IN over the past few years, interest in modern citizens Russia to the history of its own Motherland is growing quite rapidly.

A significant role in this is played by the increased number of high-quality full-length films and serials both about the Great Patriotic War, and about the First World War and Civil War. These works slightly pushed back the unpopular segment that tells about the "dashing 90s". In turn, and at one time, these tapes pushed the Soviet cinema, not without ideological overtones, narrated about the struggle Soviet people with the White Guards in the Civil War and with the Nazis in the Great Patriotic War.

Views on one or the other historical events may be different, but regardless of them, the scriptwriters and directors have strived and are striving to recreate the most reliable picture using the props of those years. This is especially true for weapons.

It is clear that German tanks there are simply no more times of war, so Soviet T-72s are “made up” under them.

In the view of filmmakers, the vast majority of the German invaders were armed with MP-40 submachine guns.

Although in fact the main weapon was a 98k carbine. The revolutionary sailors are all in machine-gun belts and always with a Mauser in a wooden holster-butt. Although in fact, the tapes and the gun were put on for a few photos.

The cinematography has always had an ambiguous attitude towards the sawn-off shotgun. Whether it was a sawn-off shotgun or a gun, the negative hero always had it.

IN Soviet times sawn-off shotgun is definitely a weapon for committing crimes, and only against Soviet power and its representatives.

The sawn-off shotgun played a “positive image” for the first time in the famous film “Brother” directed by S. Balabanov. In a tape filmed in 1997, main character performed by S. Bodrov, Jr., not only did he himself make a sawn-off shotgun from a smooth-bore gun with horizontally arranged barrels, he also used it against evil. This directorial move, in our opinion, was also not chosen by chance. In many ways, the film "Brother" turns the idea of ​​​​a very difficult period of history. modern Russia, changes a number of stereotypes. Including the stereotype of a sawn-off shotgun only as a weapon of kulaks and bandits.

In accordance with federal law"On Weapons", the minimum length of civilian long-barreled weapons should be 800 mm. At the same time, forensic requirements establish another limitation: the length of the barrel with the receiver should not be less than 500 mm, the length of the barrel should not be less than 300 mm. Therefore, in its “pure form”, a sawn-off shotgun or a repeating rifle is illegal in Russia.

However, during the heyday of the "traumatic" self-defense weapons, the sawn-off shotgun was legalized in the form of a gas pistol with the ability to fire a Howd rubber bullet. According to its characteristics, the sawn-off shotgun was so-so, but not in terms of aura ...

In those years, street crime did not take a gun in the hands of a civilian seriously. There were many gas, traumatic and, especially, pneumatic pistols on hand, which were worn for self-defense. Among them were very good in terms of power "traumatics", but most often their owners could not use them, as they counted solely on the psychological effect of the demonstration of weapons. Then the script usually ends.

Few wore a "traumatic" sawn-off shotgun. Firstly, it is heavier and not convenient for concealed carry, and secondly, pistols were in vogue. The unexpected effect of showing a sawn-off shotgun instead of a pistol when attacking on the street helped to avoid many conflicts without shooting. In itself, the sight of a sawn-off shotgun, “criminalized” to no avail by Soviet literature and cinema, multiplied by the effect of the film “Brother”, where the main character has nothing to lose except for the life for which he will stand up, sobered many hotheads of representatives of street crime.

In 2016, sawn-off shotgun became legal again. Moreover, the sawn-off shotgun of the real MP-43 (IZH-43) smoothbore gun. It is available as a decommissioned blanked weapon chambered for a 10x31TK light and sound cartridge.

The sawn-off shotgun is named "Brother-2". Many have already noted that the sawn-off shotgun was in the first film "Brother", and did not appear at all in the second. But initially the meaning was different, BRAT-2 because there are two cut-off barrels.

The Brat-2 sawn-off shotgun retained all the features of the IZH-43 gun, with the exception of the possibility of firing projectile equipment (shot, buckshot or bullet).

