I have a great fondness for the Gauge.  And when it comes to The Gauge, I am a firmly in the House of Remington and consider the 870 to be where it’s at.

I’ve considered and examined and have fired all the Semi Autos out there.  The M4 is certainly the Mercedes Benz of the class.  However at it’s price… a Thousand Dollars more than most everything else, is it worth it?  Man, I don’t know.  It’s cool… but I am not sure its a Grand More of Cool.

You know what gun I keep coming back to?  The 1187.  Reason?  I like the position of the Bolt Release.  To unleash that bolt on a Tactical Reload, it’s center bottom, easy to get to and faster than a tiny little button that everyone has positioned in the worst possible place.  A small button with no geographic reference point on the gun… just alone in the field of the receiver some place where your hand can get struck by the charging handle if you don’t get it out of the way.  Every semi auto in current production that feeds from a Tube does this and they are all wrong… all save for the Remington 1187.

I believe this to be a key advantage.  Because regardless of how many shells your tube gets stuffed with, its going to go dry and you are going to have to do a fast tactical reload.  I think this is a winning position.    Not only that, but the 1187 can run the same iron sights that you can on the 870, making it scary accurate with slugs.

This is why my pick on the Semi-Auto Shotgun for fighting… the 1187.  For impressing other guys, the M4 remains just fine.