Suggestions for a left-hand .12ga HD semi-auto

9

9ballbilly

New member
Both my son and I are southpaws.

I'm looking for suggestions for a home defense semi-auto .12ga.

Saw a Charles Daly 600 LH with 18"bbl for a good price, but from what I could find these have a lot of QC issues. Not really suitable for a home defense firearm.

Thanks.
 
M

MarkCO

New member
I assume a Benelli price tag is too high for you?

The only other two I'd feel okay suggesting are the Franchi Affinity 3 and the Winchester SX4.
 
4

44 AMP

Staff
Left hand Remington 1100, or variant, if you can find them. Proven design with a long history of good service. And more than a few aftermartket add ons are possible, if you want something other and a basic duck gun....

Remington is out of the gun making business now :( But they made a lot of guns and lots of them are still out there, including the LH models, but the left hand ones won't be as easy to find, as they never made as many of those.

IF you do go that route, and get one (two??) I'd recommend you see if you can find replacement parts for those parts unique to the left hand model and buy a spare, or two. What you want to avoid is finding out "well, we never had many, slow mover, sat gathering dust for 20 years, but we finally sold the last one 3 years ago..."

I recommend that if you have any gun with unique parts, get spares NOW while available, because it always seems to happen that the rare part you need is sold out when you need it.

Good Luck with your search.
 
M

MarkCO

New member
Rem 1100 and 11-87 are fine for the Clay sports. But they release the shell from the tube based on the carrier action, not the trigger release. Shell surge is a thing, and if you plan to configure a SD shotgun, as the OP stated, with more than 4 shells in the tube, the Rem 1100 and 11-87 are definitely not a good suggestion. You want a SD shotgun that releases the next shell on the trigger pull. Benelli and clones, release on the trigger pull. So does the Rem VM and V3, 1301, Stoeger, Franchi Affinity3, Weatherby Element.
 
B

BourbonCowboy

New member
I'm a lefty and I have a Mossberg 500A with an 18.5" barrel that I use for home defense. The tang safety makes it as close to ambi as it gets. Yeah, I wish it ejected hulls on the left side, but those LH models go for a lot more than the $280 that I paid for mine.

I also added a totally ambi TreeLine forend light. A TactaLoad Flash-5 and a TACSTAR slimline side saddle allow me to load the gun with 15 #4 Buck minishells and five 2 3/4" slugs. I've yet to find anything about it that I don't like. And for a lefty, it's much more comfortable to operate than my Rem 870.

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4

44 AMP

Staff
Nice pictures of your PUMP GUN.

Don't see how that helps answer the OP's question about left hand SEMI AUTOS....

I do have a question, one I forgot to ask before, about the gun, are you looking for a left handed semi auto that will serve adequately as a home defense gun at need, or are you looking for one to turn into a dedicated home defense /combat type thing with all the tactical bells and whistles???

The Remington 1100s hold 5, (4+1) standard. Spare barrels are out there, if you can't find a short one, a longer one could be cut down. Until MarkCO's post I was unaware of issues with extended magazine tubes, but I can see where it could be a thing, possibly one of the reasons that most police and the military still run pump shotguns. Pumps simply are the most reliable function under extreme field conditions. I wouldn't think a home defense gun would see those conditions though. Trench guns need to work in trenches and pumps rule for that. For HD, I use a pump, and a SxS because I have them. My semi is a lovely Ithaca, rather suboptimal for HD because it only holds 3 (2+1).
 
9

9ballbilly

New member
No "tactical" do-hickeys. Just a short barreled semi-auto .12ga in a left handed configuration.

I really like the 1100's, but like you said, parts availability may be an issue. I'm thinking the best choice may be an SX4 and just having the barrel cut to 18". That seems to be a reasonable price/ quality option.
 
J

jmr40

New member
Don't buy a budget semi-auto. If you can't afford a good semi, buy 2-3 pumps for the same money.

Gas operated semi-autos with shorter barrels tend to be less reliable. Especially with anything other than magnum shells. Not less reliable, but unreliable. In other words, shoot only magnum, or heavy loads in them.

Cutting a barrel on a gas operated semi-auto really screws up things. They are tuned for a specific barrel length for the gas pressure to be right to operate the action. Don't buy a SX4 and cut the barrel. Cutting a pump isn't a big deal.

My brother shoots lefty. He had to choose between left-handed guns he didn't like; or learn to shoot right-handed guns he did like. He chose the latter. All of his guns; AR's, bolt rifles, and shotguns are right-handed, and he has never had an issue using them. If you choose a model with the safety button behind the trigger it is easy enough to use it from either side.

I have an older Benelli M-1 with a 24" barrel. That is a little longer than most use for HD, but it is short enough. And long enough to be reliable with any load. Being inertia operated, the barrel length is less of a concern too. For me it is a good dual purpose hunting/HD gun that doesn't look "tactical".

Street price on the newer M2 is about $1200. I just ordered one in 20 gauge with the 24" barrel and my price was $1200 OTD. It's in on a boat in the Atlantic right now and I should have it in a few weeks.

https://www.benelliusa.com/shotguns/m2-field-shotguns

I'm not sure if they have that in lefty or not.

Another option was discussed over at "The High Road" recently. This is right-handed only, but street price is supposed to be around $1000.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/new-release-beretta-a300-tactical.914906/

That's a proven design and a lot of gun for $1000. It has some tactical features you may not want and is right-handed only. It will also probably only function with heavy loads with that barrel length. But if I were looking for a semi-auto HD shotgun, I'd look hard at this one. Even if I shot lefty.
 
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