German hunting arms manufacturer Krieghoff annually releases a “Gun of The Year”, one of their firearms with a custom engraving theme dedicated to a certain person, event or place. In 2019, the Krieghoff Gun Of The Year was a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, the 2020 gun was engraved with Galapagos Islands wildlife. The 2021 Krieghoff Gun Of The Year is an over & under shotgun (likely a K-80) called The Spartan Gun and it’s dedicated to the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) and 300 Spartans. The gun is engraved with battle scenes, Greek motifs and the ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ inscription.

Welcome to TFB’s Photo Of The Day. As the name implies, this page is dedicated to rare and unique pics which are updated daily, and I guess that short shotgun got your attention? Did you ever fire one? What did you think? Did you find it hard or easy to hit your target? These pictures are from an undisclosed location in Djibouti, where members of the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron conducted proficiency training across multiple weapon systems earlier this year.

For this author, and I bet for many of our readers too, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” is the best movie of the whole Terminator franchise. For 1991, the year it was released, it had amazing visual effects never seen before and many of the scenes and phrases from that movie became famous and frequently quoted. One of these scenes is the Galleria scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character, the T-800, pulls a sawed-off Winchester Model 1887 lever action shotgun out of a box of roses to stop the shapeshifting T-1000 and protect John Connor.  Chiappa Firearms have been making the replica of this shotgun called T-Model for quite a long time but they have also recently added to their website a limited edition version dubbed 1887 Rose Box as a tribute to the mentioned scene and dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the movie.

It’s been a while (just over a year!) since we’ve done a Field Strip here on TFB, and I figured, why not start back up with a highly coveted firearm, the Benelli M2 Tactical semi-auto shotgun. The M2 model is an extension of the Benelli Super 90 series introduced in 1986, and utilizes the Inertia Recoil system developed in the late 1960’s. Josh at Black Sheep Armory II in Panama City Beach was kind enough to let us field strip one of the Benelli M2 shotguns he had on hand. The famous shotgun exhibitionist, Tom Knapp, used Benelli shotguns, including the Super 90 series to set world records. The following video is a tribute to Tom Knapp from the Benelli Firearms YouTube channel.

EAA/Akkar has just revamped their popular Akkar Churchill 220 and 620 shotguns for home defense. Shotguns provide unparalleled close-range power but often are too long to be properly used within the home where narrow hallways are common. The new Churchill 220 pump-action and 620 semi-auto Optics Tactical shotguns have been improved to allow for use within the home.

NEMO Arms, a company primarily known for manufacturing AR-pattern rifles and their recoil-reducing BCG/buffer system, has entered the market of double-barreled shotguns. According to the company, their new line of Over & Under shotguns “will tie in nostalgic features of classic shotguns that we all know and love, with the added modern twist of NEMO’s revolutionary technology“. These shotguns are apparently made for NEMO Arms by Italian Bettinsoli.

Dickinson Arms is one of the most comprehensive manufacturers of modern shotguns. Covering a wide variety of models and styles, Dickinson can build everything from semi-auto and pump-action defense shotguns to the highly polished and hand-finished Royal Series of sidelock over-under shotguns. Dickinson is proud to offer their Royal sidelock shotguns in both 12 and 20 gauge variants.

Mike Harvey, President of Cimmaron Firearms is excited to introduce the Winchester Model 1887 lever-action shotgun. For those who don’t know, Cimmaron Firearms is one of the leaders in manufacturing replica Old West firearms. The Model 1887 is often a symbol of the American West Frontier due to its frequent use as a hunting and self-defense shotgun (or Terminator 2 if you’re a cinephile).

XS Sights has branched out beyond weapon sights and is now offering a Remington 870 2rd extension. They offered up one for review so I volunteered as tribute. I was curious to see if the 870 2rd extension would work with some outlier variants of the 870 platform. Specifically, my Remington Model 870 Express Tactical Magpul edition and an AOW built off an 870.

Last fall, I wrote about my experience with the ATF Form 1 process to make a Short Barreled Shotgun (SBS). Between buying my 1980’s vintage Remington 870 Magnum, getting the ATF approval, and actually making it into an SBS has been a long time, admittedly though, purely self induced. My goal has been to do as much of the work myself, rather than to send it off and have the work done for me. That way, I save some money, and learn things in the process.

Photo Of The Day – It almost feels like unveiling a new Ferrari, but it’s something much better. We’re looking at the new Benelli Nova and M2 Speed. They are two dynamic shotguns made to enhance the shooter’s performance in competition.

XS Sights has just announced their new Plus 2 magazine extension tube for Remington 870 pattern, 12 gauge shotguns. XS Sights has been making more than just sights for quite a while, but this is their first foray into the shotgun magazine extension market. The kit will include a replacement magazine spring, the +2 magazine tube, and a special tool to remove the factory magazine cap detent. The press release from XS Sights can be read below.

Shockwave Technologies have introduced their Raptor F1 shotgun furniture kits for the Mossberg 500/590 and Remington 870 shotgun models. These furniture sets include the forend and heat shield, and a bird’s head pistol grip. Shockwave Tech was nice enough to send a sample of each to review. Bird’s head shotgun grips have become wildly popular of late since the release of the Mossberg Shockwave, and Remington Tac-14 and Tac-13 shotguns. Shockwave Tech’s shotgun forearm furniture is a new, modular take on the forend with a twist. The optional top cover to the Shockwave Technologies forearm attaches to the slide action and acts as a heat shield, and also incorporates a front and rear sight.

