16 Best High Capacity Shotguns – Sept 2023

Winners at a Glance

The Mossberg 590M is the best high capacity shotgun, but there are plenty of challengers to the throne. It’s a collision of engineering solutions and next generation shotguns, each with their own particular flavor.

Image	Product	Detail	Price
	Mossberg 590M	Overall Winner	Best Price
	Kel-Tec KSG	Best Tube Mag Shotgun	Best Price
	Kalashnikov KS-12T	Best AK Style Shotgun	Best Price
	IWI Tavor TS-12	Best High Tech Shotgun	Best Price
	Rock Island Armory VR60	Best AR Style Shotgun	Best Price
	Std Mfg DP-12	Best Double Barrel Shotgun	Best Price

The Best Semi-Automatic Shotguns or a Gimmick?

I am telling you up front. These are NOT traditional shotguns. What you see here is the new breed of high capacity shotgun with a trick or two up their sleeve.

They are modern solutions to the age-old shotgun problems:

• Capacity – They normally don’t hold many rounds.

• Reloading – It’s too slow.

What is a High Capacity Shotgun?

For our purposes here, it is a weapon that beats these problems, either with a massive capacity or a quick reload system.

That’s a defensive shotgun in our eyes, because five or six rounds might not be enough. It’s just cutting it too tight and that means that most people now pick up an AR-15 in some form or another as their first firearm.

So if it can beat the capacity problem, it’s a winner. It’s really that simple. The rails for lamps and lasers, they’re less important today.

Mag Fed Shotguns Set to Take Over

2023 is definitely the year of mag-fed shotguns for sale, but we wanted to show you different solutions to a common problem.

So, what are the best high capacity shotguns for home defense? We think it’s the mag fed Mossberg 590M, but we have some very cool options for you.

1. Mossberg 590M

• Price: $513.99
• Shotgun barrel length: 18.5″
• Total: 39.5″
• Weight: 7.75lb
• Capacity: 10+1 rounds / 20+1 Optional

Best High Capacity Shotgun Overall

Price: 4/5 Capacity: 5/5 Accuracy: 4/5 Reliability: 5/5 Value: 5/5

The Mossberg 590M pump action shotgun comes with optional 20-round magazines.

Really, 20 rounds of 12 gauge venom and then engage the mag release in front of the trigger, pop in another mag and start firing your pump shotgun again. It’s a large capacity tactical shotgun, at least.

That puts this 12 gauge pump action right up there with the best choice for the best home defense shotguns by default. It is peace, through superior firepower.

It also means you can load up an ammo belt with buckshot and slugs, so your tactical shotgun suddenly becomes a versatile gun as well. Fit red dot sights or stick to ghost ring sights, use the right slugs and this is a total self-defence weapon.

Get up close, load up with buckshot and this pump shotgun is an excellent choice for a shotgun for home defense. It’s the classic home defense and law enforcement shotgun, with a magazine.

The 590M Shockwave has the birds head grip and shorter barrel, which makes for an awesome defensive shotgun for home defense. It also makes it an NFA firearm, which is more complex when it comes to the paperwork.

2. Kel-Tec KSG

• Price: $599.99
• Gauge: 12 Gauge
• Barrel: 18.5 inch
• Total: 26.1 inch
• Capacity: 12 + 1

Best Tube Mag Shotgun

Price: 4/5 Capacity: 5/5 Accuracy: 3.5/5 Reliability: 5/5 Value: 4/5

Honestly, pound for pound, and certainly in terms of bang for buck, this could still be the best ‘assault shotgun’ in the world. You can also just about use the KelTec KSG 12ga pump shotguns as a concealed carry. I know, because readers have…

It’s a great close quartres combat set-up. But it’s another weapon where the reliability is suspect and that leaves a question mark over any last line of defense for this pump action shotgun.

There is reportedly a DIY polishing kit that fixes the issue and leaves your Kel-Tec KSG butter smooth, but basically polishing up the feed ramp should do it.

The Top Bullpup?

The Kel Tec KSG is a bullpup pump shotgun, but it’s compact and it weighs 6.9lb. That’s not a hell of a lot, and the whole gun is just 26 inches long with a flip up front sight and rear sight. It’s virtually all barrel, too, and you get an 18 inch barrel, partial picatinny rail and two magazine tubes.

Now you can get the much longer KelTec KSG 25 pump action shotguns with, well, 24+1 shells and 30 mini shells. But it’s an ungainly thing, there can be feed issues and definitely not the best home defense shotgun or concealed carry shotgun, even though the capacity is other worldly…

3. Kalashnikov USA KS-12T

• Price: $991.99
• Gauge: 12 Gauge
• Barrel Length: 18.25 inch
• Total Length: 38 inch
• Weight: 8.86lb
• Capacity: 10+1

Best AK/AR style Shotgun

Price: 3/5 Capacity: 4/5 Accuracy: 4/5 Reliability: 3/5 Value: 3.5/5

The Kalashnikov USA KS-12T is just an assault weapon. There’s no other way to put it. This is the best semi automatic shotgun with AK style. It’s perfect and our top pick.

