Tokarev TT 12 Pro Review: $365 Shotgun Beast

The Tokarev TT 12 Pro is an AR-style 12-gauge shotgun that showed up cheap, ran clean, and refused to choke on low-velocity shells, buckshot, or slugs. For about $365, this box-magazine-fed semi-auto came to fight.

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All of that muscle memory developed running AR15 rifles isn’t lost on the Tokarev TT 12 Pro shotgun. Operating the Tokarev is intuitive because the controls, the magazine release, bolt release, and safety selector, all have that AR15 feel to them, plus the controls are ambidextrous. Designing a shotgun that runs like an AR15 is not just a good idea. On the Tokarev TT 12 Pro, it is the whole point.

AR-style, box-magazine-fed shotguns have become popular because they offer a higher magazine capacity compared to a traditional semi-auto or pump shotgun, and they are faster to reload. We’ve seen 3-Gun competitors with extended 20-round black banana magazines blaze through shotgun stages. Shotguns also make excellent defense weapons, because you can load with different shells, bird shot, buck shot, or slugs, to suit the situation. That’s why a number of shotgun manufacturers have introduced a variety of AR-15-style 12-gauge shotguns in the past few years. Many of these 12-gauge-shell-eating beasts have originated in Turkey.

The Tokarev USA brand is a relatively new brand in the U.S. market and is manufactured in Turkey. The Tokarev name is more Russian than Turkish. Fedor Tokarev was a Soviet arms designer who designed light machine guns, pistols, and semi-automatic rifles. SDS Imports’ Tokarev USA brand offers shotguns in all sorts of configurations, including gas-action semi-autos, pumps, bullpup semi-automatics, and AR-style shotguns like the TT 12 Pro.

The Tokarev line of shotguns is affordable, and affordable doesn’t necessarily mean capable. Many of the shotguns I’ve tested and used that originated from Turkey need a breaking period. I assumed the TT 12 Pro would need to consume at least a box of high-velocity shells to run reliably. I was wrong. I started out with low-velocity target loads and tried to trip up the TT 12 Pro with a few FTF or FTE jams. I had none. It ran smoothly, worked perfectly, and made my break-in expectations look foolish. I was, and I still am, impressed.

In my experience, many AR-15-style 12-gauge shotguns use a gas piston action from a hunting-style shotgun, hide it under a bigger handguard, and hope for the best. The TT 12 Pro uses a unique gas-piston system. Most gas-piston-operated shotguns wrap the piston around the magazine tube, which is located under the barrel. The gas-piston system on the TT 12 Pro is around the barrel, which gives the Tokarev a slimmer rail, not much bigger than the handguard on an AR.

The TT 12 Pro uses a dual-stage, self-regulating gas-piston design. The piston in the first stage uses gas from a fired shell to push the bolt back when a minimum pressure threshold is met. In the case of too much gas, the excess gas goes to the second-stage piston to vent out the excess gas. The bolt-return spring is also located in the handguard, not located in the buttstock’s buffer tube. The entire system is housed in the upper receiver portion of the shotgun.

The TT 12 Pro’s buttstock contains a traditional buffer tube that’s empty and allows any AR15 aftermarket stock to be used. The benefits of a dual-stage gas system make the TT 12 more reliable across a wide range of shells from low velocity to high velocity. Plus, it has the benefit of mitigating recoil. On the downside, the gas system is slightly more complicated to disassemble. Because the barrel and gas system are secured inside the handguard by a forward barrel nut, a special tool, which is included, is required for maintenance.

The TT 12 Pro features an 18.5-inch barrel with flush-fit choke tubes. Three tubes are included: Cylinder, Modified, and Full, and a wrench in the plastic case. Also included is a sling and polymer flip-up BUIS-style sights.

The TT 12 Pro field strips similarly to an AR15. The upper receiver is aluminum and houses the bolt and barrel. The gas system is hidden under its 15-inch machined-aluminum handguard, which has plenty of M-LOK slots and small sections of Picatinny rail for mounting accessories. The top of the upper has a Picatinny rail to mount the sights as well as a red dot, which was my choice in sights.

I mounted a Burris FastFire E closed emitter red dot with a 3.5 MOA dot. I like this optic since it is always on yet sips from a CR2032 battery. A riser is needed since the TT 12 Pro has straight-line stock.

