Black Aces Tactical is a company based in Longwood, Florida, dedicated to the production of shotguns for tactical use with semi-automatic, pump and lever-action – such as the Pro L (Lever) model we are introducing here.
The Black Aces Tactical Pro L lever-action shotgun
The overall appearance and in particular the receiver of the Pro L shotgun are very reminiscent of the Remington 870 pump-action shotgun. The receiver is made from aluminum so as to reduce the weight of the gun to about 6.2 lb/2800 grams. One of the main defects of the Winchester 1887 and its modern replicas is in fact its heavy weight, ranging from 8.3 to 8,8 lb (3.8 to 4 kg) with an empty magazine and that has always been a limit to the popularity of this kind of firearms. The Pro L, on the other hand, weighs about the same as a standard 12 gauge semi-automatic and therefore offers the user superior handling, which is certainly desirable in a gun intended for home defense.
The barrel, with a 3″ (76 mm) chamber, has a length of 18.5 inches, or 470 millimeters, and is compatible with Benelli's Mobil Choke series internal chokes. A set of chokes is supplied with the gun. The capacity of the tubular magazine is 6+1 rounds.
Other features of this shotgun include the possibility to choose between a polymer stock and a wooden stock, and between two finishes of the metal parts (blued or nickel-plated). All models come with a pistol grip to be mounted in place of the stock, which allows you to reduce the length of the rifle from 39” to 30” (99 to 78 centimeters) or so, turning the Pro L into a sort of “super handgun”. How practical it is to operate the cocking lever in this configuration, we do not know.
The sights are rather basic and typical of a shotgun – a milling on the receiver's top rear sight that acts as a rear sight, and a blade front sight with a brass bead.
As a matter of fact, the Pro L is externally identical to a semi-automatic shotgun, but the presence of a cocking lever in perfect Winchester style makes us understand that repetition is manual and the gun mist be operated by lowering the lever and bringing it back up. Spent shells are ejected laterally, while the tubular magazine can be refilled through the loading port at the receiver's bottom.
Surely this Black Aces Tactical Pro L is a unique gun, not being a replica of a vintage model (like, for example, the Chiappa 1887) but a development of a contemporary model. Its practical usefulness could be the subject of endless discussions: certainly as a home or area defense firearm it could offer some advantages over a usual shotgun. We would be curious to test it, but for the moment it is not distributed in Europe and that's a shame, because the price in the US is $399, or about 360 euros at the exchange rate.
