Is This The Ultimate Home-Defense Shotgun?

With a magazine capacity of 16-rounds, Standard Manufacturing’s DP-12 double-barreled 12-gauge could very well be the ultimate home-defense shotgun.

TWO BARRELS ARE BETTER THAN ONE

The DP-12  utilizes a bullpup design with an overall length of 29.5-inches. It’s built around a solid block of 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum giving it some heft at 9.3-pounds empty.

When fully loaded, it’s a beast, but even then, it’s surprisingly well balanced. Target acquisition was quick and easy and accuracy is what you would expect from a shotgun sporting two 19-inch barrels.

The Standard Manufacturing DP-12 is a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun. It comes with two flush-mount spreader choke tubes with Tru-Choke thread patterns. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

DOUBLE THE FUN

The DP-12 holds 2.75-inch shells, 16 in total, and delivers them with two barrels. That’s a serious scattergun. It can also fire 3-inch shells, though, that drops the magazine capacity a bit. If that’s not enough to get the job done, you may need to call in air support.

To operate the DP-12, rack it like you would any pump-action shotgun. This loads two rounds into two respective chambers. Each time you pull the trigger, one round is fired. So, you pull the trigger twice, once for each barrel/chamber, and then rack the pump and repeat until empty. It takes some getting used to but once you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature.

What looks like an awkward buttpad area is a spring-loaded recoil mechanism. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

FULLY AMBIDEXTROUS

What looks like an awkward buttpad area is actually a spring-loaded recoil mechanism that greatly reduces recoil. Both the AR-style safety and the slide release are ambidextrous and easy to reach. Sling swivels are present in the expected each end of the firearm.

Both the AR-style safety and the slide release are ambidextrous and easy to reach. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

LOTS OF OPTIONS

The DP-12 wears a full-length Picatinny top rail, a lower accessory rail, and both sides of the slide mechanism feature Magpul MOE slots.

It ships with two flush-mount spreader choke tubes with Tru-Choke thread patterns. Available separately are extended, door-breaching spreader chokes for those special occasions.

The DP-12 comes with two flush-mount spreader choke tubes. Here we see the extended, door-breaching spreader chokes available separately. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

CONCLUSION

We fired reloads and factory loads all day and the gun gobbled them up. It was 100 percent reliable. And even if you were to have a misfire, well, you just pull the trigger again. This is what makes the Standard Manufacturing DP-12 a contender for the ultimate home-defense shotgun.

PUT A DP-12 IN YOUR GUN SAFE

The DP-12 features a full-length Picatinny rail and Magpul MOE mounting slots to mount all your goodies. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

Sixteen rounds from the DP-12 at 30 yards. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

The Kel-Tec KSG, top, and the DP-12, bottom, are both similar in size. The DP-12 has two barrels and holds an extra two rounds. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

The double loading slots on the DP-12. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)

The DP-12 fires wither 2.75- or 3-inch shells. (Photo: Kristin Alberts/Guns.com)