My Dad's new toy - Fully moderated shotgun, thought you guys might be interested :-)

[curious aardvark]

So my dad does a fair bit of shooting, mostly wood pigeon, rabbit and pheasant.
He hates wearing ear defenders of any kind.

He got a bunch of money for his 65th to buy a shotgun with and after a year or or so of looking he's got this one.



It's a fully moderated over and under 20 bore (gauge).

It weighs about 7.5 lbs.
And looking at it put together I just couldn't work out how it reduced the noise.
But after he took it shooting (8 pigeons from 12 shots - pretty bloody good) it rattled and the instructions said to unscrew the the large round bit to clean it up.
And then it all made sense:







There are also baffles at the end of the moderator to catch any gasses (and bits of plastic wadding which is why it was rattling).





I haven't heard it. But apparently if you're more than 10 yards away it just sounds like an air rifle.
It's made by an english company, so you probably haven't seen anything like it before - I know I hadn't and I read all his shooting magazines :-).

He's got another 20 bore by the same company, so at some point I'll try and get some comparison video. To see how different the noise is.
He also says it's got no recoil. So basically he can shoot it all day without ear defenders and no recoil effects.

And yep we weren't exactly impressed with the way the holes drilled in the barrel hadn't been deburred or tidied up either. Guess it doesn't make any difference to it's performance, but even so it's pretty shoddy finishing.

Anyway, thought you lot would be interested.

[HawgHeaven]

You are correct CA, I have never seen anything like that... SWEET!

[Richtee]

I would think there's quite an effective range penalty involved with that barrel porting. And yeah... those holes should be de-burred. Especially on the INSIDE!

Never seen anything like that either. Don't exactly look very graceful, but I guess if quiet is a must, then that and the range reduction is worth it. Good thing it's not semi... bet that tube would get warm!

[curious aardvark]

here's a link to the manufacturers.
Also a picture of the end baffles with the cover removed.



Dunno about the range thing, I thought that as well - he was shooting on a field surrounded by houses, which was one reason he wanted a quieter gun and the air rifle doesn't have the range or instant shot ability for rabbit shooting.
It's the best pigeon for shot result he's had for a long time though.
He's going out with a mate this week for a longer session so I'll get a fuller report after that :-)

And yep it's a weird looking thing alright :-)

[Whisky Fish]

Same exact principles as a silencer, never seen it on a shotgun though. Very cool CA thanks for sharing!

[bigun94]

nice looking gun!

[IrishChef]

Wow! Seems odd that across the pond, with all the gun control laws you have there, you can get a suppressed shotgun. Highly illegal here, without a shitton of paperwork, background checks, and permitting.

I wonder how much velocity is lost will all the porting?

[Jimh]

very nice,IrishChef is right there would be alot BS to go through to own that over here

[BBQ Engineer]

Hey CA,

Not a pretty machining effort, but a cool looking gun none the less.

[Richtee]

Are shotguns covered under the "silencer" act? Probably. I guess I just never seen such a thing. Prolly fairly effective, as the shot charge is probably not exceeding the speed of sound outta that ported barrel- eliminating the "crack" of hypersonic projectiles.

[Whisky Fish]

Definately sub sonic Rich and I don't think I'd wanta take a chance with the ATF boys. I think the statute doesn't care what type of gun. If I remember right it says supressed firearm or supression device. Things may have changed, it's been a while since I studied the regs.

[IrishChef]

Are shotguns covered under the "silencer" act? Probably. I guess I just never seen such a thing. Prolly fairly effective, as the shot charge is probably not exceeding the speed of sound outta that ported barrel- eliminating the "crack" of hypersonic projectiles.

Does this mean you are still building them in your basement?

[curious aardvark]

nope not subsonic unless you use special subsonic cartridges.
Which are expensive so he doesn't. But various reviews say that there is no practical difference between normal cartridges and subsonic.
One review said he was shooting 50 yards from his house and you couldn't hear anything inside the house. Which is one of the reasons my dad bought his.

That is pretty ironic that you guys would have problems getting something like this.

But that is one of the advantages of gun control. You're a known quantity, not only do they know who you are and where you live, every now and then they pop round to check your guns are secured and stored properly.
So within the bounds of your licence - you can buy what you like.
The only real limit on shotguns over here is the 3 cartridge rule.
You can have a semi-auto shotgun, but it can't hold more than 3 shots.

And no it doesn't make any sense to me either.
Maybe psychos can't reload

Plus we're in a fairly rural area so farms and shotguns are pretty common.
Apparently derbyshire are one of the better licencing authorities :-)

[nickelmore]

Big muzzle brake

Is is a suppressor or a darn big muzzle break?

With out the presence of "traditional" suppressor parts, it could appear to some as a ported barrel.

I'd be interested in what a gunsmith charges for such a contraption.

(I really don't want one, I just think its neat)

I would also like to see how it patterns.

But it is pretty cool.

[Richtee]

nope not subsonic unless you use special subsonic cartridges.

Hot game loads seem to average 1200 or so Ft/Sec, while SOS is about 1126 Ft/Sec.
I'm willing to bet the reduced barrel pressures due to the porting drop the M.V. of a shotshell below the SOS from that weapon.