My exact thoughts as I read the title. The Nova/Supernova was offered in sporting versions before the tactical. With a 3.5" chamber they can be configured for any hunting situation. The tactical models followed suit, they werent designed as 3.5" tactical shotguns. FWIW the Super X 18 pellet 00 buck loads are brutal on the shoulder and cant put 18 pellets on target at 15 yds. Maybe 10 pellets actually hit the target. Most buckshot loads are useless compared to managed recoil loads except Hornady's offerings. The extra velocity causes alot of shot deformation during setback that leads to flyers and scatters the pattern badly. It doesnt offer much more penetration in ballistic gel so basically unless you can hold the pattern together for longer range shots, the velocity is a useless waste of time, powder, money and shoulder pain. Lightfield offers a 3.5" slug that grenades on impact due to its ridiculous velocity, would probably lead to a very slow, painful death for anything shot with it except small game. It would blow small game the f**k up. What I like about the 3.5" action however is the ease of loading 2 3/4" shells, theres alot more room which speeds things up.
Because consumer tacticool shotguns are derived from their sporting counterparts. If the original sporting version is chambered in 3.5", the tacticool version will be, too, since the barrel is just one of sporting ones cut down and parkerized instead of blued. There are no (that I know of) purpose-designed-for-mil/LEO 12-gauge shotguns with 3.5" chambers.




















































