Some bad news moved into my area, so I wanted to protect myself and everyone else. Class A license is too hard to get (MA) and I'd rather have a shotgun anyway, so FID it is.

Now, which shotguns should iIlook into? I'm trained to shoot the Beretta M92 (pistol), the remington 870, and the Colt m4 (military obviously,) so i know my way around a gun. I think the 870 is a little pricey, looking for a good way to get a shotgun for 250 or less (not including ammo.) How much would an Ithaca 37 be?

Any ideas, tips, links, let me know. Thanks.

AA-12!!! FTW

LOL that would be f'n sweet but by no means legal!!


If this was legal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armsel_Striker i'd hit it.

Do like a friend of mine did, buy a double barrel and cut it down to the stock. Reload one shell with rock salt and the other with buck shot. Load the rock salt round in chamber one and buck shot in chamber two. If they can bring themselves to get up after getting shot with rock salt they WONT have what it takes after the buck shot.

^ damn good idea lol

Cut it down to the stock meaning cut the barrell like a sawed off? Or cut the stock and form the shape of a makeshift pistol grip? (they sell pistol grips u know lol)

Wouldn't rock salt over time degrade the barrell? thats why they make bean bags and rubber slugs!

Rock salt may degrade the barrel but it will definitely degrade that a**.

I personally have a Winchester 12ga. and a Mossberg 12ga. loaded. Then I sleep with my Para-Ordinance 1911 .45ACP loaded with hollow points above my head. The Winchester is a solid shotgun and pretty cheap too.

I have the Remington 870 12ga and love it.

A Paratroopers 300zx wrote:I sleep with my Para-Ordinance 1911 .45ACP loaded with hollow points

That's badass.

Shotgun q's:
Does your mossberg get much play? What do you think of it? mossberg 500 or other? And which winchester?
And how come you went with the 12 gauge instead of a 20? Is the recoil much different from a 12 to 20 because I want the best shotgun for a home defense situation, something that could provide enough kick but not be over'kill'. Either way, i'll invest in some bean bag rounds so this peeping tom doesn't rock out with his c*ck out

A Paratroopers 300zx wrote:I personally have a Winchester 12ga. and a Mossberg 12ga. loaded. Then I sleep with my Para-Ordinance 1911 .45ACP loaded with hollow points above my head. The Winchester is a solid shotgun and pretty cheap too.

Excuse me sir but where have you been.

Moving this to the appropriate forum, ghost (recon) topic to be left in place

z32pilot62 wrote:Do like a friend of mine did, buy a double barrel and cut it down to the stock. Reload one shell with rock salt and the other with buck shot. Load the rock salt round in chamber one and buck shot in chamber two. If they can bring themselves to get up after getting shot with rock salt they WONT have what it takes after the buck shot.

Yes, indeed, become a felon.

http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/Sessi ... Chapter180

"Sawed-off shotgun", any weapon made from a shotgun, whether by alteration, modification or otherwise, if such weapon as modified has one or more barrels less than 18 inches in length or as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches.

http://www.mass.gov/courts/formsandguid ... step7.html

A defendant has been convicted of Possession of a Sawed-Off Shotgun, a felony requiring a mandatory minimum sentence to incarceration of 1 year.

In determining the sentence, the judge must abide by the statutory penalty provisions set forth in GL c. 269 § 10(c). Under no circumstances can the judge depart from the statutory provisions and impose a sentence below the mandatory minimum.

The judge’s discretion is limited only by the required mandatory minimum term and the statutory maximum penalty. Accordingly, the above defendant could be sentenced to 1 year up to life.

I knew that too, some states its legal though, but in MA, just about everything else is illegal.

For anyone else with shotgun knowledge, I'm trying to find one, preferably for less than 250 and at 12ga, pistol grip is a plus (I know you can change em out on a few models, so as long as it can be done cost effectively, ok.) 20 ga is ok to, but I'm lookin for 12ga first

dude, you cannot go wrong with a Remington 870 or Mossberg 535. Personally id go with the 870… cheap, and simple, and reliable.

I wouