The 7 Best Siding Nailers

Editor's Notes

October 23, 2026, by Ezvid Wiki Admin:

The Bostitch N66C-1 now leads. It came out as the best all-rounder when Bob Vila fired six siding guns into vinyl, cedar and cement board, it takes nails from 1-1/4 to 2-1/2 inches, and it costs less than the other name-brand options. The Makita AN611 is gone, so its successor, the Makita AN613, takes its place. We dropped the AeroPro MCN70 because what's sold under that name now is a pallet and fencing nailer.

The Metabo HPT NV65AH2 stays, but its high price moves it down. The Freeman PCN65 stays as a value pick, though it's hard to find in stock right now. The HBT HBCN65P is new, for people who need a siding gun once.

For the evidence, we read the Makita and DeWalt spec pages, Bob Vila's 2025 test, the vinyl siding trade group's nailing rules and the NIOSH and OSHA nail gun safety guide, and checked every brand for recalls.

November 26, 2020:

It was another reasonably uneventful round of updates, with just a few modifications made to our list. We removed the Max CN5645S3 Supersider and Metabo HPT NV75AN, noticing that both options seem to be suffering from extended availability issues, but we did replace the latter options with a similar tool: the Metabo HPT NV75A5. As you may’ve gleaned, given their similar model numbers, the NV75A5 is essentially a step-up version of the NV75AN, with the addition of an aluminum rafter hook and selective-actuation functionality — which allows you to switch firing modes without switching triggers.

Both of these tools can discharge three nails per second, and can accommodate fasteners as long as three inches, which makes them a smart choice for a general contractor who could use a versatile model that’s also suitable for light framing work, in addition to siding. However, there is some tradeoff, as the shortest nail they can fire is 1-3/4 inches. For many users, that length is plenty short, and there’s no doubt that you can definitely get some siding hung with this size of fastener, but if you prefer to work with 1-1/2-inch nails, you’ll need to go for the Metabo HPT NV65AH2. Just note that there’s some tradeoff to be considered, as the nails the NV65AH2 can accommodate top out at 2-1/2 inches, which is a serious drawback that severely limits its usefulness when framing.

We also decided on adding the AeroPro MCN70 to our list — an affordable pick from a lesser-known name that has reviewed well thus far. In a sparsely populated category, we thought that this unit was worth including on our list – as a durable, budget-friendly choice that can help a homeowner through a renovation, if nothing else – but an important oversight to note in this one’s design is the obvious absence of any depth-control mechanism, a shortcoming that leaves users to meddle with the output pressure on their air compressor if they want to make an adjustment.

December 20, 2019:

Our rankings for this category held up pretty well during this round of updates. The only substantive changes we deemed necessary were updating the DeWalt DW66C to the DeWalt DW66C-1, and the Hitachi NV75AN and Hitachi NV65AH2 to the Metabo HPT NV75AN and the Metabo HPT NV65AH2. Note that the latter changes are a result of the company’s recent rebrand, and represent no material changes to the tools past their nameplate.

A note on trigger styles:

This is an important consideration for this category. So if you don’t already have the basics down on this, pay close attention. There are four basic types of nail gun triggers.

Contact Firing: Commonly referred to as a bump trigger, this style of component is considered to be the most efficient but least safe option among the four. To fire a nail with a contact trigger, users need to squeeze the tool’s trigger and depress its safety tip at the same time, and it doesn’t matter which order they do it in. So, if you’re looking to fire a fistful of nails in a hurry, just keep the trigger squeezed, repeatedly ‘bump’ the tool’s safety tip against the material in question, and you’ll discharge a nail every time the tool touches down.

Single-Actuation Firing: This option essentially operates as a semi-automatic bump trigger in that it operates basically the same, but you will need to release and re-squeeze the trigger between each bump.

Full-Sequential Firing: Sequential triggers are considered to be the safest, but slowest, style of trigger described here. With this trigger, users must first put pressure on the tools safety tip, then squeeze the trigger, then (after a single nail is discharged) release the trigger, remove pressure from the safety tip, and repeat.

Single-Sequential Firing: This option essentially operates the same as a full-sequential trigger, only it allows users the option of dragging the tool once its safety tip has been depressed, and firing several nails with as many squeezes of the trigger, before removing pressure from the safety tip.