The lower is polymer and features a flared magazine well, an A2 style grip with a finger groove and a nice polymer stock that offers a good cheek weld and is equipped with a vented recoil pad that helps manage the kick of hot 12 gauge loads.

All of the controls are painted a matte red and contrast nicely with the matte black finish on the rest of the gun. It is a small touch, but on a black AR-style 12 gauge with a lot going on, those red controls stand out in a good way.

The magazine release and bolt release are oversized. Those controls and the selector are in the relatively same location as on an AR15. My one complaint is with the selector, which I wish were slightly longer. What I really liked was the oversized charging handle. It can be swapped from either side. I am right-handed, and I prefer the charging handle on the left side so I can manipulate it with my left hand while my right stays on the pistol grip.

Total weight is about 9.5 pounds unloaded, and overall length measures 37.7 inches. The extra weight is a plus when it comes to recoil management. Nobody brags about weight until a 12-gauge starts pushing back, and then those extra pounds suddenly become your friend.

The TT 12 Pro is shipped with one 5-round magazine; 10- and 19-round magazines are available. The 5-round mag is about the size of an old VHS cassette tape. It is easy to load, and since 12 gauge shells have a rim you have to manage that and be sure the shells are pushed to the rear to allow additional shells to be loaded. It is easy to manage after you have loaded the magazine a few times.

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I packed Federal Game Load 7.5 bird shot (1290 fps), Fiocchi High Velocity 7.5 bird shot (1330 fps), Aguila High Velocity OB buckshot (1275 fps), Hornady Critical Defense OO buckshot (1600 fps), and Brenneke 1.1 ounce Rifled Slugs (1510 fps). I started with the light Federal Game Load, thinking I would be dealing with jams. I had none, even when shooting from the hip. With the full choke tube installed and the tombstone target set at 15 yards, I punched fist-size holes through it after 5 rounds of birdshot.

Pattern size with the birdshot measured 14 inches, so if I did my part, I could keep the pattern on the 18-inch-wide tombstone. Moving to buckshot loads, the Hornady Critical Defense produced an 8-inch pattern, and the Aguila gave up a 13-inch pattern. Recoil with the Hornady was noticeably heavier, and I was grateful for the weight of the Tokarev as well as the rubber recoil pad.

Ripping through the 5-shot mag as fast as I could, I found the muzzle rising, but I was able to control the Tokarev. I really like the thin rail, which makes grasping the shotgun easier and offers better control. Other AR-style 12 gauges I have used were choked until a minimum of high-velocity loads were fired through them. Not the Tokarev. Not one issue.

Moving to slugs and targets at 25 yards, the red dot made aiming the TT 12 Pro a cinch. Three-shot groups were averaging 1.5 inches. Recoil was harsh with the slugs, but tolerable. The Tokarev is impressive in the most annoying way possible for shotgun snobs: it simply works.

I even tried it with a clay pigeon thrown from a hand trap and was smoking the clays. It took a few shots to get used to the TT 12 Pro since it is an AR, which is typically aimed. A shotgun is pointed. I blasted clays and even followed up on the larger pieces with a second shot. Not a single issue. The Tokarev TT 12 Pro is impressive. I wonder what a 3-gunner could accomplish with the 19-round magazine in the Tokarev?

If I have any bitch about the Tokarev TT 12 Pro, it is the magazine release. Since the shotgun is new, empty magazines have to be stripped out. The process became a lot slicker with use. That is not a deal killer, but it is something you notice when the rest of the gun is running better than expected.

• Pros: Smooth cycling, comfortable to shoot with light loads, fast reloads, and ambi controls.
• Cons: Heavy trigger, noticeable recoil with heavy loads, sticky magazine release.

The street cost on the Tokarev TT 12 Pro is about $365, and that is a steal. The Tokarev performed flawlessly with whatever ammo I ran through it. Recoil is manageable, and if you run an AR and want a shotgun for home defense, the Tokarev TT 12 Pro is a great option.

For an affordable AR-style 12 gauge shotgun, the TT 12 Pro checks the boxes that matter: familiar controls, box magazine reloads, useful accessory mounting space, choke options, and reliability with light loads right out of the gate. It is not a featherweight, and it is not recoil-free with heavy loads, but it ran. At this price, running is the part that matters most.