That is, when fired, the IZH-43 dipped gun emits only a sound accompanied by a decent flash of flame. The effect of a sawn-off shot, as well as its very appearance, leaves few people indifferent. And today, everyone can join both a piece of the history of their homeland, and feel themselves in the place of the hero S. Bodrov Jr. Again, the charisma and stunning effect produced by the sawn-off are worth a lot even in our time, which is so full of weapon innovations.

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There has always been a need for an ultra-compact and swiveling shotgun with a very spreading battle (wide shot sheaf). The peculiarity of such a gun is a powerful quick shot in a short time, in cramped conditions, capable of covering a small group of attackers or driving away dangerous animals with little or no aiming. A classic example of such a gun is the American carriage shotgun, which was used by stagecoach drivers and their passengers to shoot back from mounted bandits catching up with them. Similar guns have existed since the muzzle-loading era.

Another well-known example is the Italian lupara, a shepherd's shotgun, which did not feel the need for accurate hunting shooting (Jeti Arlan's lupara will soon devote a separate publication). Well, the classics of the genre are Indian howdahs, ultra-short double-barreled shotguns with pistol grips (the carriage shotgun and lupara still had butts), both produced by weapons artisans and handicraft converted from full-fledged guns in the middle of the 19th century. Howdach was an auxiliary weapon of a big game hunter along with a long-barreled gun. Thus, a large shotgun caliber with the ability to quickly wield it and carry it relatively discreetly has always been in demand among various and numerous categories of armed people.

Cut as it is

Despite the industrial production of especially short guns, they were still less common than classic length guns. Therefore, handicraft shortening of barrels along the very forearm and sawing off the butts to the state of a pistol grip became widespread. A sawn-off shotgun is a weapon of the marginalized segments of the population in any country in the world (for example, in English language Russian "shotgun" sounds like a sawed-off shotgun, "sawed off shotgun"). And it is loved primarily because of its availability - old hunting rifles, rifles found on the battlefields, etc. serve as donors. In our country there was a long period in the 50s when the turnover of a hunting smoothbore was not regulated at all and any a person could buy a double-barreled shotgun in an ordinary general store without any permits.

Half an hour of work on sawing off the barrels and butt - and you have a compact weapon in your hands, suitable, unlike the original, for wearing under a jacket or in a bag. Therefore, sawn-off shotguns were used for criminal and near-criminal purposes - by bandits and rebel partisans. The infamous Ovechkin family of musicians used two sawn-off shotguns to hijack a plane in 1988.

Shotgun shooting

A shot from a sawn-off shotgun most often leaves no chance of survival, but accurate shooting from it is not an easy task. The reason is that short cannons are made from powerful donors: large-caliber smoothbore guns and military-style rifles, which themselves have significant recoil and require a strong grip and emphasis when shooting. After cutting, the power of the weapon is preserved, but the recoil-damping weight is sharply reduced and the possibility of a confident hold is lost. Therefore, when fired, the shotgun breaks out of the hands, bounces and shoots not at the target, but in the direction of the target. The aiming range has nothing to do with the original, original model of the weapon - you can actually get from the sawn-off shotgun only at a pistol range.

And if the sawn-off shotgun partly compensates for the lack of accuracy with a wide sheaf of shot or buckshot, then with shotguns made from “rifling”, the situation is completely unfun. The loss of weapon properties as a price for compactness is well reflected in Arkady Gaidar's short story "Scattered Shot", where a vicious fashion spread among the soldiers of the Red Army to saw rifle barrels, turning them into a miserable likeness of carbines. In the story, from the sawn-off three-ruler, it was not possible to hit the growth target with 50 (!) Steps with the aiming range of the original of more than 400 m.

Factory trims

TP-82 - the so-called astronaut pistol, a survival weapon. It is considered a type of pistol, however, it has a critical gun design and is a natural howdah. The TP-83 had a triple block of barrels - two 32-caliber smoothbore barrels, and one 5.45 mm rifled caliber. The device was included in the astronauts' emergency kit and focused on self-defense, passing hunting and the supply of light signals. Not sold to civilians.

