I hate the looks of it, but I bought one several days ago for the hell of it primarily because it is advertised to reliably shoot mini shells, which I have recently grown to appreciate as being advantageous for certain applications. Anyway, I only had the gun for a few days before I saw the recall and shipped it back. It arrived at S&W yesterday, October 25, so we will see how long the turn around period is. Meanwhile, I had the chance to take it to the range twice before the recall. Mini shells ran perfectly, and other than the looks I kind of liked the gun. Got to admit 19 (if I recall correctly) mini shells on tap is pretty amazing. The gun is relatively heavy, but balanced well. (I didn’t try any 3 inch). And of course it’s overall length is very short. I also appreciated having one tube filled with mini shells or 2 3/4 buckshot, and the other tube filled with slugs. Switching between the tubes is easy and fast. I agree it’s probably not necessary to have such a high capacity shotgun, but it’s overall length allows me to carry the gun concealed in my car very easily. I also own a Benelli M4, an SBS Benelli M1, a Mossberg 590 and Mossberg Shockwave, and an 870. The M&P 12 is shorter than the SBS Benelli and only slightly longer than the Shockwave. I found I could fire the M&P much faster and more accurately than the shockwave, and it holds twice the rounds. It’s still ugly though.
