If you want to get into a semantic argument over it, you’re right. However, if it walks and quacks like a duck, I’m calling it a duck, if you know what I mean. It is a modification of an existing shotgun and has all of the same characteristics of aforementioned shotgun (except length), so while it may have a different classification it is in fact a shotgun.
Short-barreled shotguns are available perfectly legally. It simply involves jumping through the correct legal hoops with BATFE and paying the appropriate tax. Ditto silencers. Ditto machineguns. Ditto “destructive devices.” Lots of things people think are illegal aren’t; they are just deliberately made inconvenient to own. This, of course, refers only to federal laws. Your state or locality may have laws of its own preventing you from owning these things.
Thanks everyone. Great responses. I’m not a hunter so I never learned much about weapons growing up. I have never shot any kind of firearm in my life…
Well, no. Beyond the increased likelihood mentioned of hitting someone even if poorly aimed, (for those less macho than yourself, even a few 1/4 inch pellets are pretty discouraging), in a hand-to-hand battle, a long barrel is likely to bang into your opponent before you can point it at him (or her).
If you let an encounter with some miscreant get to the “hand-to-hand” stage, when you possess a shotgun, then you have planned poorly. 
If your abode is that cramped, you might want to use a .45 instead.
I find that 18 inches is just about a perfect compromise between manueverability and control of shot pattern. A longer barrel will tend to knock over lamps, a shorter barrel will endanger more people than it will threaten. I like my neighbors. I have no wish to cause them harm by filling the air with uncontrolled buckshot.
Unless you live in a really, really big house, at typical indoor range the shot pattern even from a radically cut-down shotgun is unlikely to be larger than, say, a softball.
But I am a miscreant. Fuck’em! Thanks for the tip about the .45, though, I’ll try that on the next job.
A point well taken. At ranges like that, birdshot will still blow a hole in someone, without penetrating walls too much.
Another, minor reason why a bad guy would saw off a shotgun – it looks scarier. One time when I was working in a Crown Attorney’s office, a cop came in nonchalantly waving a sawed-off he had seized from a criminal – that bad boy was way more frightening than any handgun or long gun I’ve ever seen – probably just from the way its barrel and stock had been mutilated, I don’t know.
Here is a really unusual product from Serbu. It lends new meaning to the question “Are you packing?”
Oooo! I want one too!
Any idea of how muzzle length affects the pattern? I’m wondering if a 18.25" barrel shoots a wider pattern than a 26" barrel, given the same choke. I’d expect a different muzzle velocity but other than that I don’t see a mechanism for a different pattern.
Heh.
In my experience, yes.
I have a Smith & Wesson 916A that has the Riot barrel in 18.25" (or near enough to it). It is an ‘improved cylinder’ barrel (integrated choke, non-replaceable).
I also have a Mossberg 500 with a standard ribbed barrel, but with replaceable chokes. It currently has an ‘improved cylinder’ choke in it.
The S&W shoots a much larger pattern at the same distances.
I use the S&W for slugs, and mucking about in rough brush/heavy foliage, as it’s nice and short. It’s a great deer gun. I call it “Cop Gun” as it once served as a police shotgun.
I use the Mossberg for shooting clays, as it works better, and the additional length doesn’t bother me at the skeet/sporting clay courses. (No name for it yet, hasn’t killed anything but clay pigeons, and those don’t count)
Damnit. I wanted to post that.
Well over one hundred. A 12ga. shell with 1.25 ounces of #6 shot has on average 394 pellets.
Hell, I don’t even like guns very much (and I don’t own one), and yet I really want one of those Super Shortys.
I owned a double barreled pistol grip shot gun with side by side barrels and they were all of 12" or so in length. one forward and one back trigger. the thing looked like something out of the wild west. I never got to fire it (sold it off) due to a lack of firing pins. but I think the point was massive close range fire power and little need to aim.
[hijack]I see Serbu also sells .50 rifles…including ones chambered for “.510 DTC” which is, supposedly, legal in California, and I’m guessing has similar ballistic performance to the California-outlawed .50 BMG?[/hijack] :smack: :rolleyes:
Well, it would, wouldn’t it?