Shotguns

I noticed the bolt on the old shotgun was closed when it was being taken out of its case, so I asked the owner to open it. When he touched the bolt, the striker released. I was mighty relieved that he had remembered to unload the piece before bringing it into my shop. Another person standing at the end of the counter, which happened to be at the shotgun's muzzle end, was even more relieved than I was.

When there isn’t a scope mount made to fit the shotgun you’re working on, don’t worry about it. Just use a blank to make your own.

A lathe is preferable for choke work, but hard tools are an option if you don't have access to the bigger machine. Here are some tips.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, joined a chorus of skeptics who questioned President Barack Obama's recent comments about his hobby of skeet shooting.

Benelli’s super-lightweight shotguns, the Ultralight line, are touted as being the lightest semi-automatic shotguns in production. Because a lighter gun does not always leave a shooter happy after a long day in the field or an afternoon shooting sporting clays, there are good reasons why shooters would prefer a heavier classic model, such as a favorite of many shooters, the Remington Model 1100. The Model 1100 was first manufactured in 1963, and with more than 50 years of production under its belt, it has earned seniority over newcomers like the Ultralight. But, because age is just a number and the new challenges the old every day, Gun Tests’ shooters wanted to see for themselves which gun they would buy. So, for a test in the February 2013 issue, Winkle’s Great Guns supplied a Benelli Ultralight Model No. 10802 12 Gauge, $1649; and Remington Model 1100 Sporting No. 25315, $1211, for this showdown. Here’s what Gun Tests found.

A good polishing job can save a gun from the junk heap, but a bad job can send it there. Here's how the professional does it.

A fired 12-gauge shotgun shell unleashes a column of shot from a shotgun barrel at about 1,200 feet per second – too fast for the human eye to see the pellets in flight. This can make it extremely difficult to master the correct lead on flying clay targets or game birds. What if that changed? What if it was possible to track the flight of the shot string? Thanks to Winchester Ammunition, it’s happening in 2013.

Benelli's super-lightweight shotguns, the Ultralight line, are touted as being the lightest semi-automatic shotguns in production. Because a lighter gun does not always leave a shooter happy after a long day in the field or an afternoon shooting sporting clays, there are good reasons why shooters would prefer a heavier classic model, such as a favorite of many shooters, the Remington Model 1100. The Model 1100 was first manufactured in 1963, and with more than 50 years of production under its belt, it has earned seniority over newcomers like the Ultralight. But, because age is just a number and the new challenges the old every day, our shooters wanted to see for themselves which gun they would buy. Toward that end, we got a Benelli Ultralight Model No. 10802 12 Gauge, $1649; and Remington Model 1100 Sporting No. 25315, $1211, for this showdown.

There are groups that undermine and manipulate systems across America to end hunting, trapping and fishing. These same “less-than-honest” groups also often then exploit wildlife and conservation issues in the name of raising dollars for their devious causes. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance has identified a dozen organizations that have taken efforts in the past year to prevent you from hunting or trapping:

There will always be a need to identify chamberings of firearms that have been inherited or bought at yard sales. The lure of buying for bottom dollar and discovering a real jewel is ingrained in most of us, so a little thing like no chambering marks on a rifle or handgun is no deterrent to a gun fancier.

USA Shooting’s National Shotgun Coach Todd Graves (Hamilton, Ga.) has assigned eight highly-respected coaches to assist and participate in the formation of USA Shooting’s re-structured Shotgun program.

We are often asked what firearms we recommend for home defense, and based on the circumstances, we often say that a shotgun may be the best choice for a number of reasons: ease of operation, stopping power, and multi-shot capacity, to name three. Most shotgunners know that defense shotguns have long held 5, 6, 7, and 8 rounds, usually in tubular magazines under the barrel. But there are bigger-capacity shotguns out there, and we recently had a chance to test four of them.Our test guns were the Akdal Arms MKA 1919 3-inch 12 Gauge, $799; the Kel-Tec KSG 3-inch 12 Gauge, $1075; the Saiga IZ-107 12 Gauge, $640; and a Red Jacket Saiga RTS-SBS-12 Short-Barrel 12 Gauge, $1939.The KSGs popularity has grown exponentially since it was announced in 2011, part of which is driven by its inclusion in shooter video games, including the most recent Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and it is rumored to be returning for Call Of Duty: Black Ops II. The KSG is a bullpup pump shotgun whose short overall length of only 26.1 inches allows for greater maneuverability and makes it suitable for close-quarters combat.The Akdal MKA 1919 is a gas-operated semi-automatic shotgun that was created by a Turkish company called Akdal Arms. The 1919 is designed to look and feel like the AR-15 rifle. The gun comes stock with a polymer AR-style fixed front sight and polymer carry handle that has a built-in flip sight. Both the front and rear sights can be removed if you like to customize your guns and add your own optics. The upper receiver is made of an aluminum alloy, and has a Picatinny rail that runs along the top. The lower half of the gun is a single polymer piece that is both the grip and a fixed stock that has a rubber buttpad already built in.Our older Saiga 12, still in Very Good shape, was manufactured at the Izhmash Factory in Russia and imported through EAA Corp. What we believe is an identical gun, the IZ-107 12 Gauge, $640, is available from K-Var Corp. of Las Vegas (K-Var.com, [702] 364-8880). Because its currently available, we listed K-Vars model number throughout. So you can either look for a used gun like ours, or if you want a brand-new gun of this type, you know where to start. Designed as an all-purpose shotgun, this Saiga comes with a chrome-lined barrel which allows the use of many different types of ammunition, including steel. The Saiga 12 is capable of cycling both 23/4- and 3-inch magnum shells. As with all Saiga 12s, this shotgun is not designed to use low-pressure shells. Saiga 12 gauges now come standard with the bolt hold-open feature. This allows for a quicker change time between magazines. This shotgun was manufactured utilizing the Kalashnikov gas system. This gas system reduces felt recoil dramatically.Our fourth gun, the Red Jacket Saiga, was the most expensive by far and was the worst performer, our testers said. They simply couldnt make the gun work very well. This was a loaner gun from our home test facility, Tactical Firearms in Katy, Texas (TacticalFirearms.us), who had bought the RJS in both compensated and suppressed forms. The Tactical Firearms staff called it the Red Junket instead of the Red Jacket Saiga because they could rarely fire more than a couple of shells before the action locked up in several different ways, which we describe below.Because the Saigas are only supposed to use 1.25-ounce or heavier shotcharges, we fired them mostly with 12 gauge Winchester Super-X Game and Field Loads (23/4 inch #6 Lead, 11/4 ounce, 1330 fps), which we bought at Cheaper Than Dirt! for $16.51/25, #2-WNX126BX. Other CTD loads we used included Hornady Zombie Z-MAX 00 Buckshot rounds (23/4 inch, 8 pellets, 1600 fps, $10.29/10 #AMM-8212); and Fiocchi Exacta Aero Slugs (23/4 inch lead, 1 ounce, 1560 fps), which cost $7.91/10, #6-0309542. We also fired Remington Slugger 3-inch 1-ounce rifled slugs ($5.34/5 @ 1760 fps, currently out of stock); and Winchester Supreme Partition Gold 3-inch 385-grain sabot slugs SSP123 ($12.55/5 @ 2000 fps, also out of stock).Our plan was to shoot all four shotguns for function and to check features, then shoot groups with the slugs to compare their accuracy. However, the second part of that turned out not to be necessary because we had function trouble with the Akdal, KSG, and Red Jacket guns, making the Saiga the winner by default. We describe the problems we had in fuller detail below.