Halo P-12

P-12 with HK UMP 45

This is rumored to be a possibly forthcoming pump action shotgun called the Halo P-12.   I am going to try real hard to not get your expectations too high, though. As there may only be 0-2 of these weapons in existence. It is said to weigh less than 9 pounds and be at least 27 inches in length overall. I have not seen any data to this affect, but I think we can assume that the barrel would be at least 18 inches to keep civilian ownership easy.  The weapon is a bullpup design with a top mounted magazine in line with the barrel, very similar to the FN P-90. The magazine shares the horizontal lay of the shell (perpendicular to the barrel) and the 90 degree turn to prepare the shell for chambering.




The P-12 would be limited to 2 3/4'' shells for pump operated fire, but you can hand load and fire 3" magnums. Ejection is said to be from the bottom. The Halo Mfg website does not have any new info on the P-12 and it was orginally de to be released in 2008, but I certainly haven't seen one. Rumor has it that the design is currently being refined by Monolith Arms. I would love to see  it come to market and offer some competition to the Kel-Tec KSG. I would like to see a muzzle brake of some kind added, maybe just a standoff breacher-type, because recoil is likely noticeable in a bullpup 12 gauge firing slugs. A nice beefy rubber recoil pad would not be out of place either.

P-12 with FN P-90

Whether or not we will see this design come to market remains to be seen. Certainly there is plenty of vaporware out there these days, seemingly invented just to torment us.
                                           (I am looking at you Kel-Tec PDW. )

Kel Tec KSG 12 gauge

This is the new shotgun from Kel-Tec, the KSG. It is a bullpup 12 gauge shotgun with dual magazine tubes. Ever since it was announced a few months ago, I have been excited about it. The KSG manages to be as compact as legally possible with a 26.1" overall length and an 18.5" barrel. It is pretty neat design, almost revolutionary, the only other thing that is close to it is the South African Neostead.

http://homemadedefense.blogspot.com/2009/10/weird-guns-part-4-neostead-dual-tube.html




The magazine tubes carry seven 2-3/4" or six 3" shells apiece for a total of 14+1, which is nearly ridiculous (-ly awesome). The user can switch between the tubes with a three position lever located in the area behind the trigger guard. The lever can also be set to a central detente area to allow the chamber to be emptied with the pump action without feeding a new shell from the mag tube. The pump is linked to the bolt via dual operating bars. The spent shells are ejected down through the loading port. Once the selected magazine is empty, the user must manually switch to the other tube. There is a cross bolt safety located above the pistol grip and a pump release lever at the front of the trigger guard.

The KSG comes in at 6.9lbs (unloaded I am assuming) and while that is maybe a little heavy, you will likely want that extra weight to soak up the recoil. Which I imagine will be, ummm, noticeable even with the rubber butt pad. It has a Picatinny rail along the bottom of the pump to mount a grip, light or laser and another rail on the top of the weapon for sights. As of right now, it seems it will come bare, and that is a bad decision on the part of Kel-Tec. If I buy a gun, it should come with sights. So do me a favor and throw a cheap fiber optic on there. Forward and rear sling loops are built in, and a regular sling is included. There is a cheek rest structure that also functions as a type of blast shield in case of a catastrophic failure of the chamber or barrel. And that is nice, because, you know, your face goes there.

KSG field stripped

There have been some internet rumblings about perceived shortcomings of the the design though. One thing is recoil, which in large bore bullpups can be a bit much. Another is the fact that its extremely short overall length may lead to negative views by the media, law enforcement or the States. I could easily imagine California, for example, looking on the KSG with scorn. There are also some issues with the magazine selection lever and the trigger. But keep in mind that any design takes a little while to reach maturity and this is still a new design, not yet for sale at this time.

In the pic above you can really see how much more compact the KSG is compared to a standard pump shotgun. If the design proves solid, I think it might find a lot of acceptance in the Law Enforcement and civilian areas. MSRP has not been stated, but it has been mentioned to be in the $800 US range. Hopefully that would make it about $625-675, which I think would be a good price, I would probably be willing to pay that, but they are not going to find a lot of people willing to pay $800 for a pump action 12 gauge, no matter how stumpy.

Weird Guns - Colt Defender Mark I

I found these two photos a while back, but haven't posted them because I wanted to find more information on them so that I would sound smarter. This is the Colt Defender Mark I, an eight barrel, 20 gauge shotgun, chambered for 3 inch magnums. Now, I shall copy paste that last sentence so the awesomeness can fully soak into you.

This is the Colt Defender Mark I, an eight barrel, 20 gauge shotgun, chambered for 3 inch magnums.

OK.

The Colt Defender was designed by a man named Robert Hillberg in 1967 and was an outgrowth of an earlier weapon called the Liberator. They were both intended as weapons to arm a resistance, guerrilla, or insurgent force. As this was the Cold War era, the enemies these people would be fighting are assumed to be the forces of World Communism. There were some simple criteria for the weapons. They needed to be very inexpensive, easy to operate and maintain, and have a good first shot hit probability and a good first hit kill probability. Hillberg felt that a shotgun was good for all of these criteria. They are relatively simple and cheap to manufacture, when using a load like buckshot, they are both easy to use and very lethal at short range. Both the Liberator and Defender were intended to be used by forces with little or no training and so long range shots were not a part of its design. An interesting feature of the design is that the weapon is able to fire like a semi-automatic manner, without having the mechanically complexity (and inherent occasional failures) of most semi auto designs. Like the Liberator before it, the Defender possessed semi-automatic like fire without the complexity of the semi-automatic gun. It was extremely simple to operate and very robust. Hillberg believe that the double action trigger mechanism was ideal for law enforcement applications, as it minimized familiarity and training requirements.



