The Shotgun Thread

[Hardball]

My dad has a synthetic wood stock on his mossberg. It feels light and weak--I'm hoping that I am wrong. I'm hoping that the new technology behind these synthetics stocks are worth their salt.

[kingoftheforest]

Mossberg is just a really practical, affordable, and functional shotgun that's simple and hard to break. I'm notoriously hard on my gear and I have a habit or wearing things out or breaking them through use, so when I got the Mossberg 590, it had to prove itself to me, and it did so with flying colors. I've never shot the M1A (actually, I don't know that I've even seen a shotgun by that name before, but that doesn't mean much), but Mossberg is definitely a good company. Benneli is probably my next favorite (although easily twice to three times as expensive), followed by Remington and Winchester.

KOTF, in response to the question about flechette rounds, they were pretty popular in vietnam, and in a few cases, guys would cut notches out of the sides of their barrels and flatten the end of the muzzle so it looked almost like the shape of a rectangular cow bell - flat and wide. The flechettes (or regular shot) would broadcast themselves in a sort of fan that way, instead of a cone, and it would help knock down foliage as well as people by concentrating the shot pattern. Sort of an improvised choke, in a manner of speaking. For modern day applications, regular shot is every bit as deadly (moreso, in some cases) because it is denser (lead, not steel) and the high number of pellets just simply chews up tissue to a point that nothing remains to sew back together. I've been present in the trauma room for several shotgun hits, and the worst wound I ever saw was #8 bird shot (almost as fine as sand, and not applicable for people at any more than maybe ten or fifteen feet - often used for skeet shooting and very small birds). The doc said there was just too much damage to do anything for the guy. They picked the plactic shot cup (wadding) out of the wound, and fished out a few tiny pellets, but a hole the size of a small fist was leaking blood like a faucet, and there was just nothing at all that could be done.

I've done a lot of testing various shotgun rounds on things like ballistic vests, and while a IIIA vest will indeed stop a saboted slug from a 12 gauge, the sheer force will likely break ribs and result in a knockout. However, when you chuck a full ounce of solid lead at near 2,000 fps, the probability that overpenetration will occur is pretty high on people sized targets.

Thanks for breaking that down. It helps to understand the distances and abilities of a weapon. Especially one as vesitile as this one.

[Tant01]

Every rule has an exception.


Shotguns are sweet, no doubt about it. Are they perfect? Not exactly. A friend of mine in law enforcement told me a story about an armed suspect that escaped on foot. He was pointing his gun at the officers and tried to fire. It misfired but the deputy fired a load of #4 shot that hit the suspect perfectly center of mass but he was close enough that his sternum caught all the pellets. (about five feet) It knocked him back a few feet but failed to penetrate his chest cavity. The suspect turned around to flee and cleared his pistol. As he ran away he fired three shots over his shoulder at the deputies who returned fire with pistol and the shotgun. The pistol shots missed but the shotgun hit him in the middle of his back. Again from a short distance (about twenty feet) The impact of the pellets pushed him away but he kept his feet under him and shot two more times over his shoulder causing the deputies to duck again behind the car. The suspect fled on foot and later turned himself in at the hospital where doctors were removing the pellets from his chest and back. It fairly made hamburger out of the flesh over his sternum and the spread of shot on his back was right over the spine but none of the pellets hit anything to cause major trauma...


Double 00 buck might have been a better choice for this (large) guy...

A slug would have killed him for sure.

[Hardball]

You can get 00 buck with 18 pellets if you own of these new 3 1/2 chambers.