MP-341, aka howda. Civil weapons of self-defense. According to the documents, it is called a gas pistol, but it is a natural sawn-off shotgun of a double-barreled hunting rifle IZH-43, firing rubber traumatic bullets. Two 12-gauge barrels have internal partitions-obstacles that do not allow firing a solid bullet or shot - specially produced traumatic cartridges are used for howda in the form of 12-gauge cartridges shortened to 35 mm with an elastic rubber ball.

Toz-106 - smoothbore shotgun. Single-barreled 20-gauge with a 30-centimeter barrel, magazine-loading and bolt action a la mosquito. An old man, but still loved by many for its super compactness. It was developed for self-defense and protection and is a factory sawn-off shotgun of a full-fledged MTs-20-01 shotgun with a pistol grip. The gun has a folding buttstock - with the folded down its length is legally 81 cm, and when folded - 51 cm. Therefore, a lock against firing when folded is built into the butt mechanism, which many easily (though illegally) deactivate.

What is the law?

Self-cutting is a thoroughly criminal act in most civilized countries. In Russia, reducing the length of a gun below the legally limited total length of 800 mm will actually be considered illegal manufacturing, and then storage and carrying of firearms (Article 223 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). However, there are situations in which the barrel needs to be cut off quite a bit - not for the sake of turning into a criminal sawn-off shotgun, but in order to maintain the performance of the gun. For example, close to the cut of the trunks of a hunting weapon, a puff or even a gap has formed. Or a blow was struck on the cut of the barrel, as a result of which a jam occurred. It is impossible to shoot, it is useless to straighten, however, the problem can be eliminated by cutting off a small section of the trunk. But this law also prohibits, since the repair of weapons should be carried out exclusively in the conditions of a specialized, licensed workshop.

However, most gun owners repair and tune their guns without any problems. And a little pruning is no exception. After all, many guns are produced by the industry with different barrel lengths - the widespread cheap two-barrel MP-43 (IZH-43) is produced with barrels of 510, 660, 710, 725, 750 mm. And this length is not fixed in any licensing documents. When registering a weapon with the licensing and permitting department of the police, only the number of the gun, caliber and model is recorded - a passport of a particular copy is not required (and for old guns, it is usually lost a long time ago). Therefore, the LRO inspector is most often not able to detect the shortening of the gun, to prove that it was done at home in the kitchen, and even more so to blame it. We do not make any recommendations, we simply state the facts.

P.S. from the security agency "Jeti Arlan". Let us remind Kazakh readers that the source of the publication is Russian http://www.chaso.ru/, therefore the author gives links to Russian Legislation.

These are more or less "usual" cutoffs. Horizontal or single-barreled, trigger, less often - sawn-off rifled bolt. It is convenient in close combat, instead of a pistol, although standard gunpowder in hunting cartridges is not designed for such a short barrel, they do not have time to burn out and, accordingly, the shot is weaker than from a full-fledged gun. It makes sense (if you already got involved in an illegal smooth short barrel :)) to pour less gunpowder or use a faster burning one (the latter, with some inability and shooting from the hip, is fraught with a lifetime Darwin award).

According to news reports, sawn-off shotguns are still popular, more popular than illegal short-barreled rifles. Moreover, the illegal weapons idea is not shackled by the patterns of the past - double-barreled shotguns with a vertical arrangement of trunks and hidden triggers are actively sawed.

There is some sense in this - the weapon turns out to be flatter, more rapid-fire than the trigger and, moreover, safe, with a fuse.

This, by the way, is a "working" sawn-off serial killer. For 7 years and 52 corpses, there were no accidental shots, as I understand it. Apparently, he shot a little, he was used more for intimidation. Taken from here: http://www.segodnya.ua/news/10048466.html Those interested in criminal weapons will be interested.

In general, according to the mind, it is the criminal sawn-off double-barreled shotgun that should be the revived nightmare of the hoplophobe. Compact, close to 100% lethal at short range, fast enough to carry out a mass shooting in a two-legged game pen in places where carrying civilian weapons is prohibited. Esstesttttvenno by definition, there are no documents and sanity checks of the owner of a criminal sawn-off shotgun and cannot be. A legal civil CC looks very pale against this background.

Of course, cutoffs are prohibited in our country (and in other countries - in question), but there is a need for them, moreover, such that manufacturers of civilian weapons are forced to experiment in this direction. Considering the traditional Russian insensitivity of the manufacturer to the desires of the consumer, one can estimate the scale of the "desire"!

Izh-43-KN export aka Remington spr220, 510 mm barrels.

Moreover, please note that this is not only a "hunting smoothbore", but also a traumatic weapon designed specifically for self-defense:

And not only the Russian manufacturer:

And this is a verse dedicated to perhaps the most famous model "a la kulak cut" - Toz-106 :)

Tell me, comrade, what the hell
Tozika you bought one hundred and sixth?
- Oh, there is in this, my friend, a considerable reason:
You left Saiga at home in the off-season,
And I'm in the alley and in the dark forest
I carry this trim in my bosom.
Closed hunting this year -
I don't give a damn about the flu, I'll go for the ducks.
"Thank you" - the poacher said to the Tula people,
An engineer found an object for refinement,
The tourist and the fisherman are an argument for the gopyas,
Anyone useful machine my!
From early years and to white hairs
We all need a kulak sawn-off shotgun!

"a la kulak sawn-off" - Toz-106

Tell me, comrade, what the hell
Tozika you bought one hundred and sixth?
- Oh, there is in this, my friend, a considerable reason:
You left Saiga at home in the off-season,
And I'm in the alley and in the dark forest
I carry this trim in my bosom.
Closed hunting this year -
I don't give a damn about the flu, I'll go for the ducks.
"Thank you" - the poacher said to the Tula people,
An engineer found an object for refinement,
The tourist and the fisherman are an argument for the gopyas,
Anyone useful machine my!
From youth to white hair
We all need a kulak sawn-off shotgun!

The last copy is just a mega-evil - the barrel was sawn off almost to the very chamber, the fore-end was thrown to hell. Why not a barrelless weapon like "guard"? 

Cut from PPSh.

Shotgun - tactical and technical sketches
The cuts are different. Trunks sawed and sawed literally from everything.

These are more or less "usual" cutoffs. Horizontal or single-barreled, trigger, less often - sawn-off rifled bolt. It is convenient in close combat, instead of a pistol, although standard gunpowder in hunting cartridges is not designed for such a short barrel, they do not have time to burn out and, accordingly, the shot is weaker than from a full-fledged gun. It makes sense (if you already got involved in an illegal smooth short barrel :)) to pour less gunpowder or use a faster burning one (the latter, with some inability and shooting from the hip, is fraught with a lifetime Darwin award).

According to news reports, sawn-off shotguns are still popular, more popular than illegal short-barreled rifles. Moreover, the illegal weapons idea is not shackled by the patterns of the past - double-barreled shotguns with a vertical arrangement of trunks and hidden triggers are actively sawed.

There is some sense in this - the weapon turns out to be flatter, more rapid-fire than the trigger and, moreover, safe, with a fuse.

This, by the way, is the "working" sawn-off shotgun of a serial killer. For 7 years and 52 corpses, there were no accidental shots, as I understand it. Apparently, he shot a little, he was used more for intimidation. Taken from here: Those interested in criminal weapons will be interested.

In general, according to the mind, it is the criminal sawn-off double-barreled shotgun that should be a living nightmare. Compact, close to 100% lethal at short range, fast enough to carry out a mass shooting in a two-legged game pen in places where carrying civilian weapons is prohibited. Esstesttttvenno by definition, there are no documents and sanity checks of the owner of a criminal sawn-off shotgun and cannot be. A legal civil CC looks very pale against this background.

Of course, cutoffs are prohibited in our country (and in other countries - in question), but there is a need for them, moreover, such that manufacturers of civilian weapons are forced to experiment in this direction. Considering the traditional Russian insensitivity of the manufacturer to the desires of the consumer, one can estimate the scale of the "desire"!

Izh-43-KN export aka Remington spr220, 510 mm barrels.

Moreover, please note that this is not only a "hunting smoothbore", but also a traumatic weapon designed specifically for self-defense:

And not only the Russian manufacturer:

At all times, people have tried to reduce weapons for concealed transfer, while leaving it fighting qualities, so appeared: stilettos in the sleeves, swords in canes, pocket pistols and sawn-off shotguns.

