Combat Shotgun

I've been thinking up ways to trick out a Remington 870 shotgun for home defense. I was thinking that the 18" barrel (since MN prohibits SBSes) with a pistol grip, metal pump foregrip with a rail to hold a vertical grip, extended tube magazine, and receiver attachment with a shotshell holder and rail to hold a red dot would be pretty good.

Then I got to thinking that it'd be neat to have a detachable magazine for a shotgun. Flipping through Shotgun News, I saw an ad for a Izhmash's Saiga-12, which is an AK-47 receiver converted to fire shotshells. A company called Alliance Armament makes modified Saiga-12s as well as 20- and 30-rd drum magazines. Sweet! The base gun itself is only $600 or so, but when one starts accessorizing it, things get expensive really fast. Alliance offers a "reliability service" which makes me think that the Saiga as-is has issues. Their rail system is $250, and the drums area $380 and $425.

Then again, semi-auto only could jam in a critical situation. The SPAS-12 can operate in either mode, which would be better. I think I'll stick with the cheaper pump option for actual defense, but I might buy a Saiga-12 just for the hell of it.