[Im283]

A guy I work with keeps telling me how he is going to saw off this Rem. s/g he has. Wants it to be a "room sweeper".

I told him he can't just up and saw off the barrel of a shotgun. He asked why. I really did not have a reasonable answer for him other than I am unsure of the legality of it.

Can someone tell me why you can't saw off the barrel? I guess he would be using a hacksaw.

Seriously, it is not me wanting to do this. I only have one S/G and I am not modifying it.

[xring44]

No reason you can't saw off a shotgun barrel as long as its not cut back to less than 18" Ithink????? You would lose all the choke as it occurs in the last few inches of the barrel at the muzzle. A flat file and a short square should get you very close to square to the bore, but you have ruined the value of your shotgun when you saw it off.

[Bud Tugly]

I did it many years ago to a 12 gauge H&R single shot. It had a full choke and I couldn't hit anything with it so I wanted to "open it up". I just clamped it gently in a wooden-jawed vise and hack-sawed 8" off the 28" barrel. Smoothed the burrs with a file and steel wool and it was good to go.

It definitely made it pattern wider, but I still couldn't hit with it. Turned out that my lousy shooting was due to a bad flinch I had developed and not the fault of the choke at all.

I switched to a SxS 20 gauge and found I wasn't such a bad shot after all.

[hankpac]

Check your state rules for length, then cut to 1/4" +.
We cut a single shot hammered gun to 18 1/4" with a pipe cutter: square, and clean. Chamfered the inner diameter, with the cutter, then some fine sandpaper. Take it to the range to pattern it, (shoot it into a big piece of cardboard) so you know where the shot cluster is going. You will be surprised at several things. At room distances, it doesn't spread like you think it will (scratch a bed sized pattern in the dirt, sit in the middle of it, scratch a room sized rectangle, with a "Door" in it, about 6-8 feet is all.) The stand your cardboard cutout, in the door about a foot or two inside. Holdikng the shotgun under your armpit, seee if you or your wife can even hit it!

[Husker1911]

Federal law states the barrel must be 18". With the breech closed, insert a dowel rod or tape measure, length from breech face to muzzle must be AT LEAST 18". Your friend still won't have a "room sweeper." One still has to aim the shotgun at room distance.

[PJR]

Wants it to be a "room sweeper".

Tell him to buy a broom.:D

[M2 Carbine]

Wants it to be a "room sweeper".


Tell your friend he needs to stop getting his gun information from the TV and movies.

As said above a shotgun barrel must be at least 18 inches (it can be shorter, but that involves dealing with the ATF)

A good rule of thumb is the shot from a 18 inch (non choke) barrel spreads about a inch per yard. So across the average room you can see that you could probably cover the shot pattern with your hand. That's far from the "room sweeper" myth.:)

[MikePGS]

Keep in mind to that the more the shot spreads the less likely you are to stop your intended target.

[sm]

$%#$Rant$#@#Cuss$%#($

"We got idjits in the 'Net!"

1. Take a 2x4 and hit this guy up the side of his head and take away his shotgun.
2. Tie him in a chair
2a. Make him speak to Briley, Colonial, Tru-lock ...etc. on the telephone.
2b. Make him read, out loud Bristers Book.

If this don't work. Buy this shotgun from this guy with money in hand and that 2x4 in the other.

Strike a hard bargain.

Oh, take his TV and slam it down onto the floor, best thing to prevent idijit-itis from getting to a person via TV, Movies, Cable and Rental.

He can sweep the room clean of what used to be his TV.

[steveno]

along with the 18 inch barrel the overall length has to be 26 inches( it might be a little more)

[Fred Fuller]

No reason why he can't, except for potential legal entanglements. LOTS of reasons why he SHOULDN'T. There are tons of factory produced 18- 20" Remington barrels available already, and it's nigh onto stupid to take a hacksaw to a functional shotgun barrel and butcher it. It's easy enough to sell one and buy another, or keep the existing barrel as is for wingshooting/small game hunting/claybird games and just buy a spare short barrel for defensive use.

It's pretty dumb to bob a barrel that didn't get banana-peeled at the muzzle by accidentally getting plugged just because there's a hacksaw handy. Of course, that doesn't keep a certain number of people from doing it. Some people beat their wives, abuse their kids and kick their dogs too- often enough the same kind of people who hacksaw otherwise useful shotguns.

lpl/nc

[Valkman]

idijit-itis

Perfect description - why do I think this guy would have cut it down to about 8"? Then plead innocence due to stupidity when he was caught!

[Im283]

Thanks for the responses, I will pass it on to him.

SM, don't hold back tell me us how you really feel! j/k LOL

I am glad to know it is not blantantly illegal. I told him he ought to get a hand gun, but he said he had this Rem S/G that cost him nothing. I have laughed at him more than once about it. I also told him if it was legal he could do it at my house as I have a vise and proper tools. I ain't his Dad so if he wants to I will help him out.

Thanks again

[RNB65]

Can someone tell me why you can't saw off the barrel?

Nothing wrong with sawing off a barrel. But tell him that if the barrel is less than 18" and/or the overall length of this homemade thunderstick is less than 26", he better hope like hell the ATF doesn't find out about it or else he's going to be spending some time in a federal prison with a big hairy guy named Bubba.

[allien5651]

Unsure of the legal implications in the US but there has been some work done for special forces looking at horozontal eliptical chokes that spread the pattern sideways. Don't know much more than that though and not sure Id care to be anywhere near a test gun when it was tripped off.

