these came out of south africa about a decade ago (i believe).  bullpup design, dual top-mounted tube magazines, inverted pump and lightweight polymers.

why the hell isnt this being imported/produced domestically?

seems just about perfect to me, but i just might like halo too much.

They are not importable because they are not "sporting." Though it is a pump-action, the pistol grip, overall shell capacity and, interestingly enough, marketing materials preclude this as being "suitable or readily adaptable to sporting purposes."  I imported a couple of them a few years back, but they were approved and made it through mistakenly and were later forfeited to ATF.  If you ever see the photos of the ATF Research Collection, there's one of the Neostead and it's likely one of mine.

The Neostead in theory is a good concept, but as manufactured it's not there. It's very heavy and since weight was already an issue due to the overall design, Truvelo uses a lighter, but more brittle plastic for the stock.  The result is a gun that is still too heavy, but also now delicate enough to shatter if dropped from waist height.  The mechanism is also very complicated and not very robust and would not withstand any sort of real-world abuse.

The only thing it had going for it is the weight made it shoot very well.

Classic example of a gun that looks and sounds really cool, but has the "oh....." factor when you actually hold one.

really appreciate the reply partner.

its always bothered me that it never really caught on in any way, but the weight issue would explain that.  tho the weight issue could be applied to almost any shotgun with 12+1 rounds of 00 on board, the extra mag tube and such isnt helping any.

wouldnt be surprised if in the next decade or so the design comes back into the spotlight.  either in a lighter weight, more reliable package or as a heavy duty platform for launching those 3in frag 12 mini grenades the USMC has been playing with.

It's a interesting design. I spoke with Mr. Stead quite a bit a few years ago and recieved a pile of promotional litature from Truvelo also (anyone want some? e-mail me). That said the design is very complex with over 100 parts. It is almost impossible to get any data on it due to the small number out there. A few countries are supposed to have some in service, mostly in the middle east, but again no data is availible.

I would love to have one as a referance, but right now don't think it's ready for prime time. The US rights to build it are availible and most likely could be built here IF someone desired to and was funded to do so. I had several of the details in draft, but just am not in a position to do it.