For some reason that I hope I won't regret later on, I have one on order. Mag fed shotguns are everything I am against in shotgun training and usage for my students. They lose the compactness and simplicity of a good pump that one carries 24 hours a day in bear country.

BUT the more I thought about it, the more I decided to try one.

I think the pump-action shotgun is ideal for my uses. I completely disagree with the Chris Costa crowd who think a shotgun is a complicated weapon - and can only be learned in an expensive 3-day training course. I have 3 1/2 hours to train someone on a shotgun in a life-threatening situation. All the complications arise with that darn tube magazine. All the feed problems I have experienced with recent vintage 870s have been that darn two-piece mag tube. (The new one-piece tube brought its own complications, especially when switching barrels.) I have an 870 tool box with maybe 10 or 15 followers that I have tried over the years.

Plus, I like my shotguns simple and fast. It has always been my philosophy that the faster you might need a shotgun to save a life, the less crap it should have hanging off it. I have tried every alternative for spare shells, such as speedfeed stock, velcro shell carriers, sidesaddle carriers, etc. They ALL are a compromise of some sort.

Just for interest, my personal 870 in polar bear country is a 4-round 870 Police with an Urbino stock and a 14" barrel. (Legal up here in Canada.) I have the world's most basic two-point sling, and all my ammunition is kept in pockets. It has 4 slugs in the tube, ten extra slugs loose in a strong-side pocket, five bearbangers in a chest pocket and two boxes of buckshot in my weak side pocket. (Useful for wild dogs that attack in packs in the north.)

So this is why I have a DM on order. I may love it; I may hate it, but I just mocked up a photo of what it is going to look like with a 14" barrel and an Urbino stock, and I am looking forward to getting it out on the training range this year and seeing if the folks like it. Plus, carrying a mag of slugs, with a mag of bearbangers in one pocket and a mag of buckshot in another pocket just seems so ... elegant.

I will let you folks know later this year. Trust me on this one - I am exactly a polar opposite - see what I did there? - of the mall ninja. I hate junk. But the idea still intrigues me. Plus, I pray that Remington has finally got their QC together for this one. I will know in two months.

By the way, the three-round magazine IS designed for hunters. To be compliant with most state and province hunting regs, it holds three shells but there is no freeplay in the top. This means it will NOT seat with the action closed. Thus, a hunter cannot have one in the chamber and three in the magazine; they can only have three total. According to most regulations, this complies.