Posted on 09/05/2018 4:56:55 AM PDT by w1n1
I have one of those too! With a laser sight and a flash light attachment. I call it a flash light with a gun strappeed to it.
Fake but fun.
Hahaha, that’s better than the article.
The Minishells are interesting, but I see them as more of a gimmick than a serious home defense option for a few reasons:
1. Most shotguns aren’t designed to feed shells that short, and I’ve read some reports of the shells not feeding reliably in common pump actions like Mossberg 500/590s and Remington 870s. They also don’t generate enough pressure to cycle the action reliably in at least some autoloaders. To be clear, I do not have personal experience with these loads, but I’d want to see at least a few dozen go through my shotgun without failure before I kept it as a defensive load (though this goes for all ammunition).
2. They give up a LOT of power to standard 2 3/4” shells. In terms of velocity and pellet count, 12 gauge Minishells are comparable to 3” .410 of the same shot size. If you want to trade that amount of power for lower recoil, why not just get a proven .410 shotgun? They’re pretty affordable.
3. If I’m facing a serious enough threat that I feel the need for more than 5 shots from a shotgun, it’s probably a serious enough threat that I’d rather have a full load of 00. Even the reduced-recoil 2 3/4” “law enforcement” loads from Remington and Federal pack far more punch than the Minishell. You can also get an 8-shot tube for a Mossberg 500 for less than $50.
Just my thoughts, anyway. I do plan to try them out, and maybe that will change my mind, but the numbers are what the numbers are.
HA! My Dad had a Browning 12 gauge also when I was a kid. Kicked like a mule. Now we have a Mossberg 500. Same deal. But our Beretta 391 autoloader has almost no recoil.
A point blank range, you are probably right. But outside a couple yards, the patterns from the 2.5” or 3” barrel of those guns get very wide. In those scenarios, you’d be much better off with the tighter pattern of a full-length .410 shotgun (or at least a 6” barrel Raging Judge or 18.5# barrel Circuit Judge carbine).
What 12 gauge recoil? I started my pheasant hunting with a double barreled 10 gauge. Now that’s a kick.
Interior home defense wouldn’t afford much more tha a shot of “a couple of yards.”
Also, once you get past 7 yards, legalisms come into play....21 foot rule.
It’s might be better to fire a 10-gauge for a few rounds before the 12 gauge. The 12 will feel like a 22 after that. :-)
Mini Shells will cycle just fine in an 870 pump, and with a small rubber adapter (OPSol) will cycle perfectly in a Mossberg 500/590 pump.
Mini Shells compare closer to a 20 ga shell in terms of payload and velocity than a .410 bore shell.
There are certainly distances inside a normal-sized house—particularly modern “open plan” houses—that are more than a couple yards and are more than enough distance for anything from 4 buck or smaller from a Judge to spread out pretty far. You would be fine with a 000 buck load that is made for handguns (like the one Federal sells), but you’d probably be even better off with a .45 Colt hollow point out of the same gun (or, better yet, .357 magnum out of a similar-sized revolver).
Also, I’m not sure what the “21 foot rule” really has to do with the law. There is no law setting a particular range within which a shooting must be before it is justified. To the extent expert testimony on the issue is even admissible (and I don’t know why it would be), an expert would have to admit that the “21 foot rule” is just derived from the amount of ground a knife-wielding attacker can cover in the amount of time it takes a trained police officer to draw and accurately fire a holstered sidearm—no applicability to the home defense situation.
Easy
Start bird hunting with a Lott .458
When you go back to that 1100 it’ll feel like a wee tap on the shoulder
And you’ll be a much better shot
Albeit very hungry and poor
I had a Browning 20 guage, that kicked worse than any
gun I owned. Maybe a bad recoil spring but it would leave
your shoulder black and blue, and give you a definite
flinch. I had a sweet 16 and that thing would knock down
the doves.
“...You can also get an 8-shot tube for a Mossberg 500 for less than $50...” [The Pack Knight, post 44]
Any extended magazine tube for the Mossberg 500 will lead you straight to barrel compatibility problems: the securing lug for the barrel bears a thumbscrew that threads directly into the forward end of the tube, limiting the tube length to exactly what it is. An extended tube requires a different barrel with the securing lug farther forward. The second barrel cannot be used with the standard capacity magazine tube - its lug is too far forward to permit the screw to reach the forward end of the tube.
The Mossberg 590 doesn’t have this problem. The securing lug on the barrel terminates in a ring, which fits over the forward end of the magazine tube. A threaded cap fits over the forward end of the tube and holds the barrel on. The cap can be removed and a tube extension can be fitted instead. Similar to Remington’s 870.
“...Daddy had a Browning Auto-5. That shotgun really kicked...even harder than Granddaddy’s old Essex...” [yarddog, post 5]
“...My Dad had a Browning 12 gauge also when I was a kid. Kicked like a mule...” [Georgia Girl 2, post 45]
Browning’s Auto 5, Remington’s 11, Savage’s 720 series (which included many more model numbers), and various Italian autoloaders (Franchi, Breda etc) operated by long recoil:
On firing, the barrel moved backward locked to the breech bolt, all the way to the rear; then it was released to move forward while the breech bolt was held to the rear, extracting and ejecting the empty shell. Just as the barrel was coming to rest in its forward position, it tripped the breech bolt catch, allowing it to be driven forward, chambering the next round.
The mass of the moving parts in a long-recoil gun is much greater than the mass of the moving parts in any other autoloading design; increases the perceived recoil as everything comes to rest, bumping into the back of the receiver.
Long-recoil shotguns have a braking system composed of a friction piece (bronze in the Auto 5; the Auto 5 12 ga magnum has two bronze pieces) and a couple rings. These are slipped over the magazine tube before the barrel and forend are installed. The order of installation of these rings and pieces is changed to improve function reliability with different loads, increasing or decreasing the braking force as needed.
It’s very common for users to install rings & pieces in the wrong order, or to lose some entirely. Braking action can thus be compromised: if rings & pieces are set for light loads, and heavy loads are fired, recoil becomes much worse as the moving parts slam into the back of the receiver at higher velocity. The force can reduce service life of parts and will sometimes split the forend.
Lubrication of the magazine tube is essential: a small (very small) amount of petroleum jelly spread evenly will do the trick, or similar light grease. Most users think of automobile brakes (where any lube is not a good idea) when they reassemble their shotgun and do not apply grease: their gun may refuse to cycle.
Friction piece and ring sequencing is not intuitive. Follow your owner’s manual carefully to get it right. Browning used to put a diagram describing proper sequencing inside the forend, varnishing it in place.
https://limbsaver.com/pages/recoil-pads-showcase
Limbsaver is just that. The recoil pad to tame the scatter gun.
Those idiots giving new or unfamiliar shooters .12 gauges and .44 magnums to shoot with little to no instruction are doing a disservice to those newbies and more than likely will create a person afraid of firearms for life.
“I own 2 seemingly identical 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotguns.
... The newer one is guaranteed to bruise you with every shot and the older one has no more kick than a Ruger 10/22.
The only thing that appears different is the color of the stock. The new one is darker and the older one is light... never figured out why one kicks and the other doesn’t.” [Buffalo Jack, post 9]
The two guns may look the same, but probably are not.
The angle of the stock in relation to the bore axis may be different: left or right, up or down, surface of butt plate in relation to bore. These dimensions are critical to shootability, but mass-market gunmakers rarely bother with them; it may not be obvious if they are different, to a casual observer. Custom gunmakers (such as James Purdey & Son in UK) expend much effort in measuring their customers, and shape the buttstock accordingly. Felt recoil is affected.
Shotguns are made with very loose tolerances of bore size and chamber diameter (compared to rifles). A larger bore or a looser chamber can cause lower recoil; tighter choke dimensions do it too, even between chokes of the same nominal constriction. Some shotgun barrels are back-bored, creating a very long oversized area, lowering recoil. Small changes in forcing cone angle or length will affect recoil also.
Differences in butt stock color may mean the use of different wood (birch is common in budget guns and much lighter in tone than walnut; its density is different also). Something as apparently insignificant as butt stock thickness will affect recoil: a narrower stock will transmit the recoil force to a smaller surface area, and the impact will feel worse.
No bruising on the shoulder, but people with weak hand grips, they will get their foreheads split open {or at least bruised}. (USS ALaska)"
Exactly so...At my age (85) I wear weight-lifting gloves when shooting my pistol-gripped 1300 Defender...
Daddy always kept the friction ring set for heavy loads. It seemed to work OK with light loads without changing it tho I am pretty sure he mostly used high brass loads.
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