Free Republic

Working with Team Russian Technologies, the Russian national practical shooting team, Izhmash has developed an update for their phenomenally popular semi-automatic shotgun, the Saiga 12. This modified shotgun, produced by the efforts of team captain Ilyin Vsevolod Kirisenko and Izhmash engineer Alexey Shumilov, has many updates to Saiga platform we're familiar with most. First and foremost it is not a "sporterized" shotgun. It is in full pistol-grip regalia, with a SAW-type grip, telescoping buttstock, and improved forearm. The buttstock follows the AR pattern and runs parallel to the shotgun bore and looks to be compatible with aftermarket AR-15 buttstocks. It...

<p>FRESNO, Calif. – A California man was arrested after authorities discovered the "Super Soaker" water gun he was wearing around his neck had been turned into a working shotgun, Fox affiliate KMPH reports.</p> <p>Fresno police approached 54-year-old Randy Smith when they noticed the water gun around his neck Saturday because they had been recently briefed on people turning toys into working weapons.</p>

Police have charged a Leander woman after they said she threatened her husband with a loaded shotgun for pouring the meal she made down the drain, according to an arrest warrant. melissa.jpg Melissa Leigh Migliore, 38, seen at right, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to an arrest warrant. Her husband, William Migliore, told police that he had been arguing with her while she was making dinner Tuesday at their house on Tablerock Circle in Leander, the warrant said. He said he entered the bedroom where she was lying down and told her that he had...

JACINTO CITY, Tex. (CBS Houston) - During a fight with his girlfriend and her brother, a man accidentally shot and killed himself while threatening the other two parties with a loaded shotgun. According to KHOU, the Jacinto City Police responded to a complaint at a nearby home on Wednesday night around 10 p.m., and arrived to find a shooting victim lying out front. The victim, an unidentified 20-year-old male, died on the scene. Upon investigating, police reportedly found that the deceased was arguing with his girlfriend and her brother as he tried to kick the female out of the house....

Fort Campbell, KY – It weighs 3.5 pounds, has a barrel length of 7.75 inches, fires 12-gauge shells and can be mounted on the M4 carbine or act as a stand alone firearm; it is the M26 Modular Accessory Shotgun System and the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) is the first unit in the Army to be issued the combat enhancer. “This is a new capability that is now in your hands for you to conduct your mission downrange,” said Col. Scott C. Armstrong, with Project Manager Soldier Weapons, during a presentation ceremony held at Fort...

Last November, the "Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science and Transportation/Housing/Urban Development Appropriations bills" omnnibus was signed into law. One provision of that law blocks funding for a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) plan to ban the importation of certain shotguns, based on their not being sufficiently suited to "sporting purposes." From AmmoLand.com: SEC. 541. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to pay the salaries or expenses of personnel to deny, or fail to act on, an application for the importation of any model of shotgun if– (1) all other requirements of...

FOREST LAKE, Minn. - A Forest Lake homeowner says he is livid about an "outrageous, unnecessary ending to a great wildlife story" after a police officer came onto his property at about 7 a.m. on Saturday and shot two orphaned fawns that often slept in the dog house at close range without warning. Jeff Carpenter contacted FOX 9 News about the weekend shooting, saying an officer "brutally gunned down" the twin, 6-month-old fawns his family had come to love thirty yards from his home. Carpenter said he was working in the home office when he was startled by a shotgun...

Phil Tagami, the Oakland developer who made headlines by defending his building with a shotgun during Occupy protests last year, has been appointed to the California Lottery Commission, one of three commission appointments Gov. Jerry Brown announced Wednesday afternoon. Brown's recasting of the three-member commission comes a month after his appointment of a new lottery director, former business consultant Robert O'Neill. The lottery does about $3 billion in game sales annually and provides about $1 billion to California schools. Like Brown, the appointees all are Democrats. Brown and Tagami, 46, know each other from Oakland, where Brown was mayor, and...

FAIRFAX, Va. --(Ammoland.com)- This year, NRA-ILA worked with pro-gun legislators to include a provision in the 2012 Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations legislation to help prohibit the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from banning the importation of shotguns that are currently legally imported. That legislation was a part of a consolidated appropriations bill that Congress passed to fund major portions of the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2012. Unfortunately, some inaccurate reports have claimed that this provision would repeal the “sporting purposes” test for importation of firearms. While NRA supports repeal of the “sporting purposes”...

It’s the last thing two burglary suspects expected to hear when they broke into a Coon Rapids home. From within the house came the unmistakable sound of a pump shotgun. At the other end of that gun was a 22-year-old woman who is nine weeks pregnant. The young woman asked not to be identified because the two suspects are still at large. However, she says when the men ignored her barking pit bull and black lab, and broke through a kitchen door, she had no other choice but to chamber a round into the 12-gauge shotgun. There’s perhaps no other...

