by John C. Krull
Gun Week Production Manager
Continuing our articles on emergency preparedness, this one is about our pursuit of the ideal tactical shotgun for you and your family. I had thought that I might already have the ideal shotgun in the Mossberg 590. This shotgun holds, I believe, 8 rounds in the tube, one in the chamber and 4 more are stored in the butt stock. But the length of pull on the 590 is too much for many people. With the storage compartment in the stock, it can’t be cut down to a more usable size either.
At the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show I saw several shotguns that I thought might fill the requirements. The one we are presenting today is from FNH USA (PO Box 697, Dept. GWK, McLean, VA 22101; phone: 703-288-1292; on-line: www.fnhusa.com). It is the FN Tactical Police Shogun (TPS) with a collapsible stock.
Certain criteria are a must for me. The shotgun must be a 12-gauge. It must have a capacity to hold a larger number of rounds than a regular hunting shotgun. And its length of pull must be such that smaller women and even young children can correctly shoot it. And preferable it will have ghost ring type (peep) sights. I have found these types of sights make it easy to aim and get back on target after a shot. I would never have them on a trap gun, but then we aren’t talking about shooting clay birds here.
The TPS from FNH is a 12-gauge. The tubular magazine, which extends to the length of the barrel, holds 7 rounds of 2∫ inch shotgun shells with, of course, an additional one in the chamber for a grand total of 8 rounds. Great! The TPS is a pump shotgun that is easy to work once you have familiarized yourself with the location of the slide release and the safety. The TPS is chambered to handle 3-inch shells if that is all that you have available.
Lengths of Pull
Length of pull was one of our criteria which is fully accommodated by its collapsible stock. The stock locks into 3 different lengths when extended. The length of pull can be adjusted and locked in at 13 inches, 12 inches or 11.25 inches. With the stock fully collapsed you’d have a length of pull of 9.75 inches. So this gun can be adjusted either for a smaller person or for a person who is wearing heavy clothing or some type of body armor.
An added feature that I do like, but that wasn’t a must, is that the TPS has a pistol grip giving you a little bit more to hang onto for better control. The pistol grip along with the gun’s M16/AR15 type of sights makes it much easier to transfer from the carbine rifle to the shotgun.
This model of FNH has the FN Internal Tactical Choke. There are other models that have interchangeable chokes but with this being a tactical/self-defense shotgun I saw no need for the latter.
The safety is located at the front of the trigger guard and is the type that blocks the trigger. I prefer the safety to be located at the rear of the trigger guard but this isn’t an insurmountable problem. The slide release is on the left hand side of the gun and is located at the rear of the trigger guard.
The sights are very much like those on an AR-type rifle with the rear sights being fully adjustable for both windage and elevation. I don’t see this as a great advantage since I believe that you will adjust them once upon acquiring the shotgun and will probably never touch them again.
The top of the TPS has a 5˚ rail that will accommodate a C-More sight. So this is one more option that is available to you with this shotgun. The overall length is a nice 35 inches with a barrel length of 18 inches. Unloaded the gun weighs 6 pounds, loaded at about another 12 to 16 ounces, depending on ammo being used. The retail price of the FNH TPS is $922.69.
Shooting Slugs
We put several different type of defensive ammo through the FNH. We used two types of slugs. The Winchester (427 North Shamrock St., Dept. GWK, East Alton, IL 62024; phone: 618-258-3340; on-line: www.winchester.com) Ranger Law Enforcement Ammunition was a 1-ounce slug in a 2∫-inch shell. These are a low recoil slug, something that I thought would be better for my wife or kids to handle. And you definitely can feel the difference between this and the other slugs we shot.
Remington supplied the other slugs that we used. They are their Slugger 1-ounce rifled slug. These are probably my favorite slugs in the world. I typically keep several dozen boxes of these slugs available and they are what I load my shotgun with every year for deer season. While there was noticeably more kick with these slug shells than with the Winchester low recoil, there was little or no difference in accuracy. We did the entire slug shooting test at 25 yards. So take 
your choice here. I would assume, and this is only an assumption, that the Remington slugs might hit a little bit harder then the Winchester slugs. It seems logical to me that by giving up a little of the recoil you must also be giving up some performance down range. But if you aren’t placing your shots well in the first place because of the recoil, definitely go for the low recoil shells.
We shot 5 different defensive law enforcement shot loads. Two from Winchester, two from Nobel Sport and the last was from Centurion. The last two are distributed by DKG Trading Inc. (8791 Stringtown Rd, Dept. GWK, Evansville, IL 62242; phone: 877-354-2666; on-line: www.dkgtra-ding.com; www.nobelsport-ammo.com, and www.centurion-ammo.com). They performed radically different from each other.
Once again the ammo from Winchester was of the LOW recoil variety. While both were 00 Buckshot, one held 9 pellets and the other just 8. The pattern at 15 yards was 8 inches wide by 5 inches high. A spread that I was quite happy with at that distance. So for a shooter that is sure of himself this will make a nice load.
We shot the Nobel Sport number 4 buck with 27 pellets next. This really spread out. The pattern was 15 inches wide and 12 inches high with a flyer up an additional 3 inches. For the shooter who isn’t too sure of his/her ability this might be a better load for them to use with the additional spread.
The Nobel Sport 00 Buck shot about the same as the Winchester but with a little bit more kick. What we were doing was alternating a Nobel Sport with Winchester shells back to back so that we could get a feel for the recoil that we received. While these made a pattern of about 8 inches square, what I liked about this was that we were placing 12 pellets every time instead of 8 or 9. With a good hit it probably isn’t going to make much of a difference, but then it will probably depend shot to shot how much difference it makes.
Last we tried the Centurion ammo. This seemed like a really radical load. This shotshell holds one round ball of .650 diameter with an additional six #1 buckshot behind it. From 15 yards we got a spread of only 2 inches square with the big round ball right in the middle. So we moved the target out to 25 yards to see how it performed at that distance. The pattern did increase but only to 3˚ inches wide and just 2 inches high with a flyer off to the right by 3 inches and low. The shooter using these will have to be proficient with his or her shotgun and I’m sure that wherever you hit your target it will be a devastating wound.
You might ask why I have spent so much time looking for the ideal gun for emergency situations. It has been documented time and again that the store owner who is willing to protect his store has the least damage. You 
read about the homeowner who usually doesn’t have to fire a shot but just presents a firearm during extreme situations that fares the best. And, unless one is really proficient with a handgun, a shotgun—particularly the shortest legal barrel shotgun—is the most suitable choice for a defensive arm at close quarters.
At SHOT a couple of years ago I was talking with a guy at the Second Amendment Foundation booth about emergency preparedness. He told me he didn’t need to prepare for anything because he had “one of those,” and he pointed to the booth across the aisle which was displaying ARs and other tactical guns. He said he was planning to use his AR to take from you and me the supplies that we had stocked away for our use. Be prepared. Don’t let this happen to you.
When contacting any of the manufacturers listed in this article be sure to tell them that John at Gun Week sent you.
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