While he believed the initial concept was good, Hillberg tried to increase its appeal with some modifications. The chambering was reduced from 12 gauge to 20 gauge 3 inch magnum so that the weapon could be more easily controlled and smaller. The design was finalized to have eight 12 inch barrels around a central axis. The trigger is of a double action design. It was slightly less than 18 inches overall and weighed over 8 pounds. It was coated with an epoxy finish and was mainly constructed of aluminum with steel parts for high stress areas.

The Defender Mark I was offered in four configurations: The first was a simplified one, with no special features. The second version had a barrel selector that allowed the operator to choose any one of the eight barrels to fire. In theory, this would allow the user to have the weapon loaded with different types of ammunition like less lethal rounds and to choose the most appropriate loading. The third version had a canister of tear gas mounted in the space between the barrels, activated by a trigger in the foregrip. The final version had both the barrel selector and the tear gas canister.

When Hillberg brought the weapon to Colt, they were fairly impressed by the design, but decided to perform some marketing survey of some police departments. It received pretty positive reviews, especially for its volume of fire. One can certainly understand that the amazingly ferocious appearance of the weapon was appreciated as well. Unfortunately, the weapon was shelved by Colt around 1971 as the national recession and end of US involvement in the Vietnam made made Colt think that there would not be a sufficient market for the weapon.

The Defender was maybe the most "different" shotgun designs ever invented. In many ways, Robert Hillberg deserves praise for simply "thinking out of the box". It is compact, mechanically simple, very cheap to produce, extremely powerful and they had a pretty good reputation for reliability.

Mossberg 590 12 gauge Pump Shotgun

Since it was the joint winner of the first Homemade Defense poll, I figured I would give a little information and gun pr0n for all you out there. I love the Mossberg, and I think it is the best pump shotgun on the market and I recommend every one buy one (or a Model 500). They have a 3"chamber and unlike most other firearms, there is a vast variety of munitions for the 12 gauge. Everything from slugs to buckshot, birdshot to bean bags and rubber rockets, flechettes to flame rounds, and now, even grenades. Versatility is a wonderful virtue, especially if you don't have a lot of guns.

Some reasons I believe the Mossberg is the best pump action shotgun around:

• It has dual action bars for increased reliability,
  
• it can be stripped down to clean without tools
  
• IT HAS A BAYONET LUG
• it has a 8 round tube mag
  
• it comes with a heat shield
  
• many versions come with a Speedfeed stock
  
• it is tough
• it doesn't malfunction
  
• it is the main shotgun of the USMC
  
• it is great for zombies.

Lastly, they are very affordable, much more so than any other gun in its class. I also believe that they are in quality and durability, unmatched.


Specifications

Weight	3.3 kg empty
Barrel length	14 to 30 inches (20" standard)
Caliber	12 gauge, also in 20 gauge, .410 bore
Action	pump-action
Feed system	5 to 8 rounds; internal tube magazine

Shorty version called the Cruiser with a pistol grip, 5 round tube and 14 inch barrel

Weird Guns (part 4) Neostead Dual tube shotgun

Here is another strange one that you might not have ever seen.
It is the Neostead 12 gauge shotgun from South Africa. It is unique due to its dual top mounted magazine tubes. It been available since 2001 and is manufactured by Truvelo Armory.

The Neostead pump action shotgun with fixed breech face and movable barrel. The Neostead was designed with a forward then back-style pump action like on the Russian RMB-93. It has a bullpup style layout which results in a shorter overall weapon with a longer barrel. The frame is made from high impact polymer and features a top carrying handle with sights built in. The Neostead has a safety selector inside the trigger guard, directly in front of the trigger. The dual, selective magazine gives the Neostead a 12 round capacity and tactical flexibility. You could have one tube loaded with less lethal rounds and the other with buckshot for example. Mounted on the rear of the magazines there is a magazine selector which can be set to enable the feeding from one or another magazine, or from both, alternately. The magazine tubes are loaded and then slid into the frame of the weapon as you can see below.



Lets say that the gun has just been fired and the breech has an empty case in it. The operator would then pump forward and then backward. This causes the barrel to move forward, and the empty case will be held against the breech face by the extractor, then ejected down through an opening in the frame. When the pump slide is pulled forward, the new cartridge is released from the magazine tube above the barrel, and then a feed ramp lowers it so that it is aligned with the barrel and the breech face simultaneously. When the pump is returned to the starting position, it takes the barrel back, so the barrel will enclose the cartridge and be in battery with the fixed breech face. The weapon can now be fired.


The Neostead has so far failed to set the world on fire and I am not aware of any police or military that has adopted it. It is a good idea although I would think there could be many opportunities for problems with the dual tubes. It would be very easier under stress to forget you had one type of load in the chamber or which tube was which and think you were firing a beanbag and fire a 1 ounce slug instead.