My first stop at SHOT range day was the IWI tent to check out the new Tavor TS12. I was lucky enough to not even have to wait in line. I watched an IWI rep shoot the new bullpup shotgun.
Unfortunately he experienced a lot of failures to eject, due to light loads. Keep in mind it was a prototype gun. After switching to loads that fire over 1,200 fps the gun ran perfectly. Sorry guys, no mini shells.
The three cylinders rotate easily to allow loading of 5 shells per tube for a total of 15 shells plus one in the chamber.
The trigger felt good. The action was smooth and the recoil was not bad at all. After you empty the first tube, depress a little lever thing, rotate the tube and continue enjoying your ‘Mercia.
Jeremy got video of a few rounds going downrange, followed by Tom from IWI chatting with Ron and walking us through the unique features of the TAVOR TS12.
With an MSRP of $1,399 it ain’t cheap but I have a feeling it will be fairly popular.
With semi auto shotguns and lighter loads, at some point the physics of ‘not enough gas to cycle the action’ assert themselves.
Looks like a fun little shotty!
I’m curious what the weight is fully loaded with say, OO buck.
And how difficult or how long does it take to load?
I want to know this too- it sounded like you might need to rotate the shelltube to install the next round… Is there a way to reload successive rounds into one tube at speed, for something like 3-gun?
You fully load one tube (4 or 5 rounds, depending on length), and then rotate to load the nest tube. You’re pushing in the shells in a linear fashion into the end of the tube. Fast loading will be a new skill to acquire, but once mastered should be pretty quick .
With an MSRP of $1400, you can pretty much bet that street prices will be closer to the $1100 to $1200 price range or maybe even a bit less. Considering the prices of some of it’s pump action competitors, that’s not a bad price at all! It’s on my Christmas list for sure!
Star Wars, I’m more of a Mad Max type of guy.
What does IWI have against proper trigger guards?
A unique visual marketing gimmick that’s also functional?
I’ll agree with ‘gimmick’. As for functional, they could have given it a normal enclosed trigger guard PLUS the knuckle protector, and it would be safer and just as functional.
Mercia?! What are you, some kind of Saxon? 🙂
Maybe he meant ‘Merica?
Nope for me. Waiting for the Standard Manufacturing SKO Bull…
Very unique semi-auto shotgun from IWI. Reminds me of the SRM 1216, but with a fix magazine tube. Very compact. I think it will do well on the market for a high capacity shotgun.