Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
And back away from that shotgun....
I had known the rookie Correctional Officer three days or so during the range training portion of his in-service training. I wanted to kick his butt so bad my knuckles were itching.It was nothing he had done on the range but something he had brought.
It was a mid grade LC Smith 12 gauge. Nice wood, good metal, what there was left of it. He had bobbed the barrels to about 20 inches to use as a "House Gun". I informed him that he had, by dint of ardous effort, taken a shotgun worth a couple grand perhaps and left it worth a couple hundred. Then I stomped off maddernheck....
The lure of short barrelled shotguns is strong medicine. The strongest is the SxS guns we refer to as Coach Guns, Alley Cleaners,Sawed Offs,etc. Their simple lines and obvious lethality translate into high Cool Factor.
And, even with the 2 shot limitations, they make good defensive shotguns for folks that might have trouble with the more complicated repeaters.
Civilian defense incidents are over in a shot or two for the most part, not the Battle for Hue.
The Coach style guns are also great fun, as any CAS shooter can tell you.
So are various short barrelled repeaters, including Remington's Special Field models and most "Riot" repeating shotguns.
So, folks have bobbed the barrels on whatever shotguns were handy. Sometimes this works. Sometimes, as in the incident above, it's a serious mistake.
I've made that mistake. Both when setting up my first "Serious" 870 and later when I "Lupara'd" a Ranger marked Stevens 311.
On the first, if I had spent maybe $40 more than what it cost to have that barrel shortened and a front sight installed on a slug barrel, I'd still have that barrel in the shape it was when Pop gave it to me.
In the case of the Lupara, I should have just opened the chokes and lived with the 28" of barrels. It may not have swung as fast but chances are it would have swung better.
BTW, the OA length of a SxS with 28" barrels runs about what a riot barrelled repeater like an 870 does. Just how short do we need/want our shotguns to be?
Chances are Uncle Zeb's 32" barreled Goose double does not have a sleek 26" barreled grouse wand in it struggling to get out.
So, you ask, what should we do to get nice short barrelled shotguns if cutting the barrels is Blasphemy to The Shotgun Gods?.
Buy the more common new guns from Russia and Turkey, or the less expensive Spanish makers of yesteryear. One poster here has a 10 gauge American Arms 10 gauge that fits the bill, though I doubt he uses it for skeet or CAS.
For repeaters, but an extra barrel or another shotgun.
And a customized single shot from H&R or NEF makes an outstanding walking around shotgun.
Please do not cut down our lethal art, or our own heritage.....
I had known the rookie Correctional Officer three days or so during the range training portion of his in-service training. I wanted to kick his butt so bad my knuckles were itching.It was nothing he had done on the range but something he had brought.
It was a mid grade LC Smith 12 gauge. Nice wood, good metal, what there was left of it. He had bobbed the barrels to about 20 inches to use as a "House Gun". I informed him that he had, by dint of ardous effort, taken a shotgun worth a couple grand perhaps and left it worth a couple hundred. Then I stomped off maddernheck....
The lure of short barrelled shotguns is strong medicine. The strongest is the SxS guns we refer to as Coach Guns, Alley Cleaners,Sawed Offs,etc. Their simple lines and obvious lethality translate into high Cool Factor.
And, even with the 2 shot limitations, they make good defensive shotguns for folks that might have trouble with the more complicated repeaters.
Civilian defense incidents are over in a shot or two for the most part, not the Battle for Hue.
The Coach style guns are also great fun, as any CAS shooter can tell you.
So are various short barrelled repeaters, including Remington's Special Field models and most "Riot" repeating shotguns.
So, folks have bobbed the barrels on whatever shotguns were handy. Sometimes this works. Sometimes, as in the incident above, it's a serious mistake.
I've made that mistake. Both when setting up my first "Serious" 870 and later when I "Lupara'd" a Ranger marked Stevens 311.
On the first, if I had spent maybe $40 more than what it cost to have that barrel shortened and a front sight installed on a slug barrel, I'd still have that barrel in the shape it was when Pop gave it to me.
In the case of the Lupara, I should have just opened the chokes and lived with the 28" of barrels. It may not have swung as fast but chances are it would have swung better.
BTW, the OA length of a SxS with 28" barrels runs about what a riot barrelled repeater like an 870 does. Just how short do we need/want our shotguns to be?
Chances are Uncle Zeb's 32" barreled Goose double does not have a sleek 26" barreled grouse wand in it struggling to get out.
So, you ask, what should we do to get nice short barrelled shotguns if cutting the barrels is Blasphemy to The Shotgun Gods?.
Buy the more common new guns from Russia and Turkey, or the less expensive Spanish makers of yesteryear. One poster here has a 10 gauge American Arms 10 gauge that fits the bill, though I doubt he uses it for skeet or CAS.
For repeaters, but an extra barrel or another shotgun.
And a customized single shot from H&R or NEF makes an outstanding walking around shotgun.
Please do not cut down our lethal art, or our own heritage.....
I ended up selling off the shotgun to a friend for a mere $75 who used it as a defensive shotgun in his camper.
