Winchester 8 Gauge Industrial Shotguns

The Firearms Blog ^ | 22 June, 2018 | Hrachya H

[marktwain]

Industrial shotguns have been in use for a very long time, however, this is a category of firearms that is mostly unknown to firearm enthusiasts. I decided to write this short article to tell about the industrial shotguns and their use on the example of currently produced 8 gauge Winchester industrial shotguns.

Winchester “Ringblaster” Industrial Tool

When you think about industrial guns you probably imagine a nail gun or something like that. That is arguably the most known alternative use of firearms. However, there are big bore industrial shotguns that are designed to be used in industries such as steel industry where often times there is a need to remove excessive or built up materials from furnaces. As you can imagine, doing a manual work in such environments is not the quickest, easiest and safest job. That’s why they use these shotguns to do the job from a safe distance.

Winchester “Western” Industrial Tool

Winchester Industrial Products makes two such shotguns called Ringblaster Industrial Tool and Western Industrial tool. Here is how these shotguns are described on the company’s website:

[niteowl77]

Why did they not make some sort of remote firing fixture?

From the time the facility was built and up until the 1980's, I don't think the safety bug had bitten the company. Most of the employees were the typical small-town and rural men who were a tad casual about safety anyway.

(It was quite common for farmers and men at elevators and crop production businesses to be missing fingers, etc... sort of like railroaders a generation earlier.)

My guess is that cleaning the stacks wasn't done that often, was seen as just another part of the job.

[Still Thinking]

Well, I’m no safety paranoid, so for me it would have just been a proper design issue. If some task strikes you as stupid every time you do it, then redesign it so it’s not.