A Browning BPS tactical?

[caduckgunner]

When did Browning start making tactical shotguns? I belive Browning is owned by FNH, so maybe this is there replacement for the Winchester 1300 Defender that went away.

[heavyrecoil]

The BPS High Capacity is a new model for 2007, it was introduced at the January SHOT show.

Essentially, it's just a BPS Stalker with a shorter barrel and a longer magazine tube.

[jdberger]

Some interesting thoughts on using the BPS as a fighting shotgun:

Shotguns-The Browning BPS has never been seen as a fighting or action competition shotgun. That's a shame, because with a few modifications, it makes a great one. When I needed to upgrade to a modern pump from the Winchester '97, I looked at everything I could find. I looked outside the boundaries, being careful to not be constrained by what everybody else was using. My three main criteria were handling related: a) it must have a short, smooth stroke; b) ergos must be good- safety and slide release easily reached and actuated; c) there must be no %#&%$@#!!)&$# cartridge lifter, acting as a loading gate to the magazine. As popular as certain models of shotgun are, many have the lifter/gate which must be depressed to load the magazine. These tend to act like Chinese fingercuffs, trying to skin the unfortunate thumb that follows a little too closely behind the cartridge it is pushing in. The BPS has none, and, in fact, the magazine loading area is long enough that loading two at a time is possible, by dropping a cartridge on to the bottom of the bolt of the overturned shotgun, pushing it in with a second cartridge, which then follows it in. You have just loaded two for the price of one, so to speak. As a bonus, the BPS has an ambidextrous safety, if that is important to you. It also has bottom ejection, of which much is made, but the advantage is not that the empties come out the bottom, nor even that the receiver is enclosed (although I'll admit that doesn't hurt). The real advantage is that ejection is very positive and it is not necessary that the slide be racked hard and fast to get clean ejection. The one huge, glaring disadvantage of the BPS and other bottom-ejecting shotguns in a fighting/competition role, is that a single round cannot be quick-loaded into the chamber when the gun runs dry, as there is no ejection port giving the shooter direct access to the chamber. The action of the gun must be closed, a round loaded into the magazine, and racked into the chamber-- slow and cumbersome. Some tactical trainers recommend against the habit of dropping a round directly into the chamber because a) you weren't supposed to let the gun run dry in the first place, and b) you are using two loading procedures: one for an empty gun and one for a partially loaded one. Be that as it may, when the shotgun has been run dry, and you have just heard that very loud CLICK, it is faster to drop one in with the action open and close it than it is to put one in the magazine and rack it in. There could be a time when one round NOW is more meaningful that one round in "now-point-eight" seconds with the satisfaction that you did it like they told you. Toward this end, the BPS and the Ithaca Model 37 pictured here have the loading port cut into the receiver.

Personally, I use an Ithaca 37 with wooden furniture - but I'm a old fart and dig old school stuff.