Civet 12 Review, a shotgun by SDS Imports [2020]
65+1 rounds of 12 gauge at your fingertips - any takers?
We added a Mesa Tactical high tube adapter and a front sight for some of our testing.
We’re not usually fans of pistol grips on shotguns, but the Civet 12’s AK-style slap reloads make a strong case for it.
We’re not usually fans of pistol grips on shotguns, but the Civet 12’s AK-style slap reloads make a strong case for it.
Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF)
Of all the box magazine-fed pump shotguns, the Civet 12's all-steel receiver and monolithic magwell make it both the sturdiest and the easiest to use. Reloads are fast, easy, and take only one hand start to finish. The use of Saiga 12 magazines means you can stock up for pretty cheap, in any capacity you want. However, even though it shares many parts and internals with the garden-variety Remington 870, the large number of custom parts inside the Civet 12 means you could be at the importer's mercy if you have a major breakdown, and dealing with an importer is very, very different (worse) from dealing with a manufacturer. Finally, although the Civet 12 is generally quite reliable across the board, it just plain doesn't like certain ammo and certain magazine brands. Once you've put in the time to find out which brands to avoid, though, the gun definitely delivers - it's a beast of a shotgun that just won't quit.
Review Contents
This review is organized as shown below. You can read the whole thing, or click on the below links to jump to the section that’s most interesting to you.
- Civet 12 Overview
- In the shop: - In the field: - Wrap up
- Civet 12 Overview
- In the shop: - In the field: - Wrap up
In a nutshell, the Civet 12 is a Chinese-made copy of the Remington 870, but re-designed to use Saiga 12 magazines. We say “re-designed” and not “modified” because there were no shortcuts taken here - the receiver is wider, the bolt is longer, and there are a bunch of other custom-machined parts. Unlike many Chinese guns, they didn’t do it cheap - they did it right. The gun’s single greatest trait is a solid steel magwell that’s machined right into the receiver, unlike the Remington 870 DM and most other box-magazine pump shotguns, which just stick a plastic or aluminum magwell extension onto an otherwise pretty standard receiver.
The Civet 12’s receiver and magwell are milled from a single block of solid steel.
There’s no need to worry about the magwell coming loose or wearing out
There’s no need to worry about the magwell coming loose or wearing out
The Remington 870 DM (top), Charles Daly Honcho (bottom), and almost all other competitors use add-on magazine wells that can shift position over time and are made of softer materials like plastic and aluminum
The second great strength of the Civet 12, as mentioned before, is that it uses Saiga 12 magazines. This presents some unique advantages over the Remington 870 DM – Saiga 12 magazines are cheaper, more widely available, and available in more capacities (including drum magazines). Plus, the Civet 12 reloads faster since the magazines drop free, unlike the 870 DM.
Even better, the Civet 12’s pump-action layout fixes the biggest problem with the Saiga 12’s reload procedure – the bolt hold-open (or lack thereof). Reloading a Saiga 12 is a finicky travesty of hand-swapping and gun-flopping because you have to hold the bolt open, against spring pressure, to easily seat the loaded magazine. We should note here that you cannot reload the Civet on a closed bolt - there’s a little lip on the bottom of the bolt body that catches the top shell and won’t let it seat. You could probably grind that lip down so the magazine will seat, but there's really not much point because the Civet 12 is just so dang easy to reload.
Since it's a pump-action, all you do is rack it back and leave it open – it requires no practice at all and you can even perform the whole operation with your weak hand while keeping the weapon at the ready. That’s AR-level ergonomics, and something no other box mag-fed shotgun can boast (that we know of).
Even better, the Civet 12’s pump-action layout fixes the biggest problem with the Saiga 12’s reload procedure – the bolt hold-open (or lack thereof). Reloading a Saiga 12 is a finicky travesty of hand-swapping and gun-flopping because you have to hold the bolt open, against spring pressure, to easily seat the loaded magazine. We should note here that you cannot reload the Civet on a closed bolt - there’s a little lip on the bottom of the bolt body that catches the top shell and won’t let it seat. You could probably grind that lip down so the magazine will seat, but there's really not much point because the Civet 12 is just so dang easy to reload.
