ArmedBear: Gotta agree with you on the cleaning, reliability and fun. IME, they all apply to pumps, too.
The inertia-delayed recoil operating system a la Benelli still seems to be the most practical and versatile alternative to a gas system for a SL carbine using revolver cartridges to me.
There's a huge difference in the mass being propelled between the lightest 12 ga. load and the heaviest .357 or .44 Mag. It doesn't seem to me that, given competent engineering, the felt recoil would be much, if any, greater than from a locked breech design of equal weight with the same load. And there'd still be the self-regulating feature and lack of powder/lead fouling issues to deal with.
My opinion is that it could be done, and done well, but that unless they thought that there would be enough LEA/military interest to provide a large enough potential market to recoup R&D, tooling, etc. costs and show a profit within say, 5 years, no manufacturer will try it.
From what I can gather, one of the big reasons that the Timberwolf was discontinued was that the LEA market they were hoping for didn't materialize.
When it first came over here, a .357 revolver was still the sidearm most often seen in an LEO's holster. A light, fast-handling, rugged, accurate, reliable carbine capable of using the same ammo seemed almost a no-brainer for a "patrol carbine". Especially since nearly everyone can deliver faster and more precise hits out past 20-25 yds or so with a carbine than they can with a handgun.
Unfortunately for Action Arms and IMI, the LEA sidearm paradigm was already changing rapidly towards semiautos and the one for a rifled longarm as general issue hadn't arrived yet. There is also a quirk in the Timberwolf design that makes it less desirable from a strictly tactical viewpoint: the action must be open to load the magazine or top it off. Big boo boo.
As the Timberwolf originally had an MSRP slightly higher than the Marlin 1894c and a good bit more than the Rossi M92 and seemed to offer no practical advantages for the money in their advertising (such as it was) consumers didn't exactly flock to it either.
I managed to buy mine when a local dealer was closing them out for $235, NIB. Still only a bit cheaper than I could've gotten a new Marlin for at Wally World, but I saw a particular minor-seeming features in it that I thought might work better in my intended use.
The butt stock not only detaches for more compact storage and transport, it also adjusts for drop and (to a limited extent) for cast-on or off. This makes it easy to set it up to fit and point like a good shotgun. On small, moving targets, that makes an amazing difference.
Combined with its outstanding accuracy, it makes for a truly great small game carbine. I wouldn't trade mine for diamonds, even as much as I love my LAs.
