Hardware Review: Spandau S2 Realtree MAX-7 - American Hunter

One of the greatest costs associated with creating a firearm is the engineering that goes behind the design. Therefore, if you can clone a winner, it becomes effortless to drop your price point without having to resort to cutting corners that might hurt the product’s overall quality. For decades, the Benelli M2 has been viewed as the gold standard of inertia-driven semi-automatic shotguns. They have won countless competitions across the globe and account for a staggering number of mounts in the trophy rooms of the most discerning hunters. An international patent kept the core technology out of the hands of competing brands, but as that has long expired, several copies are hitting our shores. One of the latest comes from the Turkish company Spandau and is aptly named the S2, which serves as a nod to its predecessor. This fast-handling platform has been trimmed to fit several forms of hunting, and I was able to get my hands on a waterfowl edition clad in Realtree MAX-7 camo.

Understanding the inertia system helps to clarify why these shotguns are so reliable. Whenever a gun is fired, recoil drives it rearward until it meets resistance, typically your shoulder. When that happens, everything that is fixed will remain in place; however, parts that are designed to move will continue on this rearward path. In this case, those parts are the bolt assembly and the fired cartridge. Using your shoulder to essentially pry against, the action opens up and ejects the fired shell before a return spring slams it back into battery, taking a fresh round with it. Because we can’t escape recoil, the operating force will always be present. In contrast, gas-operated shotguns require shells to produce the right amount of pressure to cycle, which sometimes just isn’t there with lighter loads. Additionally, because the inertia system doesn’t push burning gasses back into the action, they typically run cleaner and cooler and have fewer parts involved to get the job done. This is important if you ever dunk your gun in the bay and need to take it apart for a boat-side cleaning.

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Hardware Review: Spandau S2 Realtree MAX-7 - American Hunter