Kalashnikov products were banned in the USA for a good long while, but Kalashnikov USA looks to be the neat solution to that thorny issue.

Now the Russian icon is back on these shores and you can buy the 12 gauge version of the world’s most famous assault weapon. This ain’t grandpa’s side by side etc…

AK-47 Design, 12Ga Shotgun Power

Now the Kalashnikov USA KS-12T, is a thorough rework of the age-old AK-47 layout. You also get an AR-style collapsible buttstock and a quad rail free float handguard with a big Picatinny rail up top.

Any Saiga drum mag or mag will fit these semi autosmatic shotguns. So you could have a 50-round drum hanging off the bottom of an AK-47 platform… That is proper capacity and possibly the best shotgun system there is.

It’s versatile, it’s brilliant and it’s an absolute beast of a home defense shotgun. These are the best high capacity shotguns in 2023, if you ask us…

4. Black Aces Tactical Pro Series M

• Price: $300.99
• Barrel length: 18.5 inch
• Weight: 10lb
• Capacity: 10+1

Best Low Budget Shotgun

Price: 5/5 Capacity: 4/5 Accuracy: 3/5 Reliability: 3/5 Value: 5/5

Black Aces Tactical used to customize Mossbergs and Remingtons. Now it makes its own line of cut-price 12 gauges built to accept the ubiquitous Saiga magazines.

Now this tactical shotgun did start out much more expensive, and it deserved to be. but now it’s on sale and if it stays anywhere near this price, it’s an absolute steal and one of the best home defense shotgun options.

If you want the Mossberg and can’t quite justify the money, then this is the answer right here. And check the drum mag if you want more shells…

5. IWI Tavor TS12

• Price: $1,288.99
• Barrel length: 18.5 inch
• Total: 28.4 inch
• Capacity: 15 + 1

Best Bullpup Shotguns

Price: 3/5 Capacity: 4/5 Accuracy: 3/5 Reliability: 3/5 Value: 3/5

This is fascinating, like the dangerous looking girl at the end of the bar. You kind of know it’s bad news, you know something will go wrong, and yet that doesn’t stop you lusting after it.

It’s a complex looking, sci-fi movie shotgun. Yes all those moving parts might make for an interesting experience along the way, but that’s part of the charm and there is simply nothing else like this on the market.

It shoots 15+1 rounds of basic 2 3/4” shells thanks to rotating tubes that hold the rounds at the front. The loading tube is basically a carousel and you get five rounds in each tube and one in the chamber.

We love it. It’s expensive, it’s complex and we don’t care. The IWI Tavor TS12 is one of the best shotguns for sale in the world and easily the best bullpup shotgun.

The best mag-fed shotgun is a lot less complicated and that little bit more versatile. But this is sexy and fun, especially full of 21 mini shells.

6. Rock Island Armory VR60

• Price: $416.99
• Gauge: 12 Gauge
• Action: Semi automatic shotguns
• Barrel length: 20″
• Total: 39″
• Weight: 7.4lb
• Capacity: 5+1 rounds

Rock Island Armory won’t win any design awards with the RIA VR60 shotgun, but that doesn’t really bother this company.

It has a devoted following for its 1911 handguns that love these reliable beater guns.

There really isn’t much trick tech here. Really the Rock Island VR60 is just a low budget shotgun with a little personality and an old school carry handle, pistol grip and fixed front sights.

And sometimes that’s all gun owners need. Come on, admit it, you love the carry handle too.

7. Panzer Arms BP-12

• Price: $312.99
• Barrel: 18.5 inch
• Total Length: 39.75 inch
• Weight: 8.12lb

This Panzer Arms BP-12 is a magazine fed shotgun with a semi-auto action, a snug bullpup shotgun layout and a fully ambidextrous safety, pistol grip and downward ejection port that will suit left handed shooters.

A Picatinny rail up top is good for irons or red dots, and there is a quad rail for weapons lights and accessories.

It also has a manageable weight and pretty decent accuracy. So this is certainly in the best bullpup shotgun with a mag conversation and one of the best high capacity shotguns, especially for left handed shooters.

8. Standard Manufacturing DP-12 Double Barrel

• Price: $1,099.99
• Capacity: 14 Rounds
• Barrel length: 18.8 inch
• Total: 29.5 inch
• Weight: 9.75lb

Sometimes you just need power and what could be better than a double-barrel shotgun for sale at a time like this?

