In today’s black rifle world, you might assume that using the good old-fashioned scattergun for home protection is obsolete. But the vast number of defensive shotguns in Mossberg’s booth at this year’s premier trade show indicates otherwise. In a case of “if you ask for it, someone will build it,” Mossberg’s subsidiary Maverick Arms has introduced the HS12 (Home Security 12 gauge). The HS12 has a tried-and-true over/under design, but this is not your standard fowling piece.
Gun Details
The HS12 is a hinge-action, double-barreled shotgun with 18.5-inch tubes, an overall length of 36.5 inches and a weight of 6.25 pounds empty. The forend and stock are black polymer with a rubber recoil pad at the butt. The metal finish is a matte blue. To make the HS12 attractive to the home-defense crowd, Maverick has installed an accessory rail on the top of the receiver and another out front, just under the lower barrel. The top rail forms a rear-sight channel and a front-sight blade is fixed to the upper barrel at the muzzle. An orange piece of fiber-optic material is fitted into the front-sight post. The HS12 has a single two-stage trigger that ignites both barrels consecutively. A tang-mounted safety is located just behind the action lever—back for “safe,” forward for “fire” and the switch also operates as a barrel selector. With the safety switch in the “safe” position you can slide it left or right, exposing either the “O” (over) or “U” (under). The letter that is exposed represents the barrel that fires first. Two varieties of the HS12 are available: the Model 75447 with two cylinder bore barrels and the Model 75449 with an improved cylinder top barrel and a modified bottom barrel. I tested the 75447 with twin cylinder-bore barrels…
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