Though they don’t come without shortcomings, a home-defense shotgun can be incredibly tool for defending your family. However, like any tool, you need to use the right one for the job. Yes, you can drive a nail with a screwdriver, but a hammer is a much better choice. By the same token, a shotgun specifically designed with home-defense in mind is a much better choice for that sort of work than your trusty turkey or duck hunting shotgun. A good shotgun is a powerful defense tool when in the right hands. Here are our picks for the best home-defense shotguns. First up on this list of the best home-defense shotguns is the Winchester SXP Defender. The primary feature of the SXP (Super X Pump) series of shotguns is their inertia-assisted action, which Winchester markets as one of the fastest and smoothest pump-actions currently available. The Benelli M4 has a self-regulating gas system that is specifically designed to reliably function with a wide variety of shotgun shell length and power levels. No list of the best home defense shotguns would be complete without a Remington 870. The pump-action 870 is the best-selling shotgun of all time for good reason: it works. That's why it is such a popular shotgun for hunters, police and people who want a reliable shotgun to defend themselves from both 2 and 4-legged predators. The Mossberg 590A1 Tactical is currently in use by the U.S. Army because of its rugged durability and reliability. The base model has an 18.5-inch barrel with a fixed-cylinder choke, a seven-shell (6+1) magazine capacity and a synthetic stock that can store an additional four shotgun shells. Like the Benelli M4, the Remington Versa Max Tactical is a semi-automatic shotgun specifically designed to reliably operate with a wide variety of slug and buckshot loads. The Versa Max Tactical's special gas-operated action combined with a high-quality recoil pad also dramatically reduces recoil, making the Versa Max much easier to shoot