Shotguns are the most versatile firearms on the planet. They can do it all, from hunting birds and small game to home defense, law enforcement, military applications, turkey and big game hunting, as well as clay target and cowboy-action shooting. No other firearm features such a wide array of available ammunition types, designs, and potential uses. But perhaps the best thing about shotguns is that they are a heck of a lot of fun.
Nearly every shotgun manufacturer in the world comes out with new models, styles, or configurations every year in order to tempt fresh customers and earn some media buzz. Some are the equivalent of a new paint job or bold new graphics in the automotive world, but some are truly innovative and/or offer some features that shotgun fans have greatly anticipated. Let’s look at some of our picks for the most interesting and exciting new shotguns this year.
Mossberg 590A1 Professional Series, 940 PRO SPX, and 590RM
Mossberg announced several exciting new shotguns for the law enforcement, competition, and self-defense market this year. Let’s start with the most well-known product family.
Mossberg 590A1 Professional Series
Mossberg teased the new 590A1 Professional Series at SHOT show a year ago, but customer feedback and some issues with the new sighting system kept these new duty-grade shotguns off the shelf until 2025. However, it looks like they’ll be out soon, which is a good thing. Initially offered to military and law enforcement, the Professional series will also be released for commercial customers, according to company spokespeople. The 590A1 has been in use by the US military for decades, due to its legendary reliability. The new Professional Series includes 9 variations of the 590A1, with upgrades including Cerakote or Mossberg’s well-regarded nickel-based Marinecote finishes, Magpul or compact Mossberg furniture (in black or blaze orange as pictured above), and the new fully protected, low-profile ghost-ring rear and fiber-optic front sights. There are 6, 7, and 9-shot tubular magazine models with 14”, 18.5”, and 20” barrels, and there are even models that accept Mossberg’s durable, detachable box magazine in 5, 10, 15, and 20-shot capacity. The rear sight assembly can be removed entirely, and underneath it, the receiver is drilled and tapped to accept direct-mount Shield RMSc-footprint micro red dot optics. However, each shotgun includes 3 additional adapter plates for mounting RMR, Docter, and Leupold footprint optics if desired.
All 590A1 Professional models benefit from what Mossberg claims is an enhanced assembly and quality-control process, as well as a re-designed loading port and an oversized, ambidextrous safety (still mounted on the tang, so left-handed shooters can rejoice). Plus, you still get all of the standard 590A1 features that have helped build the shotgun’s reputation for reliability under harsh conditions, including dual extractors, steel-to-steel barrel and bolt lockup, twin action bars, heavy-walled barrels, and a metal trigger guard.
MSRP for the 590A1 Professionals starts at $980 and goes up to $1,435. That’s a lot of dough for a pump shotgun, but the 590A1 has proven its reliability and performance in hard use, and the new enhancements serve to make a great shotgun platform even better.
Mossberg 940 Tactical Pro SPX
Mossberg’s competition and duty-oriented 940 Tactical Pro SPX is the latest iteration of the 940 Pro shotgun, which itself was an improvement over the well-regarded 930 series a couple years back. The 940 Tac-Pro SPX includes the new-style Professional-series sighting system outlined above, which also allows the direct mounting of a micro red dot optic if desired. The forend is actually pretty innovative, and extends upward around the sides of the barrel with ventilated heat shielding integral with the forend itself. This might become the new preferred way to accomplish effective heat shielding for tactical/combat shotguns. It not only looks cool (literally), but removes some hardware and potential sharp edges from typical stamped-steel barrel-mounted heat shields.
The forend has some additional features, such as reinforced QD pockets on either side, enhanced texturing, M-LOK slots on both sides and the the bottom/front, and a smoothed-out profile at the rear where it meets the receiver. This last change will be welcome by competition/tactical shooters who use the very fast twins- or quad-loading technique. A fully smooth, welded elevator and re-profiled loading port enhances this capability further, and even if you don’t load quads or twins, you’ll still appreciate your thumb not getting pinched by the improved, non-slotted lifter. The Tac-Pro SPX also comes from the factory with Vang Comp Systems’ velcro-attached, sidesaddle/ammo cards, which can easily be stripped off and replaced with a fully loaded card for rapid tactical loading. The shotguns also include provisions for Mossberg’s accu-choke tubes, which is a feature that’s not always available on tactical-style shotguns (they are often fixed IC or Cylinder bore, without screw-in choke capability).