Double-barreled shotgun

What does it represent sawn-off shotgun? This is any atypical firearms created by shortening the barrel(s) and stock. Mostly, a hunting rifle or rifle is taken as the basis for the sawn-off shotgun. It is difficult to say which of the craftsmen first thought of such a weapon, but most of all all kinds of sawn-off shotguns were used in three countries: the USA, Italy and Russia (later the USSR). The main advantages of a sawn-off hunting rifle are its small size, which allows you to covertly carry it with you and a terrible lethal force at close range (up to 20 meters). Among the shortcomings are the inability to make an aimed and effective shot over longer distances, and low accuracy. All this is caused by the shortening of the barrel, because the sights are removed along with it, the handicraft processing of the muzzle and the lack of a butt.

One of the options for the American cut

In the United States sawn-off shotgun first appears in the first half of the 19th century, and in the era of the conquest of the Wild West, it becomes a very common weapon among all walks of life. Not many settlers could afford expensive Colt or Smith & Wesson revolvers, but any shopkeeper or bartender could make a deadly melee weapon from a cheap hunting rifle and keep it always at hand. And the ammunition for a hunting rifle cost an order of magnitude less than for a revolver. Again, in order to achieve offhand shooting accuracy from a revolver, you need to train a lot and constantly, and just shoot from a sawn-off shotgun towards the target and a flurry of buckshot will cover one or even two opponents. And if we recall the level of medicine of that time, then even an initially not very serious injury could lead to serious consequences.

Various American trims

During the First World War (1914-1918), American infantrymen actively used shotguns and all kinds of trimmings for close combat in trenches and trenches. The same thing is repeated in all subsequent wars in which the United States took part: from World War II and Vietnam to Iraq. The spread of sawn-off shotguns in the army was facilitated by the fact that various shotguns (pump-action shotguns) are officially in service in the American army, and many soldiers sawed off their stock, shortened the barrel and carried a "true friend" as an additional weapon for close combat. Also, many brought guns from home with them, or bought them on the spot with their own money, or got them in any other way. The command turned a blind eye to this, and did not particularly interfere with carrying additional weapons with them, especially if it helps the soldier stay alive in battle. In the modern American army and police there are a lot of factory-made short-barreled and useless shotguns that are officially in service. There is even a system that allows you to attach a sawn-off shotgun to the main weapon, and use it as a "underbarrel" shotgun.

Italian Lupara

in Italy trimmings also appeared in the 19th century, initially shepherds armed themselves with them to protect their flocks and themselves from wolves and thieves. From here the Italian sawn-off shotgun got its name - "Lupara"(lupo in translation from Italian wolf). The classic Lupara is considered to be a sawn-off shotgun of a 12 or 16 gauge horizontal hunting rifle. Sometimes only the barrel was cut off with them, and the butt was left, the barrel length was usually 30-40 cm. Subsequently, the Italian mafiosi from Cosa Nostra adopted the cut-off luparas. At short distances, this weapon does not leave the wounded, and even body armor is not reliable protection. The kinetic energy of a shot from such a gun with buckshot or a bullet is so powerful, even if it does not pierce the bulletproof vest, it causes a strong concussive blow and internal damage.

Kulak sawn-off shotgun

In Russia, sawn-off shotguns were not particularly popular until the 1917 revolution and the end of World War I in 1918. After the revolution, millions of soldiers poured home from the fronts, and, which was natural for such a troubled time, they took their weapons with them. Main weapon tsarist army was a Mosin rifle. It also becomes the basis of most sawn-off shotguns in Russia. The soldiers, in most cases the peasants, understood that it was difficult to carry a bulky rifle unnoticed, but that it was a useful thing in the household, and here Russian ingenuity comes to the rescue - the barrel and butt are sawn off. With such a makeshift alteration, it is clear that the ballistic performance dropped significantly, and it was almost impossible to hit the target from a distance of more than 50 meters. On the other hand, the weapon received was easy to hide in the bosom and in the cart under hay or matting, and at home it was always at hand to have. Also, a bullet of a powerful rifle cartridge, leaving a cut short barrel, began to tumble randomly, and when it hit a person, it inflicted terrible wounds. When fired in a short barrel, all the gunpowder did not have time to burn out, and the flame from the barrel burst forward several meters, and the sound was much louder, all this as a whole had a very demoralizing effect on the enemy. During civil war the sawn-off Mosin rifle becomes the main weapon of peasant resistance - that’s what I’m starting to call "kulak cut". And Soviet cinema and propaganda posters firmly fixed the stereotype of a bearded man in a shirt for graduation, a vest, a duck cap and trousers tucked into boots sneaking at night in order to kill the chairman of a collective farm or a young Komsomol member from this very “kulak sawn-off shotgun”. Later, during the NEP and until the 80s, a sawn-off rifle became a weapon for criminals and often appears in criminal reports. During the Second World War (1939-1945) the sawn-off shotgun was also in service with all kinds of partisan formations.

Shotgun sawn-off shotguns appeared in the USSR quite late, due to the fact that until the end of the 40s there were no smooth-bore guns in the free sale. But after the end of the Great Patriotic War for the purchase of a hunting rifle, no documents were required. Shotguns were sold in stores as household equipment. Registration of hunting weapons was introduced only in 1976, before that more than 1.5 million guns were produced and purchased. It was not bandits who began to make cuts out of them, but common people, driven to despair by the lack of any self-defense weapon suitable for concealed carry. But gradually the hunting sawn-off shotgun becomes a bandit weapon.

shotgun just as firmly entrenched in both domestic and Western cinema. In the cult Russian film "Brother" there is an episode of cutting. In many Western action films, robbers and goodies armed with a sawn-off shotgun. In the "post-nuclear world" of all parts of the film "MAD MAX" the main character Max Rockatanski is armed with a sawn-off shotgun, for him it is the main weapon. There is also a sawn-off shotgun in various computer games, in the game Fallout 2 (Fallout 2) the sawn-off shotgun is described as follows: “Someone took the time to cut the last few inches from the barrel and shorten the butt of this Winchester Widowmaker shotgun. At present, the large spread of this one-handed short-barreled weapon makes it ideal for destroying the enemy at close range" - that's it.

IN Lately in the army and police different countries smooth-bore guns were widely used. The scope of their application is quite diverse and, despite many skeptical smiles, this weapon does an excellent job with such tasks as knocking out door locks, as well as defeating enemy manpower without fear of ricochets and with a certain guarantee that even being protected by body armor, the enemy after hitting unlikely to be able to do anything other than lie on the floor and suffocate. In addition, do not forget that ammunition for smoothbore guns can be loaded with a rubber bullet-ball, thereby becoming traumatic, which can be useful for law enforcement. Thus, smooth-bore weapons received a new scope for indoor use, but at the same time it has a serious drawback for such an application, which lies in weight and dimensions. But since there is far from hunting inside buildings, many manufacturers make separately smooth-bore weapons of compact size and minimum weight, sacrificing their characteristics. In this article, we will try to get acquainted, probably, with one of the smallest "shorties", namely, guns, if you can call them that, under common name Serbu Super-Shorty.

It all started with an attempt by Mark Serbu to create a compact weapon based on a smoothbore gun, which would be ideal for fighting inside confined spaces, that is, in fact, the designer made a shotgun shotgun. Serbu chose three models of guns, which are quite common and already well-proven, as the basis of his weapons: Remington 870, Mossberg 500, and Maverick 88. The result was quite successful and soon Serbu began mass production of such weapons, founding the company Serbu Firearms in Tampa, Florida. As mentioned above, the designer’s work initially consisted only in carefully cutting the weapon’s barrel, equipping it with a pistol grip, shortening the magazine tube and feed spring, and replacing the movable lining on the magazine tube with an additional folding handle for holding. Subsequently, the designer also developed a muzzle attachment, which is designed to safely knock out locks from doors. There are a lot of weapon options, they can be divided according to the length of the barrel, and, accordingly, the capacity of the magazine tube, which is limited to 2, 3 and 4 rounds. However, although such weapons are mass-produced in relatively small batches, they are most often made to order, so there are a lot of different variations. If we talk about the dimensions and weight of the weapon, then for example, we can consider one of the most compact samples, with a barrel length of 165 millimeters and a 2-round magazine. The total length of such a sample based on the Remington 870 is 419 millimeters, the weight of the weapon is just over 2 kilograms. Thus, this sample can be easily used even in the narrowest corridors, without losing the ability to quickly turn 180 degrees.

