The Dagger SAP-6 is a fairly new, pump action, magazine fed shotgun out of Turkey. With 6 and 11 round magazines legal for use in Canada, it’s definitely the high capacity, magazine-fed leader here. It’s a unique combo that gives the shotgun a couple very compelling use cases. Tactical Imports kindly provided this SAP-6 test unit for this review. You can order directly from their website here.
SAP-6 Features
- 12 gauge 2 3/4″ & 3″
- 11.4″ fixed cylinder choke barrel (14″ and 18″ barrels that take chokes are available)
- Spring-assisted pump
- Straight insert magazines (6 and 11 round capacities are available)
- Telescopic stock that can hold 4 shotshells (a fixed length stock is available)
- Full length picatinny rail on top
With a good selection of reasonably priced accessories and standard interfaces like picatinny rail being used along the top, this shotgun comes with a lot of flexibility. There’s also a 5 year warranty that comes with the shotgun.
Dagger SAP-6 Video Review
Using the SAP-6
The SAP-6 is a short, handy shotgun with a bit of a weird pump system: it doesn’t lock closed in the forward position. Instead, it uses a spring outside of what is normally the magazine tube to keep the pump forward. It’s kind of a positive and a negative. On one hand, you don’t have to depress any button to unlock the slide should you know that your chamber is empty. On the other hand, it could unlock at a bad time if you jam the pump into a barrier. Personally, I loved it. With no lock, if you closed the pump and felt that the chamber was empty, you could quickly rack it back and throw in a shell. With no lifter mechanism and with the return spring, the pump is also very smooth and fast. On this shotgun, if I pulled back the pump and then let go, it’d self load the next shell.
Magazines need to be seated firmly but they’re thankfully straight in and straight out, unlike the more finicky rock and lock style mags on the Valtro PM5. Because the mags are so big and made of steel, it’s easy to ram them home. Note that the 6 round mags (mine at least) will fit 7 rounds if you press really hard, but it makes inserting the mag on a closed bolt VERY hard. I would recommend hand charging the chamber and then inserting a 6 round mag rather than fooling around with trying to desperately get the 7th round into the mag. The magazine release is an simple toggle at the rear of the mag well and is easily pressed with your left thumb as you pull the magazine out.
The safety on this particular SAP6 was a plastic crossbolt style that sat behind the trigger guard. It actuated easily and quietly.
When I saw pictures of how close the muzzle was to the end of the forend, I was a bit worried about my hand slipping off on the return stroke and potentially getting my hand in front of the muzzle. That’s happened to a few KSG owners, but this shotgun is very different. The return spring does pretty much all the work for you on the return stroke so you’re not really putting a lot of force forward. It’s still a possibility to get your hand in front of the muzzle, but you can greatly reduce it by 1: adding a sling, so that the sling acts as a bit of a stop. 2: correctly adjusting the rear stock for length. I found that with the stock adjusted out 2 stops, my hand didn’t feel like it could really fly past the pump and into the danger zone. On bullpup shotguns like the KSG or UTAS, you can’t adjust the stock to reduce the possibility of your hand slipping off the front but on the SAP-6, you can. If you’re still worried about getting your hand in front of the muzzle, you might choose to add some skateboard tape for extra grippiness, or get the railed pump and add a stop. Personally, I don’t think they’re needed, because after adjusting the stock for length, I felt very comfortable that my left hand wouldn’t be slipping forward and sweeping the front of the muzzle.
Disassembly is a bit more involved than a typical shotgun. Because the top rail is fixed on the barrel and receiver, you’ll need to unscrew the rail from the receiver to remove the barrel. The spring loaded pump also makes it a bit trickier to clean the barrel with a pull through snake, at least on your own. You’ll need a chamber flag if your range forces you to keep shotgun open when they’re on racks or in safety areas.
Use Case 1: 3 Gun Competition in Canada
In Canada, semi-automatic shotguns are limited to 5 rounds in the tube or in a magazine. Because you can get 2 3/4 shells in a tube designed for 5 – 3.5″, you can squeeze a few more, but that doesn’t help magazine-fed shotguns. Pump actions (generally) have no magazine limit, so shotguns like the Dagger SAP6 are legal for use. Because they use 6 and 11 round magazines, they’re a lot faster to reload than topping up a tube-magazine, especially for 3 gun beginners. The built-in 4 shot carrier in the stock would also be handy for holding slugs for stages that include a couple slug shots, though it does hold onto them pretty firmly. Tactical Imports has a competition ready model that’d be a better starting point than the regular model because its barrel is a bit longer and it accepts chokes.
Use Case 2: Home Defence
In Canada, our safe storage laws dictate that you can’t leave shotguns sitting around loaded. So if you want to use a shotgun for home defense, you’re either looking at trying to speed load a tube in the dark, or you use a magazine. The SAP6 uses big magazines and its short overall length means it’d be pretty handy indoors, so it wouldn’t be a bad shotgun to use for home defense.
What I wouldn’t use it for
Even with the optional barrel that allows for chokes, I wouldn’t use this shotgun for hunting. Most of the time, you’re only allowed 1 in the chamber and 2 in the mag, so this shotgun would come with a lot of unused bulk in the way of its large magazines.
Summary
I had way more fun with this shotgun than I thought I would. I read about the lack of a bolt lock, thought it would be a pain in the butt and instead I found out I preferred it for shooting at the range. The pump cycles very quick and magazine changes were simple as well. This is not as shotgun to replace your Duck-hunting 870 or your Turkey-busting Browning, but instead it’s a terrifically fun shotgun to plink, compete, or defend your home with. I want to thank Tactical Imports again for letting me try out this very unique shotgun.
