...and associated rant.
I've noticed a recent thread about the new Kel-Tec CNC shotgun prototype, a thread that slams it for being designed so that the trigger must be allowed to reset before it can be fired again.
Standby....
Wait for it...
Well, DUH!
Some shooting practics not only shouldn't be encouraged, they should be DISCOURAGED.
What these idiots, yes they are idiots, want to be able to do with the new Kel-Tec KSG is to be able to spew 12-gauge fire as fast as their idiot arms and wrists can work the pump actions, without regard to having to pull the trigger to get those rounds out.
People, guns have triggers for one reason only, CONTROL.
The kind of Gun Control we advocate in these pages is being able to have total control over your weapon. In firing a weapon, the trigger is the final physical barrier to sending a lethal load downrange. Remove that barrier by allowing slam-fire and you have delegated the fine, final control of that round to your gross, high-jerk musculature. Biceps aren't fine control muscles. God didn't make them that way. They are made to deliver large amounts of force with less regard to fine control, and that is just the OPPOSITE of what you want when firing a weapon.
Look, if you want to be able to slam-fire a weapon, get one and modify it yourself to slam-fire. It's not all that hard to do. Hell, if you want to make a slam-fire shotgun, just weld the firing pin of any pump gun into firing position and that gun WILL slam-fire every time you slam the slide forward. If you do that, you work out your own Destructive Device problems with the BATFE.
Kel-Tec has a reputation for building firearms with long, safe trigger travel. They are NOT going to produce the double-magazine, 14+1-round KSG model without such a trigger.
Look, you want to be able to spew a LOT of shotgun fire? Think about the conditions you would want to do that in, and the tactical situation involved.
You need to get 15 rounds of 12-guage downrange, UNAIMED. That is what you are saying if you want to slam-fire a KT KSG from full to empty. OK, I guess this means you have a BUNCH of bad guys out there, within shotgun range, shooting at you or about to. You want to impress them and keep their heads down, so you stand up and start pumping that Kel-Tec trombone scattergun. Yes, you can't effectively empty a pump shotgun rapidly in anything but the standing position. You are shooting at multiple armed bad guys, you can't aim because of your chosen tactic, you are fully exposed outside of cover. Just what part of this tactical scenario is NOT lethal to YOU?
Now, if the absurdity of your tactical situation hasn't hit you yet, you might, maybe just might have time to set down that empty Kel-Tec, bend over, put your head between your legs and kiss your sweet ass goodbye!
Tactics is all about using your BRAIN as well as your weapon to master the combat situation. The tactics involved with slam-firing 15 rounds of 12-guage as suppressive area-denial fire are just tactics with no brain involved. If you don't actually need to fire all 15 rounds, unaimed, in area-denial fire, you would never need to have slam-fire capability, would you?
If you need the ability to saturate an area quickly with 12-ga fire, get yourself a Remington 1187, equip it with a tactical stock and foregrip and an extended magazine tube. Now you can have 7 (or is it 9?) rounds at a semi-auto fire rate.
BTW, all you "more is better" Tactical Tommies who are drooling over the prospect of the Kel-Tec KSG (and Kel-Tec hasn't committed to it yet), do you have ANY idea just how long it will take you to RELOAD that weapon with a fresh 15 rounds? People, the war will be OVER before you get that gun reloaded.
Better to think about how will you RELOAD than how many rounds the gun holds in the first place. You should have bought a Saiga-12 while they were still legal.
Negative, Ghost Rider.
Well, OK, yeah, some idjits want to slam fire.
Me, I want the damned trigger to reset if my wife forgets to release it before working the slide.
It won't do that.
As it stands, if the slide is worked while the trigger is held back, the round in the chamber is ejected, and a new one fed, but the trigger does NOT reset, and thus the newly chambered round does not fire. So you must release the trigger and then work the slide again--ejecting a perfectly good shell, and chambering a new one.
Oh, and it sounds like the ATFEIEIO is about to ban Saigas.
Watch Caleb's video here: http://gunnuts.net/2011/01/20/kel-tec-ksg-shotgun-video/
In the follow-up post (http://gunnuts.net/2011/01/21/shot-show-shotgun-update/) a Keltec rep told Caleb that "It's not a bug, it's a feature!", but in comments to that post, Daniel of Cheaper Than Dirt says he was told this was a design flaw that would be fixed.
Posted by: Drang | January 21, 2011 at 16:41