Over the past several years, Raniero Testa, an Italian athlete sponsored by Winchester, has set multiple world records of shooting airborne clay targets. A little over a year ago, he set a record of breaking  14 clays pigeons in mid-air which earned him a nickname/stage name RT14. Well, apparently, his new stage name is now RT17 as the latest achievement of this professional shooter is a new world record of busting a whopping amount of 17 hand-thrown clay targets in 2.08 seconds with 17 shots. Watch the video below.

Browning has introduced a brand new 2021 shotgun. The Maxus II Rifled Deer Shotgun has a number of new features that will set it a notch above your typical deer hunting shotguns including a rifled thick-wall barrel and integrated weaver style rail for one style just to name a few. In addition, the Maxus II will also come in several different camouflage patterns from Mossy Oak.

First of all a big thanks to James Reeves for passing this along. TactaLoad is a firearms accessory manufacturer based in Louisiana. Their flagship product is the Flash-5 shotgun stock. It allows you to carry five extra shotgun shells in the stock.

Hot off the heels of Henry announcing 32 new models of rifles and shotguns in the last quarter of 2020, Henry has four new hunting focused models for 2021.  In the rimfire category, Henry is offering a .22 Magnum lever action with a pic rail, a raised comb, and no iron sights with an eye towards optic optimization, the “Lever Action Magnum Express”.

The new owners of Remington, the Roundhill Group, have just obtained their Federal Firearms License (FFL) for the iconic Ilion manufacturing plant where the Remington 870 shotguns are produced. The new owners plan on opening the plant for maintenance next week and will begin production on March 1st. Additional details can be found at the sources below.

Fierce Firearms, a company mostly known for making precision bolt-action rifles, has entered the shotgun market by introducing the Mayhem FX semi-auto shotgun. The company markets this as a hunting shotgun that will allow you to “reach out for waterfowl at longer range”. Let’s see what features are offered in this new Fierce Firearms shotgun.

The Benelli SuperNova shotgun is an impressive firearm and is used by many of the top competitors in sports shooting. As such it is always under scrutiny as competitors try to squeeze every last bit of performance out of the firearm, or make small modifications so that the ergonomics suit them better.  Magload Ltd. in the United Kingdom have just released an adjustable flat trigger for this shotgun. Made out of polymer with stainless screws and hardened steel pins, it’s supposed to help with trigger freeze and prep. You can adjust the pretravel and overtravel to suit you.

Alongside their additions to their ETHOS line, Benelli have also introduced some new options to their classic Super Black Eagle 3 series of semi-auto waterfowl guns with new additions now available in 20 gauge and 3-Inch 12 gauge.

Benelli have announced a couple of additions to their ETHOS line of semi-auto shotguns. The new guns were introduced at this year’s virtual SHOT Show. The ETHOS SuperSport is aimed at the competitive shotgun shooter market while the ETHOS Cordoba BE.S.T utilises Benelli’s BE.S.T. finish technology for rust and corrosion protection. Check out Benelli’s announcements below for more information.

The Savage Renegauge shotgun was released a year ago and it is now time for the Competition version. The Renegauge Competition looks delicious in black and red, don’t you think? The barrel is finished with Melonite, while the receiver, magazine tube and extended Skeet2 Light Modified choke are finished in Cerakote.

At this year’s virtual SHOT Show, Franchi took the opportunity to unveil a pair of new 28 gauge over – under shotguns. Expanding their Instinct range they have added a new 28 gauge option to their Instinct LX and SLX lines.

The VR series semi-automatic shotguns from Armscor International / Rock Island Armory get an addition with the 20 gauge version called VR82. The thumbhole stock design reminds me of the HERA Arms CQR stock, don’t you agree?

Looking for a new over-and-under shotgun? With the new Mossberg Reserve Series Over-and-Under Shotguns you should be equally at home in upland fields or shooting clays in a competition.

This year’s SHOT Show may be a little different, ok that’s an understatement but as usual, there’s a healthy range of new shotguns being released. Maryland-based Stoeger have announced the addition of a synthetic stocked version of their Condor over/under. The new synthetic Stoeger Condor comes in at $349 (MSRP) making it an interesting option for a slick, robust, affordable over/under.

New for 2021 from Stoeger is a special winter optimized hunting shotgun with an eye towards snow geese hunting.  With the addition of their 10 round magazine tube from their M3K 3Gun Freedom series model, plus other loading and operation features optimized for heavy gloved use, the M3500 becomes a snow goose harvesting machine. Just don’t forget an extra long dowel when using it for certain other game birds.

Since prehistory, hunters have  covered their bodies and faces in materials to camouflage themselves from their prey. When you’re putting food on the table, you want as many advantages as possible. Combining both of these ideas, Browning has introduced the 12 gauge Maxus II Camo, which comes in a variety of patterns and offers a number of advantages. If ducks don’t have nightmares, they’re about to start.

Like their sister company Winchester which SHOT Show Special firearms we covered yesterday, Browning has also released a number of limited edition guns for the SHOT Show 2021. These guns differ from their standard, catalog counterparts by unique finishes, furniture and configuration options. In total, there are 106 Browning SHOT Show Special guns. Let’s see what firearms are included in this list and take a look at some of the most interesting ones.