If we talk about the effectiveness of these samples, then at a distance of 7-10 meters, they show almost the same characteristics as their larger ancestors, the small amount of ammunition is fully offset by the fact that these weapons are quite specific. In addition, do not forget that even samples with a magazine capacity of 2 rounds can be with one more round in the chamber. It is clear that such a weapon is clearly not intended for hunting, although as an option it can be used for self-defense when attacked by wild animals. Naturally, it is not possible to become the owner of such a sample with us, except perhaps in a 4-charge version, but in the USA (not everywhere), for a separate fee, you can purchase such weapons to protect your home, which seems to me a very reasonable use of these "sawed-off shotguns » guns. You can’t hide from such a device in a narrow corridor, and the efficiency will be such that Hollywood never dreamed of, however, many are skeptical about such weapons, hardly agreeing that it is useful for home defense, and to the issue of arming the army and police with such weapons do not hide their negativity.

Let's try to figure out whether this sample is limited only to self-defense. So, Serbu Super-Shorty can be found in service with the US army and police. Well, okay, they have a lot of things in service, but the fact that exports to other countries have been established suggests that this weapon is really needed and in demand. Still, whatever you say, but 12 caliber allows you to significantly expand the range of ammunition, and, accordingly, to find quite a lot of options for using such weapons, from non-lethal impact to a fairly effective full-fledged combat model, not inferior in efficiency to full-fledged guns at short distances.

Here is such a simple and at the same time necessary weapon. Mark Serbu got through several movements with a file, and even managed to earn a lot of money from these movements. However, this is far from the only such case in weapons history, especially in the United States. True, here it is also impossible to say that a person practically did nothing, nevertheless, it is also not an easy task to agree with the giants of the arms market on the supply of parts, one can even say what exactly organizational matters and represent the main problem in promoting their weapons, whatever it may be. Suffice it to recall at least how Barrett at first could not sell his weapons to anyone, and now his large-caliber sniper rifles became the most famous, although, in my opinion, not all of them are the standard. Be that as it may, but thanks to Mark Serb, another “sawed-off” shotgun of a smooth-bore gun appeared on the arms market, the owner of which can be quite legally, and there are not so many such samples.

You won’t surprise anyone with a shortened version of the gun, popularly “sawn-off”, they are now being made even in the factory from well-known models. Even our compatriots had the opportunity, quite legally, to take a closer look at the semblance of a weapon in this format using the example, sorry for the French, traumatic pistol “Howd”.

With all the obvious disadvantages of reducing the length of the barrels of a gun and depriving it of a butt, one plus remains - high firepower at short distances, laid in one or two shots, and with small dimensions, it is much easier to maneuver with such a weapon in cramped conditions than with a full-size gun. It is also worth considering here the possibility of using bullet cartridges, which significantly increase the effectiveness of the use of “shotguns” when shooting at an enemy in body armor due to the transcendental impact. In general, such modernization in some cases fully justifies itself, this is proved at least by the fact that in many countries law enforcement agencies are armed with shortened guns. True, it should be noted here that these guns are most often equipped with rubber bullet cartridges or are used as a means of delivering irritating substances to the crowd, but this is somewhat different.

In general, the “sawed-off” gun weapon has been known for a very long time, probably since the time when the gun appeared, but the sawn-off shotgun from a rifle can not be found often, or rather, it cannot be found at all, since the expediency of such shortening is very doubtful. That was the case until recently.

In November, Fightlite showed off the finished version of its weapon, which is nothing more than a sawn-off rifle. This weapon is positioned as an intermediate between a pistol and a carbine, it does not have a butt, but it has a very short barrel with a muzzle brake. This unit is certified in the USA as a pistol, despite the fact that it feeds on 5.56x45 or .300 BLK cartridges, depending on the version of the weapon. Let's try to take a closer look at the design of this device and try very hard to find a niche for it.