Since it's a pump-action, all you do is rack it back and leave it open – it requires no practice at all and you can even perform the whole operation with your weak hand while keeping the weapon at the ready. That’s AR-level ergonomics, and something no other box mag-fed shotgun can boast (that we know of).
**repost with better video
— GunTweaks (@guntweaks) March 3, 2020
box mag-fed shotguns are cool@sdsimports Civet 12. It's a Remington 870 clone that takes Saiga 12 magazines. Chinese-made, but many of its internals are interchangeable with true 870 parts and it sure does reload quick...#guns pic.twitter.com/a9Rvx4q5QN
Seen here on our Twitter slapping fresh mags in without even trying.
If you keep the shotgun at the firing position and reload like you need it, you’re looking at nearly AR15-level reload speeds.
If you keep the shotgun at the firing position and reload like you need it, you’re looking at nearly AR15-level reload speeds.
The threaded barrel is handy if you want to add a brake or a flash hider, but doing so makes the barrel so hilariously long that it’s not really worth it. Instead, shortening the barrel is actually the way to go, if you can stomach the NFA paperwork - the Civet 12 practically begs to be turned into a SBS, since it can be shortened without hurting capacity (as in tube-fed pumps) or reliability (as in mag-fed semi-autos).
A photoshopped mockup of a SBS’d Civet 12 for your viewing pleasure.
Running a Mesa Tactical high tube adapter and a Hera Arms side folding adapter, this Civet is now begging and pleading to be made into a SBS.
We played with a few vertical grip setups in the shop to achieve the absolute shortest length possible, fantasizing about some demonic combination of the Serbu Super Shorty and a detachable magazine:
Some more photoshopping. Pretty sexy, right? If only it worked...
Sadly, it all crumbles when you try to put a vertical grip on the slide in real life. The slide has to be pulled back to reload, and then the rock-n-lock magazine will bump against the vertical grip, and the whole system just kind of flops. So, no vertical grips for the Civet 12 which is okay in our book – vertical grips on pump shotguns are like marble countertops: everyone wants one, until they have one, then they vow to never have one again.
We’ll start with our most burning question when we got the Civet 12: how do the parts look compared to an 870? Here’s a bunch of side-by-side shots, with discussion to follow:
Extractors interchange freely between the 870 (left) and the Civet 12 (right). Note that the 870 extractor shown on the left is milled, not MIM, and the factory Civet 12 extractor appears to be milled as well.
The Civet 12’s bolt (right) is physically longer than the 870’s (left) and the slide plate on bottom is bolted (and the bolts then staked to prevent loosening) to the main bolt body instead of sitting freely under it. This allows the slide plate to strip a round from the Saiga 12 magazine using a small extension on the bottom, and also makes field stripping pretty easy since the bolt and slide plate stay together.
Choose your style! We had parts from an 870 Express (left), an 870 Police Magnum (middle), and the Civet 12 (right) on-hand to swap parts between. For what it’s worth, everything that fit the 870 Express also fit the 870 Police Magnum, and vice versa.
The magazine tube rings are in different places, but if you can fix that, factory Remington barrels (bottom) seem to fit just fine in place of a Civet 12 barrel (top).
The 870’s wider extractor notch doesn’t seem like a dealbreaker, either.
The 870’s wider extractor notch doesn’t seem like a dealbreaker, either.
The Civet 12 slide tangs (left) are a little longer and cut differently than the 870’s (right)
but they’re not that far apart – you could probably get it to work if you had to.
but they’re not that far apart – you could probably get it to work if you had to.
There are many differences between Civet 12 (bottom) and the 870 (top) when it comes to the trigger pack,
but some small parts and springs may still interchange.
but some small parts and springs may still interchange.