The new, enhanced buttstock features QD pockets on either side, a nice, ventilated, soft-rubber buttpad, and included spacers so you can customize the length of pull to your liking, from 12.5” to 14.25”. Stock cast and drop are also adjustable with shims. The 940 Tactical Pro SPX weighs just 7.25 lbs and is available in three colors: Matte blue/black ($1,190 MSRP), Cerakote flat dark earth, or Cerakote OD green ($1,246 for either Cerakote color option). There’s also a SKU with a factory-mounted Holosun 407K micro red dot included, for $1,371. With features and performance that match or exceed competitors costing twice as much, the 940 Tactical Pro SPX is likely to be a hot seller.
Mossberg 590R and 590RM
Mossberg has released some pretty goofy 500-series shotguns in the past (and still offers the very silly Chainsaw). At first glance, the new 590R and 590RM might elicit similar scorn, but a closer look reveals several new features designed to make these tactical-style shotguns more accessible and usable for military and law enforcement personnel familiar with the AR-15/M16 family of rifles and carbines. The most obvious deviation from traditional Mossberg 500 family lines is the new stock configuration, which places the adjustable buttstock in a straight line directly behind the receiver, similar to an AR-15. This drives recoil straight rearward and reduces muzzle climb, but it also requires the use of elevated sights, such as the flip-up Magpul MBUS sights included on some 590R/RM models, or an optical sight on a riser-style mount. A new Picatinny rail on top of the receiver facilitates both. There’s also a new one-piece heat shield for the 18.5” barrel and a new, ergonomically enhanced forend.
Speaking of ergonomics, the problem of the pistol-grip Mossberg has always been how to reach the tang-mounted safety at the top rear of the receiver. Well, the new 590R series finally addresses this problem with the addition of AR-style, ambidextrous, rotary safety levers on either side of the receiver, well within reach of the shooter’s thumb. Again, anyone familiar with an AR-15 will find the use of this safety second-nature. The action release button is enlarged, and can be activated by the thumb of right-handed shooters, or the inside of the index finger of left-handed shooters. There’s also a new flat-faced trigger that produces a smooth, crisp break.
You can choose either the standard tube-fed 590R (6 rounds plus 1 in the chamber), or if you prefer, you can select the box-magazine fed 590RM, which features a durable, detachable, polymer 10-round magazine, released by an AK-type lever just rearward of the magazine port. The magazines rock and lock in place, and are very secure. In addition to the option between tubular and box magazine, you can also choose between models with flip-up sights and screw-in chokes, or a breacher model with a stand-off muzzle configuration and no back-up sights. MSRP is $1,085 for the 590R models, and $1,190 for the 590RM variants.
Palmetto State Armory 570 pump (and possibly auto)
PSA is one of our favorite gun manufacturers, combining great value, innovation, and made-in-America quality with a great sense of humor. The company teased their new, modular 570 shotgun a year ago, but it looks like it will finally reach production in Q3 or Q4 of 2025. The 570, as you might guess from the name, combines features of the Remington 870 and the Mossberg 500/590 series of pump shotguns, but adds a level of modularity and customization unheard of by either of those companies. The 570 can be user-configured and assembled in multiple variations, with an easily-removable magazine tube and barrel hanger/clamp. The safety is at the top rear of the receiver, Mossberg-style, but the bolt release is a new design, accessible by a right-handed shooter’s index finger on the right side of the receiver. Furniture is Remington 870-compatible, made by Magpul, and includes that company’s well-known ergonomic features and M-LOK slots in the forend.
The 570 features a beveled loading port, dual extractors, and a 590-style lifter that moves out of the way for easy loading with the bolt closed. The receiver is milled for a RMR-pattern red-dot optic as well. Price for the 570 hasn’t been officially announced, but if PSA’s history and existing product line teaches us anything, it will be very affordable.
One new 2025 bomb that PSA dropped at SHOT show is that they’re considering a semi-auto kit for the 570. Very innovative engineering has allowed a pump shotgun design and receiver to be converted, with just a barrel and forend assembly swap, into a semi-automatic shotgun. This is currently in concept/prototype-only form, but it’s such a clever idea that we’d be surprised if they didn’t actually produce it in the next year or two. So keep your eyes open!