[GRIZ22]

Remember the length or the barrel has absolutely nothing to do with the spread of the shot. The choke is what controls this. If you cut down the barrel you will remove whatever choke is on that barrel and have a cylinder bore, open choke or whatever you want to call it.

If you have a 14" and a 30" barrel with the same choke they will pattern the same.

If he can't cut down and dress the muzzle like hankpac described he should take it to a gunsmith. I'd make it 19" as I'd like a little more to work with if the muzzle became damaged.

A plain barrel I'd have no reservations about cutting down if I didn't need it. A vent rib or something similar I would probably sell and buy a new barrel.

[foghornl]

Depending on exactly which model Remington, a new barrel should be well under $175, even from the 'high-price' places

Now, if it is one of the really old Remmys, like a model 11 or "Sportsman", barrels will be more expensive, generally speaking. If he does cut down the barrel of one of the really old Classic Remmys (Like the Mdl 11), take the cut-off piece, and as we used to say where I grew up, "Boy, we gonna whomp you upside the head..."

[kellyj00]

if you have a 18" cylinder bore barrel, you're looking at a 6" spread at room distance...about 12-15 feet or so.

Cut it down...hell, it doesn't make any difference to me. The worst thing that can happen is he goes under 18" and spends some time in jail. You're not risking blowing yourself up by cutting off a barrel.

If he really wants a room sweeper, get a musket? or, oh, I know... one of those 1911's like you'd see in a Berringer movie that fires about 500 rounds without reloading, but the magazine is of the same length.

Geez.

[JCaraker]

Room sweeper, huh. The best one I know of is the M 67. Good luck on the permit. . . and have good ear protection.

[cameron.personal]

This is NOT a stupid question a "ROOM SWEEPER" is entirely appropriate and can be easily accomplished.

1. First cut the barrel as short as you legally/morally can.
2. Then put the barrel is a vice and squeeze it's top (where the bead was) to bottom.

The squeeze create a flattened barrel portion like a duck bill. This causes the the devastating shot to spread horizontally.

I WILL LITERALLY CUT A MAN IN HALF! COMPLETELY IN HALF I SAID! WITH ANY SHOT LOADING 0 BUCK 00 BUCK 000 BUCK 0000 BUCK OR EVEN 00000 BUCK!

It is truly a room sweeper then and one shot across the average room will CUT IN HALF ANYONE IN THE ROOM!! TEN PEOPLE IN THE ROOM? BOOM! NOW YOU HAVE 20 HALVES! 20 PEOPLE IN THE ROOM? BOOM! NOW YOU HAVE 40 HALVES! 50 PEOPLE IN THE ROOM? BOOM! NOW YOU HAVE 80 HALVES!

People often argue with me about this, they are obviously stupid.

Cameron



Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is to be considered legal, or even intelligent advice. The author reserves the right to write facetious posts at any time in any manner he chooses. Sod off.

[Sniper X]

I'd say the guy is watching to many movies, and wants a "gauge" instead of a shotgun. Guys like that are often the same guys who pull something like that out after too many beers to show it off and have their finger in the trigger well while sweeping everybody in the room, and a shell (shotgun) in the chamber. I'd say to tell him he can buy a barrel in 18 or so for it and keep the stock barrel.

I saw a "Dallas SWAT" episode where they went to a drug house and out of the few guns they pulled out of the house and showed there was a Browning Number 1 or whatever that beautiful old Browning auto shotgun was that had been "Ganstahized" by cutting it down to about an inch past the foreend, and they had hacked the stock off behind the pistiil grip! SACRILIDGE!

[<SLV>]

Have him talk to Tony at Tromix. for a cool $1,400 he can get a Saiga mag-fed 12 gauge with a folding stock and 8" barrel. www.tromix.com (http://www.tromix.com)

[Smitty in CT]

If he wants a "legal" room sweeper here's what to do.

Buy a "cheapo" rifled slug barrel on eBay ($40 - $50). Cut it down with a hacksaw to 18".

Load up with #4 Buckshot and have fun...

Because the shot is being "spun" by the rifling, it will throw a pattern that resembles an ever-expanding doughnut. Beyond 12 - 15 yards it would be useless, but, as a room clearing distances, it would be effective.

Smitty

[Fumbler]

I've cut the barrel on my Mossberg 500.
Like others have said, barrel must be at least 18" and overall length must be 26".

There's good reason for cutting your own barrel.

You don't need any choke.
You want a handier gun.
You can't afford a shorter barrel.
You didn't find a summer job and are really bored at home

My 500 started off as a 24" vent ribbed turkey gun.
I wanted a more compact deer gun for use with rifled slugs.
I marked the barrel (measuring with a dowel down the tube) at 18.25", cut it off with a hacksaw, knocked off the vent rib, then squared up the muzzle with a file and machinist's square.
Solder on a Mossberg factory Ghost ring front sight, finish it in digital camo, and voila! The perfect deer gun.
I can consistently hit a 10" steel plate at 100 yards off the bench (rather difficult with a large ghost ring).

Wish I had a better pic:
http://www.thewolfweb.com/photos/00416772.jpg
http://www.thewolfweb.com/photos/00416769.jpg
That's 5 shots at 50 yards offhand with cheap Brennekke modified foster style slugs. Two of the holes are almost exactly on top of each other.

[foghornl]

The original "Room Sweeper"

(Photo shamelessly stolen from O'Cedar mops & brooms website)