Key Point: Different types of guns for different folks, but only the best.

5 Best Shotguns

A shotgun is a firearm, typically a long arm that is fired from the shoulder, that instead of a single bullet fires a number of smaller pellets. Shotguns are chiefly sporting arms, useful for hunting birds or other small, fast-moving game, but also have military and civilian self-defense uses. The ability to project a devastating pattern of lead or steel shot to short ranges is also valuable in urban or jungle environments. This makes a properly fitted out shotgun an excellent weapon for home defense or close quarters combat.

Winchester Model 1897

Developed by the prolific American firearms designer John Moses Browning, the Winchester Model 1897 pump-action shotgun was better known as the “Trench Gun” in World War I. Originally designed as a civilian sporting gun, the Trench Gun version sported a twenty-inch barrel, making it easier to handle in the narrow trenches of the Western Front, a bayonet lug for hand-to-hand combat and a heat shield. Trench Guns were used not only to clear narrow trenches during attacks but also, interestingly enough, to shoot down hand grenades flung towards American lines. The six round tubular magazine made it a formidable adversary when fired lengthwise down an enemy trench; a single 1897 shotgun could send fifty-hour .33 caliber pellets downrange in three seconds or less.

Remington 870

One of the most common shotguns in circulation is the venerable Remington 870. A manual, pump action shotgun, the “870” first hit the civilian market in 1950. The 870 is sold in a variety of configurations, with barrel length ranging from eleven inches to thirty, magazine capacity ranging from four to ten shells, and sold in shell calibers from .410 to 12 gauge. The shotgun was quickly picked up for police and prison guard use in the United States and has seen limited service in foreign military forces. Highly modifiable, a stock 870 can be modified by the user into an excellent home defense weapon.

Beretta 1301 Tactical

Self-loading shotguns have been slow to catch on in the United States, particularly in military units, for reasons that are not well known. The Beretta 1301 is one of a new generation of semi-automatic combat shotguns. Beretta claims its Blink gas operating system makes the 1301 thirty 6 percent faster than competing shotguns, enabling it to empty its four-shot magazine in just one second. The shotgun has a barrel length of 18.5 inches, making it handy indoors, and an enlarged charging handle that’s difficult to miss in stressful shooting situations. A combination ghost ring and blade sight is supplemented with a Picatinny rail that allows the 1301 to utilize prismatic, red dot or any number of compact optics.

Benelli M2 Tactical

Manufactured by Benelli Armi SpA, a subsidiary of Beretta, the M2 Tactical is a somewhat larger semi-automatic shotgun than the 1301. The M2 has a 18.5 inch barrel but can accommodate five rounds in the internal magazine. The Benelli shotgun also features a pistol grip, and the manufacturer claims it features up to 48 percent less recoil than comparing shotguns. The shotgun is fitted with a variety of iron sights, including ghost ring and tritium sights, and the receiver is drilled and tapped for a MIL-STD1913 Picatinny rail, allowing the user to install specialized optics. Length of pull is an unusually long 14 3/8     inches to accommodate the user’s bulletproof vest. The U.S. Marine Corps uses a similar version, the M4, designated the M1014.

Mossberg 500 Series

The shotgun with the most recent U.S. military pedigree is the Mossberg 500 series pump-action shotguns, including the Mossberg 590. The 590 is the only shotgun that passed U.S. Military specification MIL-S-3443G, which outlines the standards for U.S. armed forces riot-type shotguns with regards to accuracy, endurance, ability to withstand rough handling and the effectiveness of the supplied heat shield. A typical military grade 500 series shotgun has all-metal construction, an eight round internal magazine, a manual safety and bead sights. Like other shotguns barrel length varies quite a bit but the U.S. military’s shotgun barrels are likely 18.5 inches long. The 500 is used by the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps.

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5 Best Semiautomatic Guns on the Planet

Semiautomatic handguns typically differ from revolvers in offering a higher ammunition capacity over cartridge stopping power. The disparity doesn’t result in less powerful handguns, just in handguns that are dangerous in different ways. Accuracy, power and ammo capacity are all a factor in determining the most deadly semiautomatic handguns, and the most dangerous may favor one factor over the other. With that in mind, here are the five most deadly semiautomatic handguns on the U.S. market.

AutoMag .44 Magnum

Developed by the Auto Mag Corporation and first made for sale to the public in 1972, the AutoMag was for a time the most powerful semiautomatic handgun on the market. The AutoMag carried seven .44 AMP cartridges in an internal magazine, and was made of stainless steel with plastic grips. The AutoMag had a 6.5-inch barrel, and its overall length was 11.5 inches. This made the AutoMag rather heavy, and it weighed three pounds unloaded. The .44 AMP round is basically a 7.62×51-millimeter rifle round cut down for handgun use. Police Inspector “Dirty” Harry Callahan carried an AutoMag in the film Sudden Impact. Production of the AutoMag ceased in 1982.

Desert Eagle .50 Action Express

Introduced in 1983, the Desert Eagle brought rifle technology to the world of handguns, with gas piston design that siphons off hot gases from burning gunpowder and uses them to cycle the handgun. The Desert Eagle also uses an M-16 style bolt face to ensure a tight lockup against the high chamber pressures. The pistol has a six-inch barrel and seven-round magazine, and weighs nearly four and a half pounds unloaded. The .50 Action Express round generates up to 1,600 foot-pounds of energy, four times as much as a nine-millimeter Parabellum round.

1911A1 .45 ACP

Originally released in 1911 by the prolific arms inventor John Moses Browning, the 1911 was updated to the -A1 standard in 1924, essentially the handgun that we know today. The 1911A1 fires a smaller .45 ACP cartridge than other handguns on this list, but its advantage in other areas makes up for its lack of power. The 1911A1 is overall a more practical fighting handgun than the other guns listed here. The 1911A1 is smaller, has less recoil and is more concealable than the AutoMag or Desert Eagle, and its slim, flat profile makes it concealable with the right holster. John Browning’s masterpiece typically carries between seven and eight rounds, with magazines available to carry up to ten rounds.

Maxim 9

Most handguns on this list are ear-splittingly loud, the result of heavy Magnum and .45 calibers that require large amounts of gunpowder. This not only makes them painful to shoot without ear protection but easy to pinpoint their location. The Maxim 9 pistol has a built-in suppressor that lowers the sound of a typical 160-decibel nine-millimeter pistol shot to a tolerable 139 decibels. As the U.S. Marine Corps recently learned, shooters who don’t have their hearing blown out by gunshot noise are able to communicate and work together more effectively, as orders and directions are more easily heard across a noisy battlefield.

Glock 17

The presence of the Glock 17 on a list of the most deadly semiautomatic handguns, may seem unusual, but the Glock’s simplicity, reliability and high magazine capacity are too important to ignore. In the original Austrian Army trials that started the Glock on the road to success, the Glock 17 jammed only once in ten thousand firings. A Glock will work—period—in dusty, dirty, demanding conditions that will cause other handguns, especially larger caliber ones, to fail. The Glock 17’s fifteen-round magazine is more than twice the capacity of other guns on this list. While the nine-millimeter cartridge is as much as one quarter as powerful as the .44 AMP, proper shot placement on target can easily make the Glock 17 as dangerous as its much larger cousins.

Kyle Mizokami is a defense and national security writer based in San Francisco who has appeared in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009 he cofounded the defense and security blog Japan Security Watch. You can follow him on Twitter: @KyleMizokami. This was originally featured as two separate pieces in 2018 and is being republished jointly due to reader's interest.