The Best Overlooked Tactical Shotgun

One of the best tactical shotguns out there is also the most over looked.  The tactical shotgun market has become very crowded as of late.  Everyone that does shotguns is now doing Tactical versions… and this is a beautiful thing.

The downside to the crowded market is that most attention is only paid to the newest, latest and greatest.  Which is fine… save for the old standby workhorses that get ignored too often.

One of the very best, proven tactical shotguns, is the Remington 1100 Tactical.  Well, Remington has stepped it up a bit and are calling it the Model 1100 Tac-4. I really like it.  It’s one of the more softer shooting 12 gauge auto-shuckers on the market and it holds an impressive 8+1 payload.  It has a 22″ barrel which is a little long, but not that much longer considering the 18.5″ barrels which are on most Tactical Shotguns, plus the new tactical breaching chokes and brakes that are now popular.   It also comes with an oversized bolt handle, which is a very nice touch.  The sights are simple… a normal shotgun rail with a hi-viz fiber optic front.  A Shotgun doesn’t need anymore than that… but if you want more, you can of course top it with a rail and a red dot if you like, but its good to go out of the box.

The only things I’d do to the TAC-4 would be to Slipstream treat the gun and throw a Side Saddle and a sling on it.  But that’s just me.

26 thoughts on “The Best Overlooked Tactical Shotgun”

  1. I guess I’m too untrusting of gas-operated shotguns. My HD 12-bore is a Mossberg 500 with a Specops stock, Hogue forend, fiber-optic bead, and ammo sidesaddle. As a lefty I appreciate the placement of the Mossberg’s safety.

    1. Yeah, the Mossy’s safety is great. Unless you want to roll with a pistol grip. And then it’s in a very wrong place. A Remmy’s safety is in a better location for a pistol grip, but still not ideal. None are. Or should I say, none are yet. Once the Crusader Warhammer is ready – it will be the ideal platform when it comes to actual ergonomics on a shotgun.

  2. Sorry man 22″ ? Really? That’s too DAMN long for hd or anything indoors. Sure it gets you another shot but… maybe w a mini stock which then gets uncomfortable points.

    and Remington can f***ing roll for that price.

    Overlooked tac shotties I thought it’d be about the Ithaca.

    1. I said “Overlooked” not “Forgotten”. The 22 isn’t really too long, when you look at the other Rems with those tactical chokes. I have one, and it’s almost that long. Using it indoors for CQB, it’s still very workable. I don’t think the TAC-4 is too long. I like that it affords extra shells.

      1. Sorry George – we’re gonna have to agree to disagree. the basic 1100 is already to heavy and too long. a longer gun for a +1 gain in capacity isn’t worth it. Whatever doodads people want on the end of their gun is their choice. I say short n no thanks.

        that said if your playing games sure I guess – run a pig.

        and Remington charges IMHO too much for their name. Mossberg put out a phenomenal semi shottie and undercut the basic 1100 by nearly 300 bucks and it weighs less.

        1. You have a point there, my friend. The 930SPX is a fantastic tactical semi-auto shotgun. I love mine. It has served me FLAWLESSLY since the day I got it, and I keep it in CRUISER READY condition with Winchester PDX1 shells in the tube and in the side saddle.
          That is ready for anything.

  3. You could reform government pension system by raising the age of eligibility to 62 for all people receiving a pension from the federal government.

  4. Meh…if I were to own a Remington shotty for “tactical” purposes it would be an 870. The 1100 is just too unnecessarily heavy and a 22″ barrel is too long. I’ll stick with my Benelli M3 (THAT is an overlooked tactical shotgun).

  5. It’s heavy, yes. But that also makes it a very soft shooting gun. Much softer than the Benelli’s. Okay, it’s not so much harder in the Benelli… but sharper.

    1. Just about any other semi is softer than a Benelli M1/M2/M3. They are brutal but the inertia drive will work with any load, every time. My M3 is very light for an auto…but it’s also a pump and it’s not just a novelty. For me I just can’t see an 1100 replacing what I have as it would be a step down for more money.

  6. I say your old trusty shotguns are best (Winchester, Remington, Mossberg, Browning). Mod ’em up and they make a great Tactical Gun.

    1. If that’s the case, the 1100 was pretty much the first Semi Auto Tactical Shotgun that was used in any numbers by Police Departments across the country and in some other countries.
      You want old and trusty? That’s the 1100. A long time ago, Paladin Press (IIRC) printed books on how to turn your Model 1100 into a tactical gun, as the concept was quite unique back then. I remember seeing those books at Gun Shows all the time.

