What are these magically terrifying weapons? Other than being alliteratively fun to say, what do they offer Joe or Jane Murderer? To shoot to the heart of this matter, we e-mailed with a gun expert who has spent a great deal of time researching, collecting, and competing with firearms.
As a gun developer and builder who has one design being tested by a Special Operations unit that shall remain nameless, our source asked to remain anonymous because, you know, gun reasons. What is a sawed-off shotgun? National Firearms Act of According the NFA 36, a shotgun must have a barrel length of a minimum of eighteen inches and an overall length of 27 inches, I believe.
How does one make one? Is it hard? Basically, one takes a hacksaw, sawzall, carbide chop saw, and cuts the barrel s to the desired length. If concealability is the goal, the butt stock can be cut to a crude pistol grip as well. Is it legal? They can be had legally, yes. First your state must allow them. Then the forms must be filled out in triplicate. Fingerprints are taken, as well a photograph to go on file. The FBI takes about 90 days, give or take, to conduct a serious background check investigation.
State and local laws might entirely prohibit civilian possession of short-barrelled shotguns. These restrictions do not apply to military and police departments. A shotgun is legally defined as a shoulder-mounted firearm that fires shot. Shotguns and shotgun receivers that have never had a buttstock of any type installed are not shotguns, as they cannot be shoulder mounted. Firearms of this type are typically over years old. These weapons produced with a barrel length under 18" are not considered sawed-off shotguns because they were not produced with a shoulder buttstock.
Any firearms capable of shooting shotgun style cartridges produced after the 18" minimum barrel restrictions were set into place are considered illegal sawed-off shotguns. This short-barrelled shotgun was manufactured with a reduced-length barrel, rather than being modified after its manufacture.
Historical military use of sawed-off shotguns includes use as a primary weapon for Confederate cavalry during the American Civil War. These muzzle-loaded weapons were used primarily for close-range combat and to supplement the availability of more traditional short ranged weapons such as the saber or carbine.
The availability of the source weapons and the ability to use single ball, shot, or a mix of both as the situation required were reasons why they were initially desired by those establishing Confederate cavalry units. They were replaced over time as more conventional arms became available and as the tactical use of cavalry shifted towards use as mounted infantry.
In modern usage, minimum length and barrel length restrictions only apply to civilian use; military and police departments may issue short-barreled shotguns, and major manufacturers offer special models with barrels in the range of 10 to 14 inches 25 to 36 cm as riot shotguns or combat shotguns for use in areas with restricted space. These are generally referred to as "entry shotguns", because they are generally used for entering buildings, where the short easy handling is more important than the increased ammunition capacity of a longer shotgun.
Breaching rounds provide another use for very short shotguns. These rounds are usually made of sintered powdered metal, but a normal buckshot or bird shot round will also work. A shotgun is used for breaching by placing the gun next to a door lock 0 to 2 inches away, 0 to 5 cm , and firing at a 45 degrees downward angle through the door between the lock or latch and the door frame. The impact of the projectile s opens a hole through the door, removing the latch or locking bolt. When through the door, the shot or sintered metal disperses quickly, and because it was aimed downwards, the risk of harming occupants on the other side of the breached door is minimized.
Breaching guns used by police and the military may have barrels as short as 10 inches 25 cm , and they often have only a pistol grip rather than a full butt stock. Some models use a special cup-like muzzle extension to further minimize the risk of debris injuring the shooter. Because few rounds are fired, any sporting shotgun with a 3 round capacity could be shortened and used as a capable breaching shotgun.
Cutting off the end of the barrel removes the choke, which generally only extends about two inches about 5 cm inward from the muzzle. This results in a cylinder bore, which causes the widest spread generally found in shotgun barrels.
For an even wider pattern, special "spreader chokes" or "spreader loads" can be used, that are designed to spread the shot farther. See choke for more information on the impact of chokes. See shotgun shell for information on spreader loads. See details on shot patterning. In the United Kingdom , Australia and New Zealand, where handguns are not easily obtainable, the sawn-off shotgun was a common weapon in armed robberies during and shortly after the s, and it is this use that most people associate with the weapon.
However, in more recent years, handguns and handgun replicas have been more easily available in the United Kingdom, despite an increase in legal restrictions on civilian ownership of handguns in the area: sawn-off shotguns were used in only out of a total of robberies involving firearms in England and Wales from to , while handguns made up of the weapons used in these robberies. A sawed-off shotgun with exposed, manually-cocked hammers and dual triggers is known as a lupara "wolf-shot" in Italy, and while associated with organized crime, was originally used by Sicilian farmers and shepherds to protect their vineyards and flocks of animals.
The bank robber Clyde Barrow modified his Browning A-5 shotgun by cutting the barrel down to the same length as the magazine tube, and shortening the stock by 5 to 6 inches to mm to make it more concealable. A small, 10—inch — mm strap was attached to both ends of the butt of the gun, and was looped around his shoulder, concealing the gun between his arm and chest under his jacket in the manner of a shoulder holster.
The length of the barrel directly effects the firing power of the weapon and the speed at which the ammunition is propelled out of the weapon. Sawed off shotguns can be especially deadly because the ammunition is propelled faster than it would be if the barrel was complete.
In addition, sawed off shotguns are easy to conceal, which makes them extremely dangerous for law enforcement in certain situations, such pulling over a vehicle that may contain a sawed off shotgun. In the United States, it is illegal to posses a sawed off shotgun that has a barrel length of less than eighteen inches, unless the individual has obtained a taxed permit from the ATF. That permit requires a background check and payment of an excise tax for that weapon. However, each state has different laws which govern the types of weapons that residents are allowed to own and a state may forbid ownership of a sawed off shotgun, simply because of the ease with which it can be concealed.
0コメント