Remington 870 furniture fits just fine, so if you’re wanting some Magpul, go nuts. That said, the Civet 12 isn’t really an 870 clone at all, it’s more “inspired by” the 870 since many of its internals are custom-made to accommodate the Saiga 12 magazine. Plus, the magazine tube (really just a guide for the slide assembly) is for some reason sized for 20 gauge shells, not 12 gauge shells, and it threads freely in and out of the receiver.
However, there are a number of parts that do interchange freely with the 870, meaning that you can maintain and sustain your Civet 12 over the long term pretty easily using parts you order directly from Remington. Here is a list of parts that we know for sure interchange freely between a true 870 and the Civet 12, because we swapped them back and forth ourselves.
Freely interchanging parts:
Here’s a list of parts that we’re pretty sure interchange freely, but didn’t test ourselves because we didn’t want to unstake the screws on the bolt body or disassemble the fire control group.
(untested but probably) freely interchanging parts:
Then there are parts that don’t interchange freely, but can probably be made to work with a little time spent hand-fitting:
Parts that interchange after fitting/modification:
Then, there are parts that are completely unique to the Civet 12:
Parts that don’t interchange at all:
However, there are a number of parts that do interchange freely with the 870, meaning that you can maintain and sustain your Civet 12 over the long term pretty easily using parts you order directly from Remington. Here is a list of parts that we know for sure interchange freely between a true 870 and the Civet 12, because we swapped them back and forth ourselves.
Freely interchanging parts:
- Buttstocks and forends
- Extractor, plunger, and spring
- Magazine tube (20 gauge)
- Magazine end cap (20 gauge)
Here’s a list of parts that we’re pretty sure interchange freely, but didn’t test ourselves because we didn’t want to unstake the screws on the bolt body or disassemble the fire control group.
(untested but probably) freely interchanging parts:
- Locking block
- Safety switch
- Some trigger parts
- Some pins and springs
Then there are parts that don’t interchange freely, but can probably be made to work with a little time spent hand-fitting:
Parts that interchange after fitting/modification:
- Barrels
- The magazine tube ring will need to be re-located by someone with a well-equipped machine shop or gunsmith’s bench. Other than that, fit looks good – we couldn’t fully install the barrel because the magazine tube ring wasn’t placed right, but we held the barrel in place by hand and cycled rounds successfully.
- Slide assembly
- Will not fully support the bolt body, but should be able to work.
- Some trigger parts
Then, there are parts that are completely unique to the Civet 12:
Parts that don’t interchange at all:
- Receiver
- Bolt body
- Firing pin, retainer, and spring
- Trigger pack
- Some trigger parts
The Civet 12 is based off the Hawk 982 shotgun, which is itself a copy of a Remington 870. Interestingly, the Civet 12 (Hawk 982) actually comes out ahead in quite a few categories when compared to a USA-made Remington 870.
- The trigger guard is solid steel, unlike the plastic trigger guard on a Remington 870.
- The extractor is milled, not MIM.
- A removable picatinny rail with an integral ghost ring sight is included, which bolts onto the pre-drilled and tapped receiver.
- The buttpad screw holes are threaded brass inserts, not just a wood screw biting into plastic like a synthetic-stocked 870.
- There are even little rubber plugs filling the gaps in the stock where the screwdriver tightened the buttpad in place, to give a smooth, clean appearance. Fat chance of seeing that on an 870 Express.
These are all little touches, by they take time – the Civet 12 is actually a well-made firearm in many respects
The control layout is exactly the same as an 870, with the obvious exception of the detachable Saiga 12 magazine. Other than that, if you liked the 870, you’ll like the Civet 12.
Trigger:
Measured pull weight is 6.8 pounds and it does the job – a standard pump-shotgun trigger like you’d find on any 870.
Sights:
A fixed, non-adjustable front blade/dot is included, as well as a removable picatinny rail with an integral ghost ring sight, which is a nice value-add over a Remington 870, which doesn’t include a rail AND needs to be drilled and tapped to take one. The ghost ring rear on the Civet is pretty fragile, though – one or two hard drops and it’ll be unusable.
Magazines and Saiga-12 Compatibility:
The magazine release is sturdy steel so we don’t expect durability problems, and it’s long enough for the AK-style “slap” reload – fast, not that difficult, and fun as hell. Our Civet-12 came with a factory 5-round magazine, presumably Chinese in origin just like the Civet-12 itself, which proved to be dead reliable.
Also included were three clear 10-round magazines that are claimed to be made in the USA. However, the 10-round magazines were clearly made using the same (or very similar) equipment as the 5-round magazines – the texturing, feed lips, baseplate, and overall design are 100% identical to the 5-round magazines, except that the plastic is clear instead of black and the mags hold 10 rounds instead of 5. The 10-rounders also feel cheap – the spring rattles inside the magazine and the plastic feels slick and fragile. We found that only one of the three clear 10-rounders could be trusted to feed reliably.
We also ran Promag 10-round Saiga 12 magazines, and these turned up a FTF about once per magazine, usually on the last shell but not always – typical Promag (lack of) quality. We suspect that putting a stronger magazine spring in the Promags and the clear 10-rounders, such as the springs sold by Csspecs, would fix their issues, but in the end we decided not to throw good money after bad.
Trigger:
Measured pull weight is 6.8 pounds and it does the job – a standard pump-shotgun trigger like you’d find on any 870.
Sights:
A fixed, non-adjustable front blade/dot is included, as well as a removable picatinny rail with an integral ghost ring sight, which is a nice value-add over a Remington 870, which doesn’t include a rail AND needs to be drilled and tapped to take one. The ghost ring rear on the Civet is pretty fragile, though – one or two hard drops and it’ll be unusable.
Magazines and Saiga-12 Compatibility:
The magazine release is sturdy steel so we don’t expect durability problems, and it’s long enough for the AK-style “slap” reload – fast, not that difficult, and fun as hell. Our Civet-12 came with a factory 5-round magazine, presumably Chinese in origin just like the Civet-12 itself, which proved to be dead reliable.
Also included were three clear 10-round magazines that are claimed to be made in the USA. However, the 10-round magazines were clearly made using the same (or very similar) equipment as the 5-round magazines – the texturing, feed lips, baseplate, and overall design are 100% identical to the 5-round magazines, except that the plastic is clear instead of black and the mags hold 10 rounds instead of 5. The 10-rounders also feel cheap – the spring rattles inside the magazine and the plastic feels slick and fragile. We found that only one of the three clear 10-rounders could be trusted to feed reliably.
We also ran Promag 10-round Saiga 12 magazines, and these turned up a FTF about once per magazine, usually on the last shell but not always – typical Promag (lack of) quality. We suspect that putting a stronger magazine spring in the Promags and the clear 10-rounders, such as the springs sold by Csspecs, would fix their issues, but in the end we decided not to throw good money after bad.
We’re not going to talk about busting clays, because no one is buying the Civet 12 for busting clays. This firearm is built around one goal - keeping the shells coming. In that respect, it delivers. It can’t match the trigger speed of a semi-auto, tube-fed war machine like a Benelli, Beretta, or FN, but it reloads much faster and that reload takes almost no practice to perfect, very unlike the semi-auto Saiga 12 or any tube-fed shotgun. Basically, the Civet 12 has a lower rate of fire since it's a pump-action, but offers higher sustained firepower over time.
Of course, firepower only matters if the gun works. Fortunately, we’re happy to report that the Civet 12 does work, but there are asterisks. We know it doesn’t like Promag magazines, and that could be the fault of Promag, or it could be the fault of the gun. It doesn’t like Herter's 1 oz birdshot, and if it doesn’t like that ammo then there’s likely others it won’t eat, and so on. Furthermore, all of these intricacies could very easily be unique to our individual shotgun – your Civet 12 might eat Promags for lunch and smile.
