[Justin]

So in the most recent issue of Front Sight Magazine, they had an article about a large IPSC shotgun-only match that took place in Europe. The article highlighted that there have been a number of changes in gear, especially among Open Division shooters. Most of the European competitors were running Saiga and Molot shotguns, rather than more traditional tube-fed guns.

But there was something else that caught my attention. Evidently a number of competitors from the Pacific Rim were running tube fed shotguns modified to accept what are called "Thai Tubes." Basically, you take a traditional tube-fed shotgun, and modify it so that the tubes can be ejected and replaced like a magazine. Also, a lot of these shotguns are insanely long.

I got curious about these, and decided to run a search on YouTube. There are some interesting videos there.

Videos:
Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPUlOSgTzhk)
Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH49TFii4Gw)
and Here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTW2UB-hlhw)

I don't know what the advantage of the ejectable magazine tubes is over a setup that you see American open class shooters run, but it's always cool to see what other people are doing.

[DaleCooper51]

Pretty Interesting videos.

Those tube look very ungainly to be running around with? I don't shoot 3 gun, but would those be much more of a hindrance then the tube magazine speedloaders?

[CWL]

From the 5 shots that he needed to take down one popper, I can understand why he needs so many shells in the tube...

Looks like fun for plinking, but a serious negative for social uses unless you are only shooting while barricaded. The shooter was bumping into everything because of the length, while reloading and with the reloads on his hip. I don't know how reliable the tube may be for anything other than gaming until I see how strong the tube is and how reliable the springs are over time.

[Justin]

They do look extremely ungainly, even compared to the rigs worn by American Open Division competitors. For an example, see here. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYENEzEDD4k#t=2m45s)

The only advantage I can see to the Thai tubes is that there's less of a chance of biffing the reload, as compared to using the more familiar type of loading mechanisms.

And, of course, the Saigas are even more simple to execute a reload with.

[TheBookGuy]

What Justin said...
Isn't this the reason for the Saiga-12? or is that just to much of an EBR?

[Justin]

To get a Saiga modded to the point where they're really competitive in Open Division involves a lot of serious and expensive modification work. (http://www.randrtargets.com/saiga_shotgun_open.htm)

The Saigas are just new enough that they're still something of an experimental thing at this stage. That said, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if they come to dominate Open Division in the next five years or so.

[Rembrandt]

Wonder how the great one, JMB, would have approached that issue......