My G & A
G&A Recommends
Shotguns
FNH SLP Mark I
| Type: | Gas-operated semiauto |
| Gauge: | 12 (3 inch) |
| Capacity: | 8+1 |
| Choke: | Cylinder, IC tubes supplied |
| Barrel length: | 22 in. |
| Overall length: | 43 in. |
| Weight: | Approx. 8 lbs. |
| Sights: | Fiber-optic post and barleycorn |
| Stock: | Synthetic black |
| MSRP: | $1,031 |
| Manufacturer: | FNHUSA 801.876.1711 |
Every time I watch "Shotgun Ed" Exley shucking and ducking in L.A. Confidential, I'm amazed at how far police shotguns have developed. All the way up to the present, many departments have just bought a sporting gun with perhaps a magazine extension or a synthetic stock and called it good. Even when I was on Embassy Duty in the late 1970s, the State Department issued us the light, folding-stock Remington Model 870P—a great gun, but quite light for the kind of daily bashing about suffered by police guns.
FNH now offers a purpose-built, extra-heavy-duty semiauto that is built to stand up to 30 or 40 years of daily abuse. It's no feathery field gun for upland game. No, the Self Loading Police is tough, heavy and overbuilt by the same factor as a Cummins diesel. The eight-round extended magazine could double as a blunt-force instrument, and the two-piece bolt locks up twice as securely as any other gas gun I've seen: The locking recess is machined all the way through the barrel extension, and the extractor is as beefy as a female Bulgarian shotput champion. The Mark I differs from the original in having a Weaver rail and lower sights.
FNH continues John Browning's tradition of building intuitive designs. The first time I disassembled the gun, it took me about two minutes to break down and less than a minute to put back together. Yes, I assembled it correctly, and no, in the great tradition of American sportsmen, I didn't read the instructions first.