So the Civet 12 can still be a butt-kicking, lead-spitting dragon of a shotgun, just be aware that dragon will only appear on range trip #3 or #4, after you’ve found the right ammo, the right magazine, maybe replaced the extractor, etc. That’s the point we’ve reached - we haven’t had a failure of any kind in a long time, and we kind of love the Civet 12 because of it. That said, don’t expect to hit the range immediately after unboxing and have completely smooth sailing.
Of course, firepower only matters if the gun works. Fortunately, we’re happy to report that the Civet 12 does work, but there are asterisks. We know it doesn’t like Promag magazines, and that could be the fault of Promag, or it could be the fault of the gun. It doesn’t like Herter's 1 oz birdshot, and if it doesn’t like that ammo then there’s likely others it won’t eat, and so on. Furthermore, all of these intricacies could very easily be unique to our individual shotgun – your Civet 12 might eat Promags for lunch and smile.
So the Civet 12 can still be a butt-kicking, lead-spitting dragon of a shotgun, just be aware that dragon will only appear on range trip #3 or #4, after you’ve found the right ammo, the right magazine, maybe replaced the extractor, etc. That’s the point we’ve reached - we haven’t had a failure of any kind in a long time, and we kind of love the Civet 12 because of it. That said, don’t expect to hit the range immediately after unboxing and have completely smooth sailing.
We ran just about everything through the Civet: bulk-pack birdshot in a number of weights, 00 buck, rubber ball rounds, and low-recoil tactical buck.
Only one brand of birdshot, Herter’s, encountered extraction issues – the extractor just wasn’t wanting to grab onto the rim of the cartridge, and the slide had to be racked a half dozen times until the extractor bit. In a few cases even that wouldn’t work, and we had to tap the shell out with a cleaning rod.
We then put the exact same shells (not the same brand of shell, the actual exact same fired shells) into 870 and it ripped them out like a champ several times in a row. So, the fix for this on the Civet would likely be installing an upgraded extractor (the 870 had a Volquartsen EDM-cut extractor). Or, just avoid that particular type of ammo, because everything else extracted 100% flawlessly.
In a nutshell, reliable operation of the Civet 12 seems to be obtainable if you:
(A) purchase good magazines that the gun likes
(B) avoid ammo it doesn’t like
maybe (C) upgrade the extractor (as we’d do to any 870)
Only one brand of birdshot, Herter’s, encountered extraction issues – the extractor just wasn’t wanting to grab onto the rim of the cartridge, and the slide had to be racked a half dozen times until the extractor bit. In a few cases even that wouldn’t work, and we had to tap the shell out with a cleaning rod.
We then put the exact same shells (not the same brand of shell, the actual exact same fired shells) into 870 and it ripped them out like a champ several times in a row. So, the fix for this on the Civet would likely be installing an upgraded extractor (the 870 had a Volquartsen EDM-cut extractor). Or, just avoid that particular type of ammo, because everything else extracted 100% flawlessly.
In a nutshell, reliable operation of the Civet 12 seems to be obtainable if you:
(A) purchase good magazines that the gun likes
(B) avoid ammo it doesn’t like
maybe (C) upgrade the extractor (as we’d do to any 870)
Of a half-dozen different types of buckshot, birdshot, and rubber ball, this Herter’s 1 oz was the only ammo the Civet 12 didn’t like.
That said, it really didn’t like it – we had to tap the round out with a cleaning rod more than once.
That said, it really didn’t like it – we had to tap the round out with a cleaning rod more than once.
If you’re not willing to spend a day or two at the range figuring out which are the good magazines and which are the bad,
then the Civet 12 probably just isn’t for you.
then the Civet 12 probably just isn’t for you.
In a nutshell: one of the best , toughest, and most well-designed box magazine-fed shotguns on the market, but some fenagling is required.
And that’s it. Happy shooting.