{"id":22773,"date":"2026-04-05T23:33:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T23:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/05\/charles-daly-honcho-review-compact-and-controversial\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T23:33:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T23:33:50","slug":"charles-daly-honcho-review-compact-and-controversial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/05\/charles-daly-honcho-review-compact-and-controversial\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Daly Honcho Review: Compact and Controversial"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/svg><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>12<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

The American-made Charles Daly Honcho looks like a budget-minded 12-gauge bruiser built for tight spaces and rough work. But once the shooting starts, this compact pump reveals a split personality: smoother and better finished than expected, yet still saddled with reliability issues serious enough to kill the deal.<\/p>\n

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Available on GunsAmerica Now<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/listings\/search<\/p>\n

Charles Daly has long been an importer of hunting shotguns from around the world. The brand departed from form in 2018 with the introduction of the defense-oriented Charles Daly Honcho. The Honcho sat in a gray area occupied by pistol-grip-only shotguns, but with a grip designed to meet minimum legal length requirements and reduce recoil. Originally, these five-shot pump action shotguns were produced in Turkey, but in 2025, the Charles Daly Honcho is back and made in the United States.<\/p>\n

American-Made Charles Daly Honcho Gets a Second Shot<\/h2>\n
<\/picture>
The Charles Daly Honcho line is a set of 12-gauge pistol-grip-only shotguns expressly made for home defense. The Honcho is a pump-action shotgun with a five-shot tubular magazine, and it shares some passing similarities with the Remington 870, like its tubular steel bolt, twin action bars, and sheathed loading port, as well as the location of the crossbolt safety and the bolt release.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Charles<\/picture>
The Honcho uses an aluminum receiver and a polymer trigger guard. Note the 870-like safety and bolt release.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Honcho uses a bird\u2019s head style of pistol grip in either checkered walnut or rubber, depending on your choice of the standard Charles Daly Honcho or Tactical Honcho models. The standard Honcho matches its wood grip with a checkered walnut fore end, while the Tactical model goes for a polymer fore end with an integral section of Picatinny rail for a light.<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/picture>
Barrel lengths for the Honcho range from 14.5 inches to 18.5 inches, all of which are 12 gauge and cylinder bore. All are tapped for Charles Daly\u2019s C-series Picatinny rail for mounting an optic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Honcho ships with a flat top and an immovable front blade sight. In addition, the box includes a steel ambidextrous single-point sling mount that can be mounted in front of the pistol grip. MSRP of the American-made Charles Daly Honcho is $372.<\/p>\n

Charles Daly Honcho Specs: 12-Gauge Numbers That Matter<\/h2>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Caliber<\/th>\n12-gauge (3 inch chamber)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Capacity<\/th>\n5+1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Barrel Length<\/th>\n12-gauge (3-inch chamber)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Overall Length<\/th>\n27 inches<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Weight<\/th>\n4.7 lbs. (unloaded)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Price<\/th>\n$372 MSRP<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n

On the Range With the Charles Daly Honcho<\/h2>\n

After the Turkish-made Honcho made its debut, it gained something of a bad reputation. Although some will not admit it, some of it boils down to the pistol-grip-only shotgun as a rule. Although shotguns like these are marketed for home defense due to their power and compactness, the lack of a buttstock can make it difficult to aim, tame recoil, and cycle quickly. But some of that reputation is the occasional quality control nightmare due to the Honcho against fairly reliable competition in shotguns like the Remington TAC 14 and the Mossberg Shockwave<\/a>. Now that the Honcho is American-made, has it become a product improvement? The only way to find out is to put some rounds through it.<\/p>\n

Patterning the 14.5-Inch Charles Daly Honcho<\/h3>\n

As with any shotgun, the first order of business is to pattern it with different shot loads to see if the sights are regulated and how much spread of the pellets exhibits at particular distances. I began by shooting cardboard silhouettes at a distance of twenty feet. After stapling my targets enough to buck the wind, I let fly with ammunition provided generously by Ammunition to Go. The loads used included:<\/p>\n

From the very first time I aimed the Honcho, I understood the challenge of the pistol-grip-only shotgun immediately. Without a stock and a third point of contact in the shoulder, it is awkward to line up the eye down the barrel and over the front sight to get an aiming reference without having the pistol grip uncomfortably close to the face. But then a piece of advice from shotgun guru and gun writer Travis Pike came back into my head. That advice is to use a push-pull method to control the shotgun and tame the recoil. That is, to push the fore-end forward while pulling back on the grip.<\/p>\n

As counterintuitive as that advice might seem, it worked, but I still had the habit of letting the front sight sit proud on the barrel rather than burying it. Therefore, as I shot the Honcho, my patterns favored slightly higher than the desired point of aim.<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/picture>
I began with the Rio No. 4 buckshot load. It boasts twenty-seven .22 caliber pellets. At only twenty feet, this load spreads its cone of pellets out into a six-inch pattern. No. 4 buckshot is known for its tendency to spread out relative to other buckshot loads, so I thought this was not unusual. That was, until I tried some milsurp 00 buckshot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Winchester 00 2 3\/4 inch buckshot load, loaded with nine .33 caliber pellets, struck paper with a donut effect in a pattern of seven inches. I tried a few more shots on clean targets but got the same donutting effect, even between two different boxes across two different lot numbers.<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/picture>
I next tried Federal Flight Control 2 3\/4 inch with 8 pellets of 00 buckshot. The special wad keeps the shot together and gives me a single 1 1\/2 inch hole. I followed this up on another aiming point with Winchester Super X 2 3\/4 inch No. 6 lead birdshot. This load struck a 10-inch x 10-inch part of the target and left over a dozen hits in my aiming point, but the bulk of the shot still favored high.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although I was not confident of getting a good pattern, I doubled the distance and fired a few rounds on a clean patterning board anyway. The No. 4 buckshot load and No. 6 bird load peppered most of the 27-inch x 23-inch board. A few No. 4 pellets missed entirely, while the density of the pattern with the No. 6 load evaporated, and there were few hits on the point of aim. I scored a single pellet hit with the standard 00 buckshot, but got a clean 3-inch pattern with the Federal Flight Control round.<\/p>\n

