Description
The Citadel BOSS-25 shotgun takes the controls, the ergonomics and the muscle memory of an AR-15 and puts them around a 12 gauge. If you already own a modern sporting rifle, you already know how to run this: same pistol grip, same safety, same magazine release, same collapsible stock. The only thing that changes is what comes out of the muzzle.
That sounds like a gimmick until you handle one. A magazine fed shotgun solves the single most awkward thing about a tube-fed gun, which is that reloading one shell at a time under any kind of pressure is a skill in itself. Here you drop a magazine and seat another, and the gun is full again. Two five-round magazines come in the box and ten-round magazines are available separately.
This is the Flat Dark Earth version, Citadel CBOSS2512FDE, with a Cerakote finish over an aluminum receiver and an 18.75 inch threaded barrel wearing a muzzle brake.
What an AR-pattern shotgun actually gives you
- Magazine changes instead of shell-by-shell loading, which is the whole reason this pattern exists.
- Familiar controls if you shoot an AR style 12 gauge semi auto or any modern sporting rifle, so there is nothing new to learn under stress.
- A full-length Picatinny rail on the receiver and a second rail under the forend, so lights, lasers and optics mount without gunsmithing.
- An adjustable comb on the stock, which matters far more on a shotgun with raised sights than it does on a rifle.
- Folding tactical sights that stay out of the way when an optic is fitted and come up when it is not.
What comes in the box
- Two five-round detachable magazines.
- Five interchangeable chokes.
- A muzzle brake, which carries a modified constriction of its own.
- An adjustable cheek piece already fitted to the stock.
- Folding raised sights front and rear.
Citadel BOSS-25 shotgun specifications
- Model: Citadel CBOSS2512FDE
- Gauge: 12
- Chamber: 3 in.
- Barrel: 18.75 in., threaded, muzzle brake fitted
- Action: AR-pattern semi-automatic
- Capacity: 5+1, detachable box magazine
- Magazines included: two 5-round
- Chokes: five included, plus the modified constriction in the brake
- Sights: adjustable folding raised front and rear
- Rails: Picatinny on the upper receiver and under the forend
- Receiver: aluminum
- Stock: synthetic with adjustable comb and pistol grip
- Finish: Flat Dark Earth Cerakote
- Overall length: 37.75 in.
- Weight: 8.0 lb.
- UPC: 682146831986
One number our own listing had wrong
This gun has been listed in places, including here, with a 20 inch barrel. It does not have one. Legacy Sports publish 18.75 inches, Sports South records 18.75 inches and Zanders records 18.75 inches. We have corrected it. The difference matters if you are working out overall length for a case or a safe, so the honest figure is 18.75 inches of barrel and 37.75 inches of gun.
Feeding an 18.75 inch threaded shotgun barrel
A semi-automatic shotgun has to be pushed hard enough to cycle, and that is the one thing worth knowing before you buy any gas-operated 12 gauge in this class. Light target loads are where these guns get fussy. Start with full-power buckshot or a heavier field load, get a few hundred rounds through it, and only then find out how light it will run.
Barnes Defense 12ga number 4 buck at 21 pellets is the sensible place to begin: it is a proper defensive load, it has the mass to work the action, and we have it in depth. Spare magazines are the other first purchase. The 10-round BOSS-25 magazine doubles what is in the gun, and the 5-round magazine matches what came with it.
The threaded muzzle takes the five supplied chokes. The brake itself is cut to a modified constriction, so the gun is already patterned reasonably for buckshot out of the box before you start swapping tubes.
Living with the adjustable comb
The comb is the part most owners ignore and then wonder why the gun shoots high or low for them. On a shotgun with raised sights sitting well above the bore, cheek position decides where the pattern lands, and a stock set for someone else will fight you every time you mount it. Set it once, on the range, with the sights you intend to keep, and mark it.
If you add an optic later the comb needs setting again, because a red dot sits at a different height to the folding irons. That is exactly why Citadel fitted an adjustable one rather than a fixed stock, and it is a genuinely useful feature rather than a spec-sheet entry. A Citadel BOSS-25 shotgun set up properly is a great deal easier to shoot well than one taken out of the box and fired as it came.
What it is not
It is not a clays gun. At 8 pounds with a straight stock and raised sights, a Citadel BOSS-25 shotgun is built for defensive work, three-gun and the range rather than for swinging on a crossing target all afternoon. It is also not a lightweight: the magazine, the rails and the aluminum receiver add up, and after a long session you will know you have been holding it.
Magazine-fed shotguns are restricted or banned outright in several states, sometimes by feature and sometimes by name. Check your own rules before ordering, because this is one of the categories that moves.
Why the Citadel BOSS-25 shotgun earns its place
- It is the cheapest honest route into a magazine fed shotgun that ships complete rather than as a base gun plus a shopping list.
- AR controls mean an owner who already shoots a modern sporting rifle needs no retraining.
- Five chokes and a muzzle brake included is unusual at this level; most makers sell you three at best.
- The adjustable comb lets you set cheek weld for an optic instead of craning over the stock.
- Aluminum receiver and Cerakote means it tolerates a truck, a boat or a damp shed better than a blued tube gun.
Same gun, different clothes: the standard black BOSS-25 is the volume option and we hold it deepest, the second 12 gauge configuration is worth comparing on spec, and the Arizona Flag edition is the same mechanism with a finish you will either love or not.
If a magazine-fed gun is more than you need, the Citadel Boss SS coach gun is the opposite answer to the same question: two barrels, no magazine, nothing to go wrong. Browse the rest of our shotguns category or the wider firearms range, and see the factory page at Legacy Sports. Every transfer goes through a licensed dealer.
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