Raider pistol design

It is difficult to say which weapon became the basis for the new pistol. At first glance, there is a similarity with something AR-like, but the absence of a tube for the buffer spring suggests that the weapon uses a different automation scheme from the M16. In fact, this tube is present, it is located at an angle in the handle of the weapon, interaction with the bolt group is carried out due to a long curved rod. Automation is built on the removal of powder gases from the bore with the direct effect of powder gases on the bolt carrier. In general, in principle, we will not see anything new in this weapon in terms of design, probably the receiver was designed specifically for this pistol.

The weapon has lost the fire mode switch and the fuse; instead, a button is now used with the ability to move perpendicular to the weapon. A similar implementation of the inclusion of the fuse can often be found in smoothbore guns.

There are no open sights on this device, but they can be mounted on a long landing bar at the top of what remains of the forearm and receiver. There are also additional places to install three more brackets for attaching additional devices.

The muzzle of the weapon has a thread on which the muzzle brake-recoil compensator is screwed; instead, you can install a silent firing device or leave the muzzle without any additions.

Characteristics of the pistol Raider

The whole structure weighs 1.76 kilograms, while the balance of weapons, which in principle does not exist, must be taken into account. The pistol is fed from detachable magazines with a capacity of 10 rounds of 5.56x45 or .300 BLK, so as not to go into details about the .300 BLK cartridge, it can be compared with our domestic 7.62x39 with a subsonic bullet, although the comparison is not entirely correct, it gives a general idea of ​​​​the ammunition and the capabilities of the weapon using it. The length of the pistol barrel is 185 millimeters, excluding the muzzle brake, while the total length of the weapon is 510 millimeters.

Why was the Raider pistol created?

It's probably main question, which occurs in the head of a person who first saw this weapon. Yes, the weapon turned out to be very charismatic, if you point it at a person, then it is guaranteed that he will feel uncomfortable, but there is one “but”. This but lies in the fact that you can shoot from a given pistol, but you can’t hit. The only exceptions are shooting at very short distances or using a laser designator.

The very design of the handle for holding makes it possible to shoot with something fantastic, of course, the weapon can be held with both hands like a regular rifle or machine gun, but the lack of a stock will already affect at a distance of even a couple of tens of meters.

Despite similar ergonomics, that "sawed-off" will not have such a disadvantage, since the short barrels of weapons provide a sufficiently large spread of shot at a short distance, so that a shot "from the hip" or offhand will almost always give a result. In the case of the Raider pistol, this will not be observed, since there is only one bullet.

In principle, even with such a short barrel, it is possible to conduct confident and effective fire at distances up to 200 meters, but the design of the weapon does not allow this to be done in reverse. The absence of at least a wire shoulder rest makes the weapon ineffective at both short and medium distances. And yes, it looks very brutal.

On foreign Internet resources, the new pistol is called ideal for permanent placement in a car for the purpose of self-defense. I would not count on such a means of self-defense, or rather, on its combat effectiveness, unless a psychological effect can take place.

Quite a few people have called it the perfect defense against zombies. Well, if people believe in zombies, then let them believe in the effectiveness of this weapon, although I would, of course, prefer the same “shotgun”.

As mentioned above, the only thing that can make this weapon effective is the presence of a laser designator and a strong grip on the shooter. Then it will really be possible to hit somewhere from this pistol, but this is not a panacea either.

In general, we can say that in this case, the creation of a new class of weapons was unsuccessful. However, judging by the rather extensive topics on foreign forums with a discussion of this weapon and enthusiastic reports from individuals, this weapon will have its own buyer, so maybe this gun will succeed. It pleases people who have just soberly assessed this weapon, after all, more.

In general, this weapon has a really interesting appearance and although it is poorly suited for real-life applications, perhaps we will be able to see it on the screens in some post-apocalyptic film, where it belongs. The only bad thing is that after filming, there will only be more people who want to buy it.