\"Federal<\/picture>
Federal Flight Control 00 Buckshot is a superior performer in any shotgun, let alone a shorty like the Charles Daly Honcho.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Running the Honcho Hard Exposes the Real Story<\/h2>\n

Firing single shots while testing ammunition told us that whatever business needs to be addressed with the Charles Daly Honcho needs to be done at closer range. But given how your homestead is laid out, it gives plenty of potential. The bigger question is not just what the Honcho can effectively run, but if<\/em> it can run.<\/p>\n

I put two cardboard torsos out at a distance of twenty feet with the targets ten feet apart. I decided it was time to really use the magazine and give the Honcho a workout by moving between the targets, putting one round into each target until I fired my five rounds. This was to ensure the Honcho fed as well as to allow me to get some feedback on how the action cycles, how the tube magazine loads, and how handling is affected when some time pressure is added.<\/p>\n

Loading the Charles Daly Honcho<\/h3>\n

Loading the Charles Daly Honcho is no different from a typical 870. The loading port is protected from ingress by a stamped steel shell lifter. The lifter is depressed down, and the magazine tube is exposed for loading. Rounds are fed into the tube one by one until the magazine is full. The Honcho holds five rounds. Unloading the magazine can be accomplished without racking the action as there is a pair of spring-loaded shell interrupters that lip over the magazine tube to keep the rounds in. Depressing one of these interrupters brings a shell out of the magazine and into your hand.<\/p>\n

\"Loading<\/picture>
The Honcho\u2019s magazine loads without undue effort. Perhaps it was too easy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The magazine tube and action overall are smooth, and I did not have to use much muscle to load the magazine, unload it, or cycle the action by pumping the fore-end. For a more budget-friendly shotgun, I expected more grit and play, but the Honcho behaves like a well-worn companion.<\/p>\n

As with other pump shotguns, it has an internal hammer and once cocked, the fore-end will not move unless the bolt release mounted forward of the trigger guard is depressed first. With the hammer down, the action can be worked without that extra step, and you can get into action quickly.<\/p>\n

Shooting Fast With the Charles Daly Honcho<\/h3>\n

The Honcho\u2019s smooth action is obvious once a round touches off. Using the push-pull method of holding the shotgun steady, the support hand wants to rock back under recoil, partially cycling the action. All it takes is a conscious finishing of that movement to bring the bolt all the way back, and then pushing forward again toward the target to chamber a round and prepare for the next shot.<\/p>\n

Still, without a buttstock, recoil is brisk enough to lose the front sight, and after each rack of the action, a conscious returning of the sights onto target is needed. This is done quickly, like with my patterning board, but it takes more time to transition between different targets to recover the front sight in my vision, index it on the next target, and make sure I am not holding it too high or too low.<\/p>\n

Speaking of recoil, I found it to be more of an obstacle toward target reacquisition than any sort of pain factor that will give you bad habits. The elongated grip gives a hard shove in the hand and slides gently, rather than moving straight back and remaining stationary in the hand like a vertical grip. The checkering of the fore end and grip also helps to keep movement in check.<\/p>\n

The Honcho is jumpy, but not painful to shoot. But I was surprised at how little difference the load made in mitigating recoil. Birdshot loads, like that Winchester No. 6 round, are known for being mild. But it bucked as much as the 00 buckshot defensive loads.<\/p>\n

The Charles Daly Honcho\u2019s Fatal Flaw Shows Up Fast<\/h2>\n

On the whole, the new Charles Daly Honcho is mechanically a better product than the initial run. Despite the initial awkward handling associated with PGO shotguns, the look and feel of the Honcho outshines Mossberg and Remington models I have seen of late. It was the insides of the Honcho that gave me real fits, particularly when I had to go through multiple rounds quickly.<\/p>\n

At the patterning board, I had no problems. I worked the action deliberately but slowly. But when using the magazine at capacity and running my two-target drills, I had failures to load and ejection of live rounds.<\/p>\n

After loading up the magazine, the first shell would become impinged inside the magazine tube, far under the shell interrupter, rather than at the point where it lips over the tube. Racking the action does nothing until I stick a finger into the tube to bring that first round into position with the stop. I was able to resolve this by carefully loading my magazine and ensuring that the last round was flush with the interrupter instead of trying to push it any deeper.<\/p>\n

More alarming was the ejection of live rounds. On multiple occasions, a live round would slip from the shell carrier and fall out of the shotgun from the loading port when the action was racked to eject an empty shell. The interrupter failed to control the shell as the carrier pivoted during the loading motion, and the round would escape.<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/picture>
Those stakes are staking out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A full take-down and cleaning did not remedy the issue, and there were no obvious metallic issues, but it was obvious that the timing between the interrupter and carrier was out of step. One defect I did notice was that, after one hundred rounds, the stakes that run through the action and into the extractors were walking out from their original position. Staking is tricky to do at home, and it should have been done correctly at the factory. Despite now being made right here in the USA, I elect to give the Charles Daly Honcho a wide berth, and so should you.<\/p>\n

Charles Daly Honcho Pros and Cons<\/h2>\n