The bullpup shotgun is a big seller with new gun owners wanting an actual inside the home or apartment defense shotgun.
The standard pump shotgun is too long and difficult to maneuver inside the typical dwelling and and is extremely hard to hold with one hand and open doors or fend off an in your face attack.
I owned a Kel-Tec KSG and just didn't like it.
The weight and bulk was hard to work with, and the complex shell stop feed system was wonky and trouble prone.
It seems to me that the double magazine system is more a "thing" for range ninjas who like to show off how fast they can empty the gun.
I personally don't know of a case where a home invader required shooting 10 or 15 times with buckshot.
Unless you're going through Falluga with the Marines or you're at risk of a mass assault by a heavily armed biker gang it's hard to see how that many shells are going to be useful in the typical home defense situation.
There are possible situations where that many shells could be needed, but those are rather rare, and it's tough to justify the added weight, bulk, and complexity over a standard capacity single magazine for a typical home defense situation.
Everyone wants more shells, but they come with the price of a heavier, more complex, and bulky gun that's slower in action.
For these reasons I sold the KSG and bought the far more handy and useful KS7.
Kel-Tec's engineers learned a lot with the KSG and they applied that knowledge in the KS7.
It's a mature, viable, simpler, design that works.
The light weight and short length make moving around inside the home, or even handling inside a vehicle easy, and the KS7 is FAST into action.
The light weight does increase felt recoil but this can be dealt with by ammo selection or better recoil pads.
The loading set up is much better then the KSG or from the looks, the new S&W.
The KS7 has a single magazine tube and guide ribs to position and guide the shells.
With the other double magazine guns you have to carefully align shells with the tube to be loaded and not try to push them into the wrong tube.
The KS7's guides and single magazine insures a shell has no where to go but into the tube with no fumbling or misalignment
The shell release design is far simpler and less troublesome then the complex KSG and probably the new S&W.
The single magazine tube KS7 is very easily accessed for routine cleaning and maintenance, whereas the KSG and probably the S&W require special tooling and heating to get access to the tubes.
This will lead to insufficient maintenance, where the KS7 HAS to be opened up for cleaning of the action and opening the magazine is extremely easy.
In fact it's easier since there's no magazine spring retention device that has to be removed to gain access to the spring and follower.
The KS7 has a cleaner, less complex look and feel, where the S&W has an overly "Busy" complex appearance with a lot of contours and features that seem to serve no purpose.
This is seen on a lot of new guns and appears to be a cosmetic attempt to make a new gun distinctive in appearance from competitors models.
If you don't like the KS7 carry handle/sight you can buy a Kel-Tec conversion to replace the handle with the KSG Pickatinny rail and add any sighting system you want.
To be fair, the KS7 handle works extremely well at inside the home ranges.
My bottom line is that the double magazine shotguns seem to be more a "range toy" to impress people with how fast you can fire off a lot of rounds, never mind that you aren't actually hitting anything.
I would also caution planning on using the mini-shells in any of these guns.
Possibly S&W has designed an action that is totally reliable with them, but the KSG and KS7 my not be.
Some Kel-Tec guns are 100% reliable with mini-shells, some seem to be until suddenly you get a stoppage, and some just won't work with them at all.
The ONLY way to find out which is it is to shoot enough mini-shells to verify to your satisfaction that THAT gun is reliable with THOSE shells.
How many that takes depends on what the minimum number you're comfortable with and how lucky do you feel.
No doubt S&W will sell a lot of these, but I'd wait for some actual shooters reviews, and if you think you'd like a bullpup shotgun, I'd strongly recommend handling a KS7 first.
