Spandau S2 First Look

If you attended the NWTF Convention and Sport Show, you may have caught the new-for-2025 Spandau Arms S2 inertia shotgun. This Turkish-made shotgun looked good on the racks and came in at a reasonable MSRP of just $399.99 for the synthetic black version and $499.99 for the Mossy Oak- or Realtree-dipped models.

Well, we got our hands on one before the kickoff to the season just to run it through its paces and here are our thoughts.

The folks at Spandau sent us one of the Mossy Oak Bottomland dipped guns in a 12-gauge model with a 24-inch barrel (The gun also can come with a 28-inch barrel). The listed weight for the firearm is just under 7 lbs, which is on the lighter end of the spectrum for autoloaders.

Quickly removing the magazine’s threaded cap, we assembled the shotgun with ease.

The camo pattern was pretty seamless across the barrel, receiver and stock. Likewise, the oversized charging handle, the pre-drilled and tapped receiver (this is nice for turkey hunters as it eases mounting optics), and the bright fiber optic front sight stood out immediately while assembling the gun.

More noticeable upon further inspection of the gun was the oversized loading port. The left side (while holding the gun upright) was milled out much more than the right side to allow for the easy loading of shells, even while wearing gloves like hunters do for turkey or duck hunting.

The box came with a series of four chokes — cylinder, modified, full and a fourth choke that I was told was an extended modified choke — that are threaded to the Benelli/Mobil pattern. (Spandau Arms also markets the gun as being compatible with most Benelli M2 accessories and upgrades.)

The three flush-mount chokes were marked with groves for identification, but the extended choke didn’t have any markings, resulting in calling Spandau for clarification. Also, it’s worth noting that the chokes felt thin and had no marking for if they could handle steel or TSS. So, if you plan to hunt with this gun, it may be worth upgrading chokes to ensure safety in the field.

The box also came with several shims and a trigger lock for safety.

As with any semi-auto shotgun, it’s nice to know how it performs with all types of shooting or hunting disciplines you may encounter. So, we started on the trap and skeet overlays at the Palmetto Shooting Complex just to run some 2 ¾ inch target loads through the gun. (We left the extended modified choke in the gun for this shooting.)

Loading the gun was easy with the oversized loading gate, and each ounce and 1/8 shell with 8 shot cycled flawlessly. The gun shouldered nicely, and we managed to break a great number of targets shooting from the skeet field. Those targets that we did miss could be blamed solely on the shooter and not the gun.

Being an inertia gun, the kick was somewhat noticeable even on the light loads.

With the gun being tested by the NWTF, it was only natural to take it to the still-target range for some turkey loads, as well.

Using just the fiber optic front sight and swapping out the extended modified choke for the full choke, we ran some rounds of Winchester Longbeard XR through the gun, as well as one round of Federal Ammunition TSS.

The targets were at 20 and 40 yards, and I can comfortably say this gun could kill turkeys straight out of the box with little to no modifications. Just remember, the heavier the load, the more this gun will kick.

I have to reiterate that the gun has a sharp looking finish and well thought out modifications made for the hunting demographic.

We only ran maybe 40-50 rounds through the gun, which is far less than what would need to be run through it to fully stress test things, but it properly cycled both light and heavy shot shell loads.

It comes in at a price point that is easy on the pockets and will soon be available in 20 and 28 gauge, according to the folks at Spandau.

So, if you are looking to purchase your first shotgun or maybe add a gun to your arsenal without breaking the bank, the Spandau S2 is worth the look.

Learn more about the S2 at https://spandauarms.com.