    1. I’ve been bird hunting and busting clays with an 1100 for 13 years and I’ve never had a problem. Keep it clean and oiled and it works just fine. I’ll agree with the other fellows about it possibly being too heavy or too long for HD, but not reliable…? Can’t agree with that.

  7. Late to the game, here, but I have to agree that the Rem 1100 can make a fine social shotgun.

    Mine spent many years putting the fear of jfruser in waterfowl, but now helps protect my home. I kept the original wood, because it fits & is familiar. I had a gunsmith cut an old, plain, lightweight contour bbl to 18″ & a smidge. Toss in a +2 mag extension from Scattergun Technologies, a bbl clamp, and a tac light, and I have my very own tactical shotgun.

    It shoots fast, recoil is mild, and it eats any commercially loaded shells I have yet to try, to include Wally World 100-pack fodder.

    For serious use, it likes Rem Express 2 3/4″ 000 buck and REALLY likes Fed 00 buck with the Flight Control wad. It shoots cheap Wally World Winchester slugs to minute of paper plate out to 100 yards using only the bead.

    I finally replaced the O-ring a few years back and check it every time I break it down, but it takes a good, long while to eat one up.

    The mild recoil and semi-auto action makes for fast shooting.

  8. Any idea what the Slipstream treatment actually is, or how it differs from platings like fail zero/nickel boron or NP3?

    1. Yes, I know exactly the difference and why it’s superior. Unfortunately I am not at liberty to say what it is. But in independent 3rd party testing, Slipstream lasted twice as long, outperforming Fail Zero. NP3 wasn’t tested… but it wears much quicker.

  9. What’s your opinion of a breaching style choke on a HD shotgun? Not like Ima breach any doors at home, after all.

    1. They are not all that useful for general use… and kind of a PITA because they tear up your soft cases.
      But what I like about them, is that they required your barrels to be threaded for standard Remington Choke Tubes, which makes that HD gun very versatile.

  10. I thought you were going to reveal the Winchester 1897 as the over looked Tactical shotgun.
    Having served in the muddy trenches of WW1 up through the muddy jungles of Viet Nam, the old trust ’97 is a very fast shooting pump for its lack of trigger disconnect, (as are some later models w/o the hammer bite)
    you can shot yourself out of ammo super quick with a pump ’97 by holding the trigger down and racking the slide through each round, which is why the WW1 shotgun trench teams were 5 guys, 4 shotguns and a rear guard with a rifle.
    The front two guys were the shooters, next two guys were re-loaders of the spare pair of shotguns.
    Our team would snake its way up through the zig zag German tranches, and launch attacks at each bend, pounding through the ammo, hand the gun back to swap with the loader and pound out again.
    The Germans were decimated and Horrified by this tactic and called for a treaty to disallow the shotgun be used on the battle field as too inhumane. And that from the war that brought us machine guns vs. wave attacked that were mercilessly mowed down.
    The shot gun is a fearsome tool, for close work, but you can run out of ammo very quick, then i just hope you have cover to re load behind.
    Anyway, ditto for 930 SPX for all reason above better value, ambi safety (w/o the mall ninji pistol grip).
    20″ SPX for CQB and 24″ 930 JCM for 3 gun together is cheaper than the Remmi you choose, …..Bleh i think not. its not an overlooked tactical item, its one the market has voted against with their dollars, too close the benelli price, and 1100s have a poor maintenance record among the waterfowl hunters is not to be forgotten.
    I once saw an articel that a competitive shooter wrote about how his long tube browning auto 5 was capable of 0.11 splits, but some other new fangled tacti-cool $2000 shotty was hanging up on him at 0.16.
    So for an auto loader, the Auto 5 with a Choate +2 tube is the overlooked tactical semi 12 bore gun IMHO

  11. I’ve got my eye on a used 1100 Tac 4 that will (hopefully) become my 3-Gun/HD shotgun, I’ve never had problems with my 870 and I look forward to getting into the semi-auto world. I’m glad you have such confidence in the platform, because unfortunately I’m one of those guys who relies on the used market because of cost, I’d love to find a Benelli M1 or M3 but I can’t burn money on something like that, and I’ve never seen used ones in my area because nobody sells them once they own them. Can’t wait to pick it up and start running it through it’s paces.

  12. I agree that the 1100 is the best out there bar none. Other companies can come out with fancier versions of shotguns, but if you want something that works well and will work anytime, nothing beats the 1100.

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