New on CTD: Smoothbore Suprises

Results of 20ga shotgun patterning.

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4 Responses to New on CTD: Smoothbore Suprises

  1. lenf says:

    I was unable to post this at the CTD site so here it is, here.
    There’s a YouTube video (search for “cut shells”), where 16ga birdshot shells are cut almost all the way through the case just below the load without hitting the power piston. When fired from a cylinder bore gun (DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!) the entire front of the shell case, the wad cup and of course the load of shot are delivered. The difference between this and rifled slugs fired from the same gun is significant in sound, recoil and penetration. Kind of the same idea but with a lot more range. There was a scene in one of the ‘Bourne’ films where Jason is attacked at a farmhouse where he and the girl are hiding. He gets and old double barreled shotgun and a couple of shells of birdshot and goes out into a cornfield and shoots the bad guy twice from about 50 yards and drops him like he was a Partridge. Everywhere else in the film the bad guys fight with everything at their disposal long after they have been shot, stabbed, bitten, run over, smashed and generally beat down, but no, not this time. A half ounce of #7 shot at 50 yards and he’s making a deathbed confession. Jeez.

    • Duray says:

      Not to get all geeky, but I just watched the scene and it didn’t seem to depict the range. Also, it was pretty realistic in that after being shot twice with birdshot, the guy was hurting but still able to move, crawl, talk, etc. Also, a 12 gauge shell holds a lot more than a half ounce of shot. Plus, given the situation and the number of times Bourne is shown thumbing more shells into the gun, he could have easily fired both barrels simultaneously, giving you as much as 3 ounces of lead airborne at perhaps 100 feet. Then he closes the distance and fires again. Seems reasonably plausible.

  2. mikee says:

    I found it interesting that birdshot kept the wad cup with the shot at 7 yards but #3 buck separated from the cup at 7 yards.

  3. April says:

    I thought it was interesting to consider there’s so much potential for the unexpected with a shotgun in the first place! I seriously wasn’t giving it that much room for personality before. Thanks for the heads up.

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