Just to to be clear, both barrels don’t fire at once. You rack once, fire twice. So in all honesty this is a lot of additional engineering, weight and complication for a minor advantage.

Even the pistol grip and trigger guard is unnecessarily beefy, and there’s a sturdy Picatinny rail for your red dot sights on this double barreled shotgun.

But it looks like a rock star, so there’s that…

The Standard Manufacturing DP-12 is just a badass gun and lots of fun to shoot. And not everything in this world has to make sense.

9. Charles Daly Honcho XL

• Price: $254.99
• Gauge: 12 Gauge
• Barrel: 18.5″
• Weight: 5.1lb
• Capacity: 5+1

The Charles Daly Honcho XL and the smaller gun with a birdshead grip are both available with a detachable magazine and a really attractive price.

It’s reliable, solid and cheap. That is enough for the Charles Daly Honcho XL. You can add a 10 round mag to your purchase, too, to turn this into one of the best high capacity shotguns at this price point.

10. Remington Versa Max

• Price: $1,295.99
• Gauge: 12 Gauge
• Barrel: 18″
• Weight: 7.75lb
• Capacity: 7+1

It had been so long since we saw a Remington Versa Max on the open market that we deleted it months ago. Then, there it was…

Remington produces great products, then seems to have trouble delivering them consistently. But we love the soft shooting Remington shotgun so much that we’re willing to give the benefit of the doubt here.

You might want to assume it won’t be here for long and just buy one right now. You never know what’s going to happen next month…

It’s a full 3 gun semi automatic shotgun with a ribbed barrel, extended bolt release, extended magazine tubes for large capacity and other neat tricks.

11. Akdal MKA 1919 Match Pro

• Price: $403.99
• Gauge: 12 Gauge ammo
• Barrel: length 20 inch
• Total: 39.5 inch
• Magazine capacity: 5+1

This Akdal MK1919 Match Pro is an AR-style shotgun that looks totally in proportion. It might be the best looking of the bunch.

That 20″ barrel is the key to this magazine fed semi-auto shotgun looking roughly right. It’s a tribute act, not an exact replica of the legendary AR-15 semi automatic shotguns, but it all works.

An old-school matte black synthetic stock, pistol grip, fixed front sight, detachable magazine and enlarged handguard that contains the buffer tube all kinda work.

You can adjust the cylinder choke at the front of that handguard on the MKA 1919 Match box magazine fed shotgun.

This is more than just a pastiche. This is a high quality 3-Gun competition shotgun, for a fraction of the price of more celebrated options. And these could be your best home defense shotguns if you like the layout.

You’ll see Garaysar and Hyperion Munitions versions of the Akdal MKA 1919 Pro AR-style shotgun, which look remarkably similar…

12. Benelli M4 Tactical (M1014)

• Price: $1,917.99
• Barrel: 18.5 inch
• Gauge: 12 Gauge
• Total Length: 26.1 inch
• Weight: 7.8lb
• Capacity: 5 + 1

The Benelli M4 Tactical is the combat shotgun the Marines take into action and it’s the preferred choice of crack military units everywhere.

So of course this semi-auto shotgun works for personal defense.

It never fails, it’s dependable as, well, a high quality Benelli shotgun and it does everything right. from the pistol grip to the proprietary cylinder choke and stainless steel receiver.

That’s why the Special Forces, Law Enforcement Agencies and just about anybody that loves the stopping power of a shotgun and can afford one likes to keep a Benelli M4 Tactical to hand.

Even with an 18.5″ barrel, these semi-auto shotguns are a joy to operate. Especially with the tactical stock.

We have to face the fact, though, that a 5+1 capacity, or 8+1 with a mag extension, is the very definition of a tactical disadvantage in the company of magazine fed shotguns.

Even though most gun reviews give this semi automatic shotgun for home defense like 7 out of 5 stars and we still might choose it for the best home defense shotguns, when reliability trumps everything.

13. SRM 1216

• Price: $1,679.95
• Capacity: 16 Rounds
• Barrel: 18.5 inch
• Total Length: 32.5 inch
• Weight: 7.05lb

The IWI Tavor TS-12 is basically the polished version of the SRM 1216, in fact this gun looks like the first prototype of the IWI that the designer knocked together out of wood. But this one is actually on sale, and you can buy it.

This agricultural looking option has one other big advantage – switchable tubular magazines, rather than locked in loading tubes. Yes that really is a detachable magazine.

This gun was here first, and it holds 16 rounds of standard shotgun shells in those multiple magazine tubes.

You can easily get 24 mini shells through the system and that turns this into a seriously potent shotgun. Alternatively you can buy the version set-up only for Aguila minishells.

