Yeah, I've seen drillings before, at least online—Ian did a video once about an absurdly premium one that was acquired as a Luftwaffe survival gun, and in which, if memory serves, all three barrels were different from one another (one rifle, one shotgun, one... large-bore rifle, maybe? I'll have to track it down and watch it again). I liked that one because it was so obviously some Luftwaffe procurement officer's scam to get himself an extremely fine sporting arm without paying for it himself. :)

>The model owned by your dad/grandfather
>is nearly a gun which the .410 reminded me of and I forgot to mention,
>in the shell post, namely the Air Force M6 survival rifle, which was a
>.410/.22 Hornet folding rifle.

I've seen those around (or the modern non-NFA repros, anyway), never quite bought one, though they tickle my "that's weird, I need one" lobe. (Also, the AR-7, that stows-in-its-own-stock survival .22. Those are dirt cheap, too, I have no idea why I've never bought one.)

>Taurus is primarily, today, known for the "Raging Bull", chambered for
>various mentally deficient calibers, like .454 Casull and .480 Ruger.
>And, since we're talking shotguns...they're working on a "Raging
>Judge" for 28 gauge. Because that's a good idea. Oy....

Less insanely, the guy I bought The Judge from told me that he knows someone who has a carbine version that Taurus also makes. That sounds like it could be a fun shootin'-at-cans gun. You don't see revolver carbines much any more.

>As good a reason as any, I suppose, but from what I understand, the
>shot part of the gun is really not up to it. The shell is too
>small(max of 5 shot) and the barrel is REALLY too short. You don't
>really hit anything beyond, more or less, contact range. Now, I've
>never shot it so I have *NO* idea, I'm just going from reviews, but...

I think that's part of what those special defensive cartridges I mentioned are trying to address—there are only three shot in those (or, well, two shot and a bullet), but they're closer to bore-diameter and probably ballistically a little better-behaved. My guess would be that the effect is like firing .41 Special (if there were such a thing—hypothetical less-powerful-than-.41-Magnum cartridge, by analogy with .44 Special/.44 Magnum), with the two 000 shot behind it as a sort of roll for possible bonus damage, as it were.

Anyway, worst comes to worst, it's still a .45-caliber double-action revolver, which is not a thing that's ever going to be totally useless, even with a short barrel. The elongated cylinder only makes it a bit unwieldy compared with, say, a Charter Arms Bulldog (which is chambered for .44 Special, a dimensionally similar cartridge). I got mine pretty much exclusively for the novelty value, but even if the shotshell capability proved totally superfluous, it would not be an entirely worthless handgun in a pinch.

>A smooth-bore Judge wouldn't actually be an SBS, because it's not, and
>have never been, a shotgun. Shotguns, legally, are required to have a
>stock, in its original configuration. The Judge never had a stock, so
>it isn't a shotgun. That lack of shotgun-ness means that it can't be
>an SBS. What it WOULD be is an Any Other Weapon, because the over-all
>length is (significantly)less than 26 inches. An AOW has a $5 stamp
>tax, rather than the $200.

Ah yes, you are correct. Any Other Weapon is kind of a weird no man's land.

>The reason that InRange brought it up is because Mossberg have managed
>to make something that isn't really any sort of a gun type other than
>'firearm', and used a legal loophole, and this is very specifically a
>loophole.

That video is hilarious. The bathrobes. How many times Ian ended up dead. "Nobody makes me bleed my own blood!"

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.