Benelli Nova 3
Benelli’s Nova and SuperNova pump-action shotguns set a new standard for durability, light weight, value, and corrosion resistance, since they first appeared on the market in the late 1990s. However, the new Benelli Nova 3 has some significant improvements, and is now even lighter, by over a pound in some models. The Nova 3 in 12 gauge with a 26” barrel weighs just 6.6 lbs., due to a new, one-piece polymer receiver and buttstock, which uses steel inserts where needed for strength and rigidity. If a plastic firearm frame sounds strange to you, it’s similar in concept to the wildly successful Glock series of handguns, which utilize nylon-based polymer frames with steel inserts for the high-wear areas like frame rail tabs and the locking block.
The Nova 3 is drilled and tapped for optics, and is now offered only in a 3” chambering. Research showed that the vast majority of Nova buyers didn’t care about 3.5” shells, and with the weight being as low as it is, we don’t blame them. 3” magnums fired out of a sub-7-pound pump shotgun are likely to be punishing enough. This also means that the action stroke could be shortened by 14% and the timing optimized for the shorter shells. The loading port has been smoothed out, and the new diamond-pointed texture on the grip portions of the buttstock and forend is extremely grippy. Another change to the Nova 3 is the bolt head is now reminiscent of Benelli’s ultra-reliable M4 shotgun.
One very handy feature that’s possibly unique in pump guns today (we’re not aware of any others) is the magazine cutoff button on the bottom of the forend that, when pressed, prevents the magazine from releasing a cartridge onto the lifter as the slide is retracted. This is useful for hunters who want to swap loads without having to empty the magazine, as well as for law-enforcement officers who need to quickly swap from a slug to buckshot or vice versa.
Several camouflage patterns are available, and tactical/law-enforcement Nova 3 models with ghost-ring sights are offered as well. MSRP for the new Nova 3 starts at $529, but we’ve seen them at the usual online retailers for just over $400 already. For what you get, that’s an amazing deal.
Heritage Coachwhip SxS
Heritage Manufacturing has previously been known primarily for their very low-cost .22 revolver line, but has recently been acquired by Taurus USA, who also purchased Rossi firearms. These merges have allowed Heritage to both improve their manufacturing processes as well as begin to expand their product lines significantly, all with a focus on traditional aesthetics and historical model types. Their latest is the Coachwhip, a side-by-side break-action shotgun with double triggers and, interestingly in today’s market, double hammers. Primarily intended for cowboy-action shooters, the Coachwhip will also find a niche with anyone who appreciates the beautiful aesthetics of fine double guns, but who doesn’t want to spend the equivalent of a home mortgage to buy one.
The Coachwhip features attractive, checkered Turkish walnut furniture, with an old-style rounded pistol grip. The sidelock-style receiver is color case-hardened, which lends a classic aesthetic and really completes the look. The external hammers are also case-hardened. The 18.5”, cylinder-bore barrels are finished in black chrome. It really is a nice-looking shotgun and is visually a step up from the entry-level cowboy-action guns from makers like Stoeger and CZ, with their flat finishes. Generally, double-triggered SxS shotguns are more reliable than some inexpensive single-trigger double-barrels, because each trigger only has to fire one barrel, rather than two. This simplifies the mechanism and lessens the chance of breakage. Shooting a shotgun with double triggers takes a little adjustment if you’re used to modern single-trigger guns, but it’s quite fun once you get used to it. The manually cocked, external hammers just add to the experience.
The Coachwhip is not equipped with spring-loaded ejectors, but rather a simple extractor. This will make cowboy-action competitors happy, since ejectors are not permitted in most divisions. It also adds to the historical, take-your-time feel of the gun overall. The price for the Coachwhip is a bit spendy at $984 MSRP, though we expect that will settle in around $750 street price once demand drops a little. Overall, this is one of the new shotgun models we look forward to most. There’s just something undeniably cool about a double-hammered side-by-side, especially one that looks this good.
Store all your shotguns (and everything else) in a Liberty Safe
Keeping your firearms and valuables more secure from theft, fire, and unauthorized access is easy in a gun safe from Liberty. You can see all the styles, models, configurations, colors, and prices available in our interactive online catalog, or you can click the dealer locator and find a Liberty showroom near you. There’s something for every taste and budget, and all our safes are proudly made in the USA from American steel.
*Made in the U.S.A. from U.S. and Global Parts.
