Not a necro-thread but ...... Came across a little shorty shotgun that just called to me. Mossberg hs-12. Yeah we all heard of them but I always confused it with the Stoeger double defense. Straight up, I loathe the rails on both of these guns. I know some folks get jazzed by the lights, lasers, bipods , coolers, toolboxes and whatever other crap they can bolt on to their guns but I prefer the minimalist approach and have thus never entertained the purchase of one of these potential "swiss army guns" HOWEVER, last weekend I happened upon a dealer that had a used Mossberg HS-12 with no rails, except the one that incorporates a useful sight groove atop the receiver.
This shotgun had my name on it. No extra bolt on crap, no glaring screw holes to betray the presence of past bolt on crap either. This shotgun was simple. Black, matte, ready to work. On top of the beautiful absence of "stuff" the icing on the cake was a pair of as new aftermarket Carlson Long Beard turkey chokes! The finger twist type with porting.
After checking the bores I couldn't even tell if it was fired. The only downside was finding out about the stupid gravity safety that engages when the gun is held at around 30°. I assume this is to avoid shooting one's toes with such short barrels....thank you lawyers of the world (said no one, ever). Removed the stock, pushed out the pin, pulled out the little pendulum and voila....normalcy abounds! Looks like the shorty Winchester pump will be sitting out the spring turkey season.
