stiletto raggio
Member
Yeah yeah, I know what you are thinking: "Short-barreled shotguns, you uneducated gun heathen." Nope, I mean sawed-offs.
My buddy and I were out at Gander Mountain and found a very inexpensive but decent quality Brazilian over/under for about $140. We split the cost and took it back to his place, broke out the Sawzall and the tape-measure and got to work. We double-checked the laws, measured carefully (three times) and marked our cuts with electricians tape.
After test-firing and a little refining work with the dremel and some good old-fashioned sandpaper we were proud of our new creation. It shot mini-slugs to point of aim and recoil was not a problem (even one-handed). Birshot required two hands but was not bad, and buckshot, well, it fired better than our wrists handled it. At just over 26.5", it was compact and quite handy. Still, it held only two shots and.
Several weeks later I got lot on the way to my grandparent's house and stopped at a local gun shop to ask directions. It was then that I saw a Mossberg 5500 in great shape sitting in a long line of used gun. I asked to see it and and, with the storekeeper's permission, unscrewed the buttpad to check the length of teh rod that attached the stock to the receiver. Happy with what I found, I paid the $160, filled out the requisite form and went happily on my way. A few days later, I took it to the range to make sure it would fire reliably from the hip and with a lose grip to simultate the reduced mass of a cut-down gun. I starred in on it with a fresh hacksaw blade. I rounded the butt with a power sander and cut the vent rib off at the last support on the barrel. Some heavy sandpaper evened out the barrel and I dremeled the inside to remove any burrs left from the cut.
Test firing this gun was a bit trickier. Unlike the over/under, I had to learn how to hold this gun in order for it to be reliable with the light birdshot that I used for testing. Buckshot, however, proved to be perfectly reliable, and I have since learned to shoot birdshot from it with near-total reliability. I think opening up the gas tube a tiny bit would really make this gun reliable, but I don't yet have the guts to do major internal surgery and I'm not going to pay a pro to work on a gun that cost less than a Hi-point. At a hair under 29", it is longer than the over/under but weighs no more, and it holds a full five rounds. I am actually considering buying a choate tube extension to bring this up to seven, but who knows.
Advice to anyone who wants to try this:
1) MEASURE CAREFULLY. Leave room for finishing and polishing. If you cut it too short somehow, DESTROY the offending part immediately.
2) Use fresh blades. The fresher the blade you cut with, the better the finish will be and the less work you have to do to touch it up.
3) Only cut guns you won't mind messing up. Not that this gives you a license to be reckless, but if you are conerned about how it will turn out, let a pro do it. These are "fun guns" and should be viewed as such. I wouldn't do this to a gun I wanted to use for self-defense.
4) If you want to do a semi-auto, get one chambered for 2-3/4" shells only. You won't want to shoot 3" shells out of it anyway, and a gun tuned for 2-3/4" shells will be more reliable once the weight of the gun is reduced so significantly. Also, make sure the stock doesn't contain pieces that are necessary for the gun to function. I recommend looking at online schematics and confirming this in person before investing in a project gun.
Pictures: myself and my Air Force LT buddy. The fruits of our work. We plan to finish the "bare" wood and do some touch-up blueing in the near future.
My buddy and I were out at Gander Mountain and found a very inexpensive but decent quality Brazilian over/under for about $140. We split the cost and took it back to his place, broke out the Sawzall and the tape-measure and got to work. We double-checked the laws, measured carefully (three times) and marked our cuts with electricians tape.
After test-firing and a little refining work with the dremel and some good old-fashioned sandpaper we were proud of our new creation. It shot mini-slugs to point of aim and recoil was not a problem (even one-handed). Birshot required two hands but was not bad, and buckshot, well, it fired better than our wrists handled it. At just over 26.5", it was compact and quite handy. Still, it held only two shots and.
Several weeks later I got lot on the way to my grandparent's house and stopped at a local gun shop to ask directions. It was then that I saw a Mossberg 5500 in great shape sitting in a long line of used gun. I asked to see it and and, with the storekeeper's permission, unscrewed the buttpad to check the length of teh rod that attached the stock to the receiver. Happy with what I found, I paid the $160, filled out the requisite form and went happily on my way. A few days later, I took it to the range to make sure it would fire reliably from the hip and with a lose grip to simultate the reduced mass of a cut-down gun. I starred in on it with a fresh hacksaw blade. I rounded the butt with a power sander and cut the vent rib off at the last support on the barrel. Some heavy sandpaper evened out the barrel and I dremeled the inside to remove any burrs left from the cut.
Test firing this gun was a bit trickier. Unlike the over/under, I had to learn how to hold this gun in order for it to be reliable with the light birdshot that I used for testing. Buckshot, however, proved to be perfectly reliable, and I have since learned to shoot birdshot from it with near-total reliability. I think opening up the gas tube a tiny bit would really make this gun reliable, but I don't yet have the guts to do major internal surgery and I'm not going to pay a pro to work on a gun that cost less than a Hi-point. At a hair under 29", it is longer than the over/under but weighs no more, and it holds a full five rounds. I am actually considering buying a choate tube extension to bring this up to seven, but who knows.
Advice to anyone who wants to try this:
1) MEASURE CAREFULLY. Leave room for finishing and polishing. If you cut it too short somehow, DESTROY the offending part immediately.
2) Use fresh blades. The fresher the blade you cut with, the better the finish will be and the less work you have to do to touch it up.
3) Only cut guns you won't mind messing up. Not that this gives you a license to be reckless, but if you are conerned about how it will turn out, let a pro do it. These are "fun guns" and should be viewed as such. I wouldn't do this to a gun I wanted to use for self-defense.
4) If you want to do a semi-auto, get one chambered for 2-3/4" shells only. You won't want to shoot 3" shells out of it anyway, and a gun tuned for 2-3/4" shells will be more reliable once the weight of the gun is reduced so significantly. Also, make sure the stock doesn't contain pieces that are necessary for the gun to function. I recommend looking at online schematics and confirming this in person before investing in a project gun.
Pictures: myself and my Air Force LT buddy. The fruits of our work. We plan to finish the "bare" wood and do some touch-up blueing in the near future.
And they didn't want the citizenry making "handguns" by cutting down rifles and shotguns to get around the NFA. 
