When one thinks of double-barrel shotguns certain images are likely to be conjured up whether it is the classic high-quality hunting firearm or the short-barreled coach gun that gave rise to the term “riding shotgun.” The Standard Manufacturing DP-12 shotgun is neither. 

It also features anything but a “standard” shotgun layout.

While there have been shotguns that are based on the AK-47 such as the Kalashnikov USA’s KS-12, and others that are similar to the AR platform such as the Rock Island Armory VR80, the DP-12 is unlike anything else out there. It might be the most innovative concept in shotguns since John Moses Browning’s Superposed design was introduced in the 1930s. 

It is a double-barrel side-by-side, pump-action shotgun that features a configuration similar to a bullpup rifle. And unlike other supposedly “innovative” shotguns such as the HARDWAR3 Industries’ DX-12, the DP-12 seems like it could almost be a true killing machine from the future!  

Standard Mfg. Co. LLC., which is a sister company of Connecticut Mfg., developed the DP-12 to utilize two tube magazines that each feeds its own barrel, and each tube can hold up to seven 2.75-inch 12-gauge shotshells or six 3-inch 76-millimeter shotgun shells. While visually it would seem to be a semi-auto, it is in fact a pump-action weapon that has just a single trigger. 

The first trigger pull fires the right barrel and the second fires the left, while the sliding forend is connected to the bolt via dual operating bars. As noted ammunition is fed from the twin independent magazine tubes, which are located below the barrels, and the cocking of the slide feeds both barrels simultaneously. The rounds are loaded through a large loading/ejection port that is located at the bottom rear of the shotgun in the stop just behind the pistol grip while empty/fired shells are ejected down through the same port.  

The shotgun features a cross-bolt manual safety button located above the grip, and along with the center loading/ejection port, enables for either right- or left-handed use. This makes it about the most truly ambidextrous firearm out there today!  

While it only features iron sights, it comes with two Picatinny rails for accessories; a seven-slot rail on the bottom by the foregrip and a 13.75-inch thirty-four-slot rail on top. The weapon’s spreader choke tubes, which have Tru-Choke thread patterns, are designed so to shoot a devastating pattern at twenty-five yards.  

The DP-12 is ergonomically designed to balance the weight of the loaded gun for quick and efficient handling with the bare minimum of recoil. It is machined from aircraft-grade 7075 aluminum and has a thermal coated receiver and Co-Molded non-slip rubber pistol grip. At 10 pounds unloaded it isn’t the lightest weight double-barrel shotgun out there, but it isn’t the heaviest gun most shooters are likely to encounter either.  

Given what this shotgun provides in the way of firepower, it is easy to see how it topped the NRA’s American Hunter top-selling shotguns in its category earlier this spring according to sales via GunBroker.com. In times of uncertainty, this is the time of shotgun that you’ll certainty appreciating having when it is needed. 

Standard Manufacturing Company LLC. DP-12 specs: 

Action: Side-by-side, pump-action, bullpup shotgun 

Gauge: 12; 3-inch chambers 

Receiver: Aluminum 

Barrels: 18.875 inches 

Magazine: Two, seven-round-capacity tubes 

Trigger: 5 lb., 3 oz. pull 

Overall Length: 29.5-inch 

Weight: 10 lbs. 

Accessories: Owner’s manual, two choke tubes 

MSRP: $1,400 

Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com. 

Image: Wikimedia Commons / SU1677