14. Mossberg Maverick 88 Cruiser

• Price: $234.99
• Barrel: 20 inch
• Total Length: 30.375 inch
• Weight: 6lb
• Capacity: 7+1

The Mossberg Maverick pump shotgun. is designed to sit discreetly in your home, boat or truck. It’s a straightforward pump-action shotgun with a simple trigger guard and a classic design.

Now, the Maverick is bit longer than a Shockwave pump actions, but you get a 20 inch barrel that you can swing comfortably round your home with a pistol grip and no stock to get in the way. Or rear sight.

This is tried and trusted tech and as a truck gun under your seat, or on your boat, it’s an awful lot of firepower in an awfully small package. The Mossberg Maverick is a solid option for home a defense shotgun and you might want to have one as a truck gun.

15. Benelli M2 Tactical

• Price: $1,222.99
• Barrel: 18.5 inch
• Total Length: 38 inch
• Weight: 7.2lb
• Capacity: 5+1

The Benelli M2 Tactical is the younger, cheaper brother of the all conquering Benelli M4. So what’s the difference? Apart from about $400?

It’s all in the drive. The M4 uses the legendary ARGO Auto Regulating Gas Operated gas system tech perfected by Benelli for the flagship guns.

The M2 semi automatic shotgun uses a cheaper inertia-driven system, rather than the gas operated set-up. But ditching that gas system also saves a substantial amount of weight, as well as money.

This is much lighter than the M4 at 7,2lb, and that could make a difference to you. Certainly more than the gas system’s marginally better reliability in extreme temperatures and conditions.

Get ghost ring sights up there, or red dot sights, and this is an awesome gun.

15. Benelli M2 Tactical

• Price: $378.99
• Action: Pump Action Shotgun
• Barrel: 18.5 inch
• Total Length: 27..5 inch
• Weight: 6.25lb
• Capacity: 5 + 1

The Winchester SXP Marine Defender is almost a love letter to the Beretta Tactical Marine. But it’s also good looking and affordable, with decent magazine capacity and a reduced recoil pad.

That’s pretty much all there is to say about this basic tactical semi-auto shotgun, but what more do you need at this price?

It’s about as cheap as I would want to go with a complex action and the Winchester SXP name is kind of a badge of quality in that context.

Where to Buy Shotgun Spares

If you want a new pistol grip for your shotgun, detachable box magazine, extended magazine release, ghost ring sights or red dot sights, we can do that.

Maybe just accessories for assault weapons or your cheap Charles Daly or Stevens 320 Security? Palmetto State Armory, that’s where. They have a great selection of red dot sights, ghost ring sights and lots of parts.

• Shotgun parts at PSA.

Where to Buy 12 Gauge Shotgun Shells

The best high capacity shotgun will burn through shotgun ammo, both 2.5 inch and 3 inch shells, that’s no secret. So look at the likes of Palmetto State Armory, Lucky Gunner and Brownells PSA is currently our favorite for a lot of this stuff, so start there:

• Palmetto State Armory – 12 Gauge shotgun shells for the best high capacity shotgun.
• Lucky Gunner – 2.5 inch and 3 inch shells, follow up shots from hell. Rifle ammo too.

What is the Cylinder Bore?

A shotgun bore is basically another way of saying the shotgun caliber. The bore of a 12 gauge shotgun is 0.730 inches. The 20 gauge is 0.615 inches. A 410 shotgun has a bore of 0.410 inches.

OK, Now What is a Choke For? Right?

Cylinder bore choke tubes offer the magical art of constriction to keep your shot together for longer distances and prevent excess spread.

A shotgun with a cylinder bore choke, then, is generally more effective at longer distances. For clay pigeons, turkey and waterfowl, you need choke tubes.

What About Local Laws on Large Capacity Magazines?

Yeah you are going to struggle in California, New York and New Jersey. We try not to get involved in the legalities of transfer and possession. That’s because your local regs vary wildly, especially in New York, California, New Jersey and a few other restrictive states.

So good luck with the transfer and possession at your local FFL dealer. Just remember that all your local laws apply when you buy guns online. You have to fill out the paperwork at your local gun store, pawn shop or otherwise accredited FFL dealer.

While you’re here, check out some other stuff

What about a single shot break action black powder pistol while you’re here with a big metal cross bolt safety bar? A single shot bolt action rifle? Break shotgun? Or a semi-auto 9mm AR pistol for that matter? Black powder rifle? AR-15 spares? Custom Smith & Wesson semi-automatic rifle? Knives, tools, feeding devices, we got them all…

_{Contact us through the main customer service email address. Or enter your email address in the sidebar and we’ll send you a message on your email address.}