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The latest variant of the Spandau S2, the 12/21 turkey gun, comes with a short barrel, True Timber camo, and an aftermarket choke tube, all for under $650. I am actually kind of giddy about it. It easily earns my vote for “best value of the year,” and since my vote is the only one that counts here, the S2 12/21 wins in a landslide. In the seemingly never-ending flood of Turkish-built inertia semi-autos, it’s hard for any one gun to stand out. The S2 does, through a combination of features, extras, and quality. Here’s a closer look at this new turkey gun.
Quick Overview
Spandau S2 12/21
Pros
- Great value
- Easy loading
- No-click bolt
Specs
- Chambering: 3-inch 12-gauge
- Length: 43 inches with 21-inch barrel and extended choke
- Weight: 6 pounds, 12 ounces
- Barrel: 21 inches, orange fiber-optic front bead, brass mid-bead, stepped rib, three flush chokes and one Carlson’s Bone Collector turkey choke
- Capacity: 3+1
- Action: Inertia semi-auto
- Trigger: 6.5 pounds
- Finish: True Timber Strata hydrodip
SDS Arms began importing the S2 in 2024. The gun is a copy of the Benelli M2 prior to its 2023 makeover. In fact, many parts are interchangeable, and it accepts M2 accessories. There are tons of M2 aftermarket parts on the market, so that compatibility is a big plus.
While it looks like an older M2, it loads much more smoothly. Shells slide into the magazine with ease, and the carrier doesn’t grab your thumb, either. Better yet, I cannot make this gun go out of battery no matter how hard I try. The “click” misfire is the Achilles’ heel of the inertia design. A gun that doesn’t bump out of battery is important for any kind of hunting, but especially important for turkey hunting, where one misfire in the woods could ruin an entire season.
Overall, the shotgun seems well-made, fit and finished for a gun at its price point. The exception is the slammer button, which is nothing more than a piece of spring steel that hooks onto the front of the receiver and covers the traditional round bolt-release button. You can use it, or take it off and throw it away. When turkey hunting requires fast reloads, you’re doing it wrong.
Again, the gun looks exactly like a Benelli M2 circa 2022. The barrel has the M2’s stepped rib, front and middle beads, and it is threaded for the Beretta/Benelli Mobilchoke system that preceded Crio-chokes. It is light, at 6 ¾-pounds, and short and maneuverable. The gray-green Strata pattern isn’t as bright green as spring foliage, but still, be careful where you set this gun down if you want to find it again.
Test Results
When I put the gun on a rest to check point of impact, it slightly inches low for me at 20 yards. It comes with a shim kit, and I was able to make it fit with no problem. Fit is a moot point anyway, because I will add an optic, using one of the many optic plates for M2s on the market and a Leupold Delta Point. Although the gun is Benelli-compatible, Jahred Gamez of SDS Arms tells me the screws are metric, and you have to use M4-0.7×25 screws in place of the 8-40 screws Benelli uses.
The S2 12/21 cycled heavy 1200 fps, 1 1/8-ounce target loads out of the box and never hung up, although it was less enthusiastic about 1 ounce, 1160 fps ammo. While a 21-inch barreled gun with a turkey choke makes a far-from-ideal skeet gun, I tried a couple of rounds anyway. The gun functioned perfectly. No, I did not break them all, but those I broke with the turkey choke turned inside out. With Winchester’s 3-inch, 2 ¼-ounce Tungsten loads of 9 shot, the gun put 280-290 pellets in a 10-inch circle at 40 yards. While other guns may do more, this is still three times as many pellets in the circle as you need to kill a turkey.
The trigger pull, at 6 ½-pounds, was nothing special but not terrible. Everything else worked perfectly. The triangular safety is big and easy to find. As I mentioned, the gun loads easily, and you can inch the bolt shut when you’re in pre-dawn stealth mode, and it will close. The bolt handle is large, but not too large. The spring-steel “slammer button” is comically cheap-looking, but it does work, and it’s low-profile so you don’t bump it by mistake, although it will also fall out when you remove the barrel and forend. The round bolt release is stiffer than most, enough so that even I, who hates slammer buttons, may look for an aftermarket part for this gun.
The hydro-dip finish was well-applied, and, as with almost everything else about this gun, it looks better than you would expect for the price. The recoil pad is harder than the Benelli pad, but I’m not going to shoot this gun more than a few times all year, so I can forgive that.
Final Verdict
The Spandau S2 12/21 works. It’s lightweight, compact, and will be easy to carry in the woods. It looks like an older M2 (which I prefer to the lines of the newer models) while it also has the loading and reliability improvements of the new M2s. At $631, it sells for $170 below the price of a Stoeger 3000 turkey gun. It even undercuts a Mossberg 500 pump turkey gun by $70. This gun works. It doesn’t look or feel cheap, bolt-closer notwithstanding. I am eager to deck this gun out with some Benelli accessories and take it turkey hunting next spring.
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