Sorry for the light blogging last night, especially given what was in the news. I’m currently filling in as Recording Secretary for my club, since the actual Recording Secretary is on an extended vacation, and last night’s Board of Directors meeting was a long one. I’m the one who has to take minutes for the meeting.
Just to give you an idea of some of the issues clubs tend to face, a few months ago someone found some shotgun wads on the indoor range. For safety reasons, we don’t allow shotguns on the indoor range. But on the video, we couldn’t make out a shotgun. Must have been a Taurus Judge. Is it a shotgun, or a pistol? Some argue when you put a shot shell in a pistol, it becomes a shotgun, and thus it’s already against the rules. My argument, joined by a few others, was that the federal and state governments will tell you it’s a pistol, and it’s a pistol even if it has a shot shell in it. At the very least, it seems we have a deficiency in the rules, so a new rule was adopted to prohibit shot shells in the ammunition rules, in addition to prohibiting shotguns in the rules limiting types of firearms.
The California DOJ has ruled “The Judge” is a short-barreled shotgun and has forbidden its sale here.
What if I put snake shot in a Smith & Wesson 629?
For that matter, what happens if someone makes a modern LeMat (why you would want to, I don’t know exactly, but stranger things have happened).
What are the safety reasons for banning shotguns? The indoor range I go to allows them, though I think you have to use slugs, not shot.
The range isn’t engineered to take really hot loads. We don’t allow magnum loads for that reason either. Rifles, if they are .22LR, are allowed. No other long gun is.
Your range may work differently, but at mine shotguns and shot shells are not allowed because they will frequently break the clothes pins that holdup the targets, or break the wire on the pulleys that move the targets.
Breaking the clothes pin at 100 yards with your irons-sighted 223 is considered bad shooting, on the other hand, since you missed the target area by about a foot. Breaking both clothes pins with two shots in a row is a demonstration that you meant to do it, and can shoot.
Yes, Mikee, I figured that was the rationale for the slugs-only rule for shotguns. This indoor range is only 25 yards.
As for hot loads, I wonder how much force there is from a shotgun shell in a pistol. I know there’s a significant reduction in the speed of a .45 coming out of a 4″ barrel compared to a 5″ one. So, I’m guessing there’s a pretty major reduction in force when you shoot a shotgun shell from a pistol.
Aside from the Judge, it could have been one of those Bond Arms derringers they always advertise in NRA mags that’ll shoot either a .410 shotgun shell or a .45 Colt. The barrels on those things seem barely longer than the .410 shell!
A .410 shotshell from a 3″ barrel is a hot load? :)