After the experience with the MAC2, I thought it would be interesting to see how the Military Armament Corporation’s knock-off of the Benelli M4 (known to the Marines as the M1014) compares. There happened to be a pair of these at the excellent Workhorse Armory here in Albuquerque — one with the walnut furniture, and a more traditional tacticool one. I went with the second.

Unlike the MAC2, which uses the inertia system of the M1/M2 series, the M4 utilizes the “auto-regulating gas-operated” (ARGO) system — it’s a short stroke piston system that supposedly self-cleans (bullshit!), and is supposed to be self-regulating to handle both light and heavy loads. More on that in a moment…

The MAC1014 (in this configuration) came with plastic stock and foregrips, and unlike the MAC2, there was actually a rear sling mount. The shotgun came with a MAC-branded sling, three choke tubes, tools to change said tubes. It uses the “ghost ring” sights — with a nice bright white dot on the front post, and the usual two white dots on the ring for very quick acquisition of the target. It also has a Picatinny rail on the receiver ahead of the read sight for optics. It comes with a 5 round tube — so six shots, total, but like the Benelli, can be modified with aftermarket parts for seven, either from MAC themselves or Benelli-compatible parts. Allegedly, the gun is 99% parts interchangeable.

I did a thorough cleaning, as I had with the other two MAC shotguns and saw none of the finish issues I had with the first MAC2 we tested. The weapon broke down easily and once cleaned and oiled, I took it out to the range the next morning.

This first trip was not the fifty shell shoulder torture of the MAC2; I only shot 30 shells, but could have easily done twice that. One of the supposed benefits of the ARGO system is lighter recoil, and that’s true. Even with older Super-X slugs, the recoil wasn’t worse than my little KS7 firing birdshot.

I kept it simple: all targets were at 20 yards. The ammo used was all Federal Premium and some older Winchester Super-X slugs. About that self-regulating thing with the gas system…nope. Maybe this is a break-in thing, but it really didn’t like the “Personal Defense” loads — 1145fps 00 buckshot. They shot phenomenally well: on point of aim, with a very tight group that had minimal spread (maybe four inches). So, just a good word in for the FliteControl packing for the Federal 00 buckshot; it’s fantastic! But in the MAC 1014, I had a failure to eject with every shell, and I purposefully spread these out with the slugs and heavier buckshot to see if the gun would loosen up a bit as I went on. Nope.

This was not an issue with the Federal Power-Shok buckshot, rated for 1350fps. Recoil was still quite light and I was able to annoy the guy next to me on the range but popping off six in rapid succession. The Power-Shok were nowhere as tight as the FliteControl ammunition, and the spread was about double at 20 yards, including a few over the shoulder of the silhouette. Next was the Federal Trueball slugs rated for 1300fps. These are stout, but I found them surprisingly pleasant to shoot from the 1014, and like the FliteControl — true to point of aim and light enough on the recoil I could drop the whole tube and stay in the nine ring. The older Super-X rifled slugs moving at 1600fps saw me drift a few inches to the right and up, but still in the eight and seven ring, due to recoil, which was noticeable — as was the report; much louder — but not unpleasant.

After the range trip, I broke the shotgun down and cleaned and inspected it. The gas pistons were dirty, but not outrageously so. The barrel was a bit dirty, but one pass had it clean. There was no damage to the finish, as with the original MAC2, and the shotgun went back together without issue. Probably the most annoying parts of the disassembly/reassembly are the bolt handle, which has to be rotated as you pull it out, or it’s not coming; and the two piece forearm, which requires a bit of finesse to get it back in. Nothing serious.

So is it worth it? At $370 before tax, this is an absolutely buy. It’s built like a tank; better than the MAC2, in my opinion, and the ARGO system makes shooting it fun without the shoulder pain. I’ll try some faster birdshot and see if it runs it, but my suggestion for self-defense ammo would be keep it over the 1200fps mark. Federal’s got a FliteControl wad in 00 buck running 1325fps…my suspicion is this would be spot on for home defense by minimizing stray pellets. (Yes, I really impressed with this stuff.)

The walnut stock and forearm version has a nice classic look to it that I really like, as well.