Not all Turknellis are garbage, apparently
Stoeger has kept calm and carried on with a line of low-key defensive autoloading shotguns for a while and the M3000 Freedom Defense series feels – and performs – really well.
Follow me on the lineage here. Turkey’s Stoeger is owned by Beretta, which, in turn, also owns Benelli. Stoeger doesn’t advertise that, but it’s probably a big reason why the M3000 feels (and even looks) so much like the $1,400 Benelli M2 Tactical combat shotgun. Keep in mind the M3000 Freedom Defense is half as much, which is the mic-drop moment.
Speaking of lineage, Stoeger first introduced the M3000 series in 2013 as a field gun with full-length screw-in choked barrels. Then came the Defense version, with shorter (18.5-inch) cylinder bore barrels in 2017. Since then, Stoeger has made a series of quiet upgrades to the line to give us the M3000 Defender Freedom series that we have today.
Underappreciated for sure, I’ve about 500 shells downrange with the M3000 Freedom Defense with no issues to report so far other than the magazine knob spinning loose every now and then (keep an eye on that), and the “buttpad” just shouldn’t be called one.
More in my column at Guns.com.
