Bullpup shotguns make a lot of sense. Where does a defensive shotgun dominate? At close range. What type of weapons work best in close range? Short ones. What does a bullpup do? It shortens the overall length of a long gun.
With that inescapable logic in mind, a bullpup shotgun would be an excellent tool for a close-range defensive firearm.
Plenty of bullpup shotguns exist. KelTec has the KSG and the KS7. Smith & Wesson makes the M&P 12. IWI has the TS12. There’s also a glut of ridiculous Turkish mag-fed bullpups out there.
The idea itself is far from new. High Standard made the Model 10 in 1967 which seems to be the first bullpup shotgun I can find to enter any form of mass production.
The current crop of bullpup shotguns is mostly fine, but they have a number of flaws, some I’m not entirely sure could be overcome that easily. However, a man can both dream and theorize about how to improve these designs. One of the best parts about being a low-skill, high-opinion shooter is the opinion part.
What’s Wrong With the Current Crop of Bullpup Shotguns
Not all bullpup shotguns share the same downsides, so one gripe may not apply to all. However, after shooting the KSG, the KS7, the M&P 12, the TS-12, the High Standard Model 10, and a number of other designs, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the problems these guns have.
The Ejection Port
A lot of bullpups are tough for lefties to use since the ejection port is right beside the face. An easy way to make your bullpup work for both left- and right-handed shooters is to make it a bottom eject design. The KSG, KS7, and M&P 12 all do thjat. Bottom eject works even in a more standard shotgun design, as we’ve seen in the Ithaca 37.
Where we get into problems, however, is placing the bottom eject at the rear of the gun and mixing it with bulky shotgun ammunition. Should we get any kind of a failure, our ability to clear the failure is hampered significantly. You have to do some gun yoga to access the ejection port, and then you have very limited room to work.
Most shotgun ejection ports already have limited room in which to work, but with a bottom eject it’s even worse because you have to reach inward more to free the malfunction. Freeing a stuck shell from a KSG requires a pair of needle nose pliers and a flat head screwdriver.
S&W tried to make this a little easier with an ejection port that can open to provide more access internally. While that makes life much easier, it’s still not something you can do quickly in a defensive situation.
The fix, to me, is to take the TS-12 route with a swappable side ejection port. It’s also positioned a little farther forward, making it much easier to get to. The TS-12 can’t be swapped by the end user, but designs like the SRM Arms 1216 offer a user-swappable ejection port so it can be done.
Ditch the Multiple Tubes
Everyone likes having more capacity, right? The KSG, M&P 12, TS-12, and the 1216 all use a multi-tube design to provide extra capacity. I don’t think that’s necessary. The KS7 holds seven rounds in a single tube and for a shotgun, five to seven rounds is plenty.
The use of multiple tubes creates additional complexity, weight, and bigger, bulkier shotguns. Capacity is great, but these dual, triple, or even quad tube designs are like putting a drum on your home-defense AR. Shotguns aren’t suppressive weapons. They tend to be decisive in just a few shots fired.
The KS7’s lightweight, trim design is more affordable, less complicated, and reduces significant bulk. I can’t find a single defensive shotgun situation where a reload was required, much less 12 to 16 rounds of buckshot. There could certainly be some police situations where this occurs, but for home defense, it doesn’t seem to be an issue.
Of course, if you want more capacity, that’s your right. There’s a place for both options if the consumer wants it. However, I think the simpler option is the better one.
Semi-Autos Just Seem Better
The pump action bullpup has some inherent safety issues. Your hand is flying forward to cycle the action and at the end of the action’s cycle, your hand is close to the front of the barrel. It’s easy for your hand to slip and end up in front of the muzzle and you could have a lot less hand left should you pull the trigger.
This has happened at least once to my knowledge when a vertical grip broke and the user’s hand caught a load of 12-gauge. There are fixes for this, like broad, integrated hand shields. Still, I’d rather have a semi-auto like the TS-12.
A good gas-operated semi-auto shotgun is much easier to handle. A well-made, reliable gas action makes shooting easier, reduces recoil, and provides a simpler manual of arms. A semi-auto also makes it much easier to mount a light and a pressure switch.
The problem is I’ve yet to find a semi-auto bullpup that runs reliably enough for self-defense use. The SRM 1216 is arguably not a bullpup, but it’s the most reliable semi-auto action that’s kind of a bullpup.
The problem I have with the TS-12 and SRM 1216 is that your support hand is holding the magazine as you fire. With nothing between your hand and a twisting magazine, it’s possible to exert some influence over the gun’s ability to feed by twisting the magazine as you shoot. That admittedly takes some force to accomplish, but it’s still a concern I have when using these guns for defensive applications.
The Inline Design
I don’t have a cure for this. I’m not sure there is a way to make a bullpup shotgun without an inline format. The problem with the inline design is height over bore. At indoor distances, our buckshot load is likely to be baseball-sized at best. When we add height over bore into the mix, we have to deal with a little estimating to make sure we know where that volley lands.
I did a close quarters rifle class where, over 12 hours, we drilled on height over bore. At the range it was easy, but when we swapped to Simunitions in a shoothouse nearly everyone forgot about it on the first couple of runs. It’s easy to train for, but it can be tough to remember at 3 AM in a fight for your life.
I like my optics nice and low on a shotgun to avoid the height over bore issue. It’s a big reason why I tend to stay away from nontraditional stock designs. Sadly, I’m not sure if this is an issue that could even be fixed with a bullpup design.
What’s Not A Problem
A common complaint I hear is that bullpup shotguns are tough to reload. Yeah, that’s true. It’s somewhat slow to reload with that rear loading port. The TS-12 is the exception to this rule.
But I don’t think most people using a shotgun defensively will ever need to reload. I’ve looked, and I can’t find a single example of a civilian defensive shotgun encounter that required a reload. Even John Correia of ASP hasn’t seen a civilian defensive encounter that required a reload across the entire spectrum of civilian defensive firearms use.
With one trigger pull launching eight or nine 00 pellets, it’s unlikely you’ll need to fire a multitude of shots to disable a threat. You’re causing tremendous damage per trigger pull and as long as you’re putting that buckshot in the right spot, you’re highly likely to stop the threat, usually with a single shot.
What if eight armed commandos invade your house? Well, let’s be realistic. Even with seven rounds of buckshot, the commandos are going to have to be willing to climb over a pile of their dead friends to get to you.
To be even more realistic, if multiple, determined armed attackers are coming after you, you’re probably not gonna make it regardless of capacity and reload potential. If we swap those commandos for the usual clowns piling out of a Volkswagen, we’re likely going to send them running after you remove a chunk of flesh from the first one through the door.
A Crumb of Data?
It’s tough to find data to back this up in a civilian context, but I have some police-involved situations that apply. The book Holloway’s Raiders details the exploits of the Dallas Shotgun Squads. These men were similar to the famed NYC Stakeout Squad.
They would wait inside businesses for armed robbers to act. The action was primarily indoors and close range, like the vast majority of home defense encounters.
They wielded pump action shotguns and the only situation I can recall where a shotgun ran empty was when an officer fired bilindly in the general direction of two armed burglars. He fired all five rounds, but hit them both and ended the engagement.
At the end of the day, if having higher capacity and faster reloads is one of your must-haves, a shotgun probably isn’t going to be the weapon you’re going to pick anyway.
The Ultimate Defensive Bullpup Shotgun
The reality is there’s no perfect bullpup shotgun. The current crop that’s available is largely fine, but I would love to see a single-tube, semi-auto, 12-gauge with a forward, side ejection port and, if possible, a red dot that sits nice and low with a little rail space for a weapon light.
I would honestly be happy with a simplified TS12 that ditched the rotating tubes for a single magazine tube that’s covered by a forend. My own experience with the TS12 wasn’t great and my sample had reliability issues, but I’ve heard from friends I trust in this industry that the guns are quite reliable and the kinks are ironed out.
Maybe I’m just dreaming, and there isn’t enough demand to warrant the R&D, marketing, and production expense for such a gun, but dreams are still free.