20ga Encore pistol?

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jaloi

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Has anyone ever heard of shooting a 20ga pistol barrel with slugs for hunting whitetails in heavy cover? Has it been tried? Would it be too much recoil to handle? Just curious if it had been done.....
 
In the first place, a 20 gauge (smoothbore) pistol would not be ordinarily legal in the USA. I do not think jumping through the NFA hoops for a shotpistol would be worth the trouble when I can buy major big pistol caliber Encore barrels. Do they make rifled 20 ga barrels for the Encore?
 
I believe they do make a rifled 20 gauge bbl. If it were made pistol length, it would be subject to the $200 SBR tax stamp right? I guess the 45/410 bbl's slide by because they are considered 45 Colt bbls first with the 410 capability secondary. Although with the removable choke installed at the factory I'm not sure how they get away with it. Glad they do though, those 410 pistol bbls are a hoot for squirrel hunting!
 
Actually, I think you could do a $5 AOW (state laws aside) on an Encore so long as you buy it as a handgun.

David
 
I had a 20 gauge rifled barrel for my Encore. It's a really nice rig as a long gun. Light, fast handling, well balanced. I never even considered trying it as a pistol.

However, I've always thought 20 gauge and .308 were comparable recoil levels in long guns, and I have shot my Encore in a pistol configuration with a .308 barrel. Recoil is stout but bearable.

However, let me point out that 20 gauge ballistics (using a sabot slug from a rifled barrel) are very comparable with 44 magnum ballistics from a long barreled single shot pistol (Encore/Contender) . Unless you've already got the 20 gauge barrel, going with the 44 magnum makes more sense, especially considering the cost of feeding the 20 gauge sabot slugs.

Michael Courtney
 
Why aow? The Taurus 4-ten is a shot-pistol, and nothing special is required to buy one.
 
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