun and takes some getting use to by practicing, but I would never complain having it in my hands, for self defense, if I needed it. If I don't get the job done shooting 10 12 gauge shells loaded with personal defense slug with 3 00buckshot around it, I should have been running away from that threat, but that's just me saying.

Rubone said:

There are magazine fed shotguns from just about every manufacturer. It was a big new thing in the last 5 years..590M Mossberg. 870 DM Remington, Kalashnikov, Rock Island, Panzer, Tavor, etc....

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While box magazine fed shotguns are the new craze, the problem still exists with leaving those box magazines loaded all of the time. The plastic shells will flatten/deform when left loaded in a magazine. And about the only solution for this is to use brass hulls.

I couldn't imagine carrying a 10 round shotgun mag or several as part of a daily loadout.

The Stevens Model 58 has been around for decades.

The old bolt action shotgun magazines only hold 2 shells so less chance of them deforming versus the bigger magazines.

The Happy Kaboomer said:

clip/magazine fed shotgun......UGLY-Unweildy-a gimmick.

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I for one happen to have a Great Admiration for my Double Nickel...

A magazine full of shotshells is pretty dern heavy. I would not want to hump many of them. A tubular magazine fed shotgun is pretty handy just as it is.

Master Blaster said:

Shotguns are for tracking moving
targets

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@Master Blaster is right.
In addition, I would add that magazines, rails, pistol grips and all the other nonsense are futile attempts to make a shotgun something it just isn’t.

I run an Armscor VR80. It comes with two 5 rd magazines, which make the overall profile of the gun slightly less bulky than an M-4. Good, but why not have more? So they make a 19 rd magazine, which is nearly a complete semi-circle, which to me just seems silly. So I got a 20 rd drum, which is more compact, but very heavy. Then I found two 10-rd magazines. Linger than a NATO 30? Yes. Still fully managable? Also yes. I think this is the best compromise to keep the ergonomics of the gun but still give a capacity advantage. Now I need for someone to make a magazine coupler, so I can run two of them side-by-side. And hopefully, Magpul will develop mags for this style of shotgun, since there is a growing number of guns that use them.

The only legitimate concern I have heard about this setup is that if you leave shotshells in a magazine for a long time, they could deform and fail to feed. So I am currently letting one sit for a year to try to run it and see what happens. It's a problem, I will try rotating ammo more often.

12Bravo20 said:

And one issue not mentioned yet is the fact that leaving shells loaded in a magazine for a period of time can cause the shells to flatten and deform. I have seen it happen with shotgun magazines left loaded over a period of time.

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This is why the military taught us to down load the magazine a by one round if the gun is going to be left loaded 24/7. That extra round isn't going to help you if it won't feed.

https://gunmagwarehouse.com/blog/the-top-5-magazine-fed-shotguns/

I have my dad's old Steven Mod.58 mag-fed .410 BA shotgun.

As I recall, it was a gift from one of his granddads when he was 12, so that would date it to 1934.

I used it to hunt both dove & quail with a couple of buddies when I was in high school (late 60s).