Citadel RS-S1 12 Gauge Semi-Auto AK Style Shotgun – Video Review

By Graham Baates

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- The Citadel RS-S1 is both new and not. Rewind your firearms memory a few years and you’ll likely remember the Saiga 12 and Vepr 12 craze. Semi-auto, 12-gauge shotguns feeding form a box magazine and operating on the familiar and robust AK piston system and manual of arms. The Saigas were less expensive and tended to need some tuning before running as desired, the Veprs cost more, but ran perfectly out of the box. After reading a few reviews I purchased a Vepr 12 and had no regrets. I used the shotgun in local 3-gun matches and out in the woods busting clays with friends.

After about 6,000 rounds of only occasional maintenance, the gun began to slow down. I finally did a full strip-down to clean the gas puck and started to notice the wear and tear on the gun after loads of abuse. Shortly thereafter Russian-built AKs were banned from import. It was time to retire the Vepr 12.