Manasquan, NJ --(Ammoland.com)- Saiga 12’s, Benelli M4’s and virtually any other tactical/military shotgun can no longer be banned from import by the ATF. A little noticed provision tucked into a large appropriations bill obviously flew under the radar of the “Brady Bunch” and the “Illegal Mayors.” The new law effectively kills ATF’s plan to stop tactical/military shotgun imports by way of abusing the “sporting purpose” requirement and their agency rulemaking powers. The “Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science (CJS) and Transportation/Housing/Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bills”, also known as the “Mini-Bus”, was passed by Congress, and signed into law by President Obama...

Shotguns, buckshot, SHTF With all of the insane government spending going on, and the potential of nasty inflation hitting soon, I have been looking for things to buy that have utility, trading value, and long term storage life. I have been heavily involved in the gun culture, grew up in it, studied it, and have been a professional for the last 16 years. Almost everyone has a shotgun. Usually it is a 12 gauge, although there are plenty of 20, 16, and 410 shotguns out there. Most people have a box or two of bird shot. They might have a...

I never cease to be amazed at how many people approach me and ask about taking them out to learn to shoot. Like most outdoorsmen I know I usually try and accommodate these newcomers to the outdoor sports but sometime there just isn’t time to do it all. I usually have to refer them to other experienced outdoorsmen or to a professional shooting range to learn the basics from a certified National Rifle Association instructor. Many of these “newbies” are women who have wanted to learn how to use guns. In the world of today there are certain elements that...

With new manufacturing technology and materials speeding weapons evolution, it’s no surprise that Kel-Tec took another look at the tactical shotgun. Kel-Tec’s KSG Bullpup shotgun stormed the SHOT show like the Red Army into Berlin, championing its 14-round capacity, diminutive configuration and radical ergonomics. Sounds great on paper, but what’s it like in real life? Our favorite Russian émigré Oleg Volk, brought one to the Lucky Gunner Blogger shoot over Memorial Day weekend . . . Kel-Tec has a bit of a rep for cheap-feeling weapons whose fit and finish makes a pre-C11 GM product seem like a Swiss watch....

Love waterfowl hunting with classic side-by-sides but sometimes really wish you had that third shot? Shoulda been at this auction, where a one-of-a-kind triple-barreled Dickson side-by-side-by-side shotgun just sold at auction for a cool $66,000. From this story in the Scotsman: A unique triple-barrelled shotgun made for a Scots aristocrat has been sold at auction for £43,000. The shotgun - dubbed the "Holy Grail" - was made in April 1891 for John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow and the seventh Earl of Hopetoun. The three-barrelled ejector, 16-bore gun, with three triggers, was designed by renowned Edinburgh gun makers...

Yesterday, the Louisiana Senate unanimously passed NRA-backed Senate Bill 39. Sponsored by state Senators Eric LaFleur (D-28) and Neil Riser (R-32), this bill would clarify that Louisianans may purchase a long gun in any state, and allow a citizen of any other state to purchase a long gun in Louisiana, so long as both states allow such purchases. SB 39 has been assigned to the House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice.

“Tracy St Clair Pearce, 50, [above] was confronted by four men carrying a chainsaw and a knife, who warned her they would kill her cattle at her farm in Colchester, Essex,” dailymail.co.uk reports. “She called police late on Good Friday to report the threat, but was left gobsmacked [surprised] when officers took 35 minutes to get to her home, before telling her they would confiscate her shotguns.” The local constabulary confirmed the pre-emptive policing maneuver. “Inspector Jim White of Essex Police said: ‘In order to prevent any public order incidents, and to keep members of the public safe, we obtained...

Back at the end of January, we talked about a proposal from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), to outlaw the importation of many popular shotguns, on the grounds that these shotguns were not "particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes." Application of this "sporting purposes test" is relevant because under provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968, importation of firearms is generally illegal, except under such excemptions as the firearms in question having "sporting purposes." This started with a "study" the BATFE conducted (pdf file) that found (surpise, surprise) that many shotguns now...

I am planning to purchase a shotgun. I'm fairly certain that I will be buying the Remington 870 Express, synthetic. I do have some questions, though. I'm not experienced at all with shotguns. I've read that the barrel can be changed out on the Remington 870 and I am wondering to what extent that is true. What I am hoping is that I can buy one shotgun, and by purchasing a couple of additional barrels, I can have a true multi-tasker. Can I, for example, buy the 870 with the 18 inch barrel, and the magazine extension so that I...

A rich Englishman could be sentenced to prison after shooting an "annoying" burglar alarm at a neighbor’s home. This happened at Saint John’s Woods, one of England’s most affluent neighborhoods. He owns a home worth 10 million pounds there. Peter Shalson, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, worth 175 million pounds, broke into a neighbor’s home and blasted their “annoying” burglar alarm with his shotgun. Being rich obviously doesn’t make one smart though. But it does get you a trophy wife. He pled guilty to...