A small fraction of that. All the pellets have forward momentum. They aren’t all going to spray sideways on leaving the barrel for no good reason.
Exactly right. One of the biggest misconceptions, even among “experts” (like the cop who told me a sawed-off shotgun could ‘shoot aroud corners’…nice), is that a sawed-off shotgun somehow has an incredible arc and dispersion that will kill hundreds of people with a single blast.
I’ll tell a perssonal experience anecdote that I don’t know I’ve ever told before here - I have seen a 12-gauge “handgun” fired by a dumbshit who made it illegally and wanted to show it off to a bunch of us who were out plinking with .22s (which was my favourite thing to do for so long…). It had about a 10-inch barrel on it, and at perhaps 30 feet made a spread where most pellets seemed to be within a 3-foot diameter circle, with some out as far as 2-3 feet from the center. Given that a typical sawed-off shotgun maybe has a 14-16 inch barrel, I would assume they would be a little tighter than that.
Another thing people who are not familiar with shotguns should note is that even if a sawed-off shotgun could make a 90-degree cone of fire, the pellet density would be quite low at any distance, and a room full of people might only get a couple of pellets each, depending greatly on the situation. Most people are not going to be injured seriously, let alone fatally, by a couple of size-8 pellets. So the effect would be mostly psychological - I’ve personally been hit by a couple of stray pellets before, which hurt but did not break the skin (I was far away) and it’s quite scary.
I believe that the “sawed off” thing results in greater dispersion because when you saw off the first 4 or 5 inches of the barrel you remove the choke, not because of the length of the barrel.
I’m willing to be shown wrong but I think and cylinder choke shotgun with a 30" barrel would have about the same pattern as a gun sawed off to 20".
Cylinder or cylinder bore - is no choke at all. The end of the barrel does not change diameter. On a cylinder bore barrel (a typical slug barrel) cutting anything off will not change the bore.
From what I have found the spread at about 25 feet with a 12 guage is about 36 inches. But remember a sawed off shotgun or any other cylinder bore, shore barrelled shot gun is going to be used for close quarter combat (interior vs exterior). The advantage with a shotgun is that you have more room to hit a target - if you are six inches off target with a pistol you miss but if you are six inches off with a shotgun wyou still get a hit.
Also the ammunition is not bird shot but more likely 00 buck shot, which IIRC is equivalent to .38 caliber ammunition.
What you really need is a duckbill choke which spreads the shot horizontally instead of the circular pattern.
At typical personal confrontation ranges (12 to 25 feet), the birdshot pattern thrown by a shotgun with any length barrel is a “string” and not a “cloud.” I really like the Serbu product because the forward vertical handle folds up under the barrel, but there is a fella up here that offers the same package built on the Remington 1100 platform. I think the ultimate personal defense shotgun is a 10" version of the Browning BPS or Ithaca M37 with an ejection port cut into the right side of the reciever.
Eugene Wohlberg, a criminalist with the San Diego PD, did a presentation a few years back on this very subject. he took a single-shot 12 ga and did test firings at various barrel lengths, down to (I believe) 4 inches. I’ve got the paper sitting in a closet somewhere. I’ll try and drag it out tomorrow and post some numbers.
IIRC, the dispersion pattern didn’t really start fanning out until the barrel length dropped below 12 inches. It’s nowhere near 60[sup]o[/sup], though.
–Patch
Anybody see that Paul Hogan movie, Lightning Jack?
There was a scene in there where Hogan was pointing out the differences in guns to Cuba Gooding Jr.
He had Gooding blast a barn wall many yards away, with a shorty double-barrel shotgun- the result was a series of little, scattered “puffs”.
Then he had Gooding blast a bucket on a stump up close- it basically exploded.
Same game here. The shot that comes out of a shell is held together in a “shot cup”, a plastic wad that keeps the pellets together and protects the bore from them (more important with waterfowl-mandated steel shot than with lead.) The charge of shot won’t start really dispersing for many yards, and you’ll have to get pretty far out there before it’s appreciably wider than a similar long-barreled shot.
Frankly, I dont know why anyone would want a shotgun shorter than 18 inches, it kicks more than enough at 18 inches.
You can still buy .410 pistols, I think it is the same as a .45 caliber?
Anyone can shorten a shotgun if you have a hacksaw.
If you are a criminal and want a really short concealable shotgun, I dont think “a law” against shortening a shotgun is going to otherwise stop you from robbing that bank you plan to rob. Laws against short shotguns only stop ordinary citizens from owning them - it has absolutely no effect on preventing criminals from getting short shotguns.
And laws against murder don’t stop murders. What’s your point?
As a Brit I am quite shocked at people casually discussing sawed-off shotguns. It should be sawn-off, surely?
Not to start a GD, but sawing off the barrel of a shotgun does not deprive anyone else of their inalienable rights, whereas murder obviously does. Therefore, it is the opinion of many that sawing off the barrel of a shotgun should not be a crime, or at the very least should not be a felony.
Sure, and in the opinion of others it should be.
Pedant!
In the US “sawed-off” is the common term. It probably started on the western frontier where proper grammar wasn’t a high priority.
Don’t start that “Duke of Death”, “Duck of Death” stuff all over again! 
Well, once again I was wrong. The OED recognizes “sawed” as an adjective describing someing “that has undergone the operation of sawing,” and dates it to 1553. It also goes on to say that it us often encountered in the construction “sawed-off.”
Heck I’m a Boston Yankee liberal and I own guns too. (except the laws in Massachusetts are unquestionably THE toughest in the USA). Here, you need a Firearms Identification Card to buy a BB Gun. (No joke). Okay enough complaining.
One disadvantage no one has mentioned is that with a sawed-off shotgun (or sawn-off for our British readers) is that you are limited to 2 shots before you need to reload. I mean you could saw off a nice Mossberg 12 gauge pump action but you would also saw off the pump action and the tube containing the extra shells. Okay maybe I’m stating the obvious but for those few who may not have realized it, the sawed off shotgun is good for 2 shots only. (Unless someone out there makes a 4 barrel or 6 barrel shotgun).
Incidentally, enipla I am proud to say that I am also pro-shovel.
FWIW, I’ve seen a bolt-action sawed-off shotgun with a clip that held about six rounds.
Are you telling us that you see no difference between murdering someone - and sawing a piece of metal that you own?
Don’t be ridiculous. I’m saying that your argument that laws against a short barrel shotgun stops only law abiding people from having them and doesn’t affect the law breaker can be used against any law whatever. It is a tautology.
I’ve seen police cars with short barrel, pump action shotguns in them.
I dont know about the police in your area, they could use shorter barrels than 18 inches, but in my state, none of them carry shotguns shorter than 18 inches. Since the magazine tube is 18 inches anyways, why cut the barrel shorter, or cut the size of he tube and reduce the number of shells it would contain? 18 and 20 inches are pretty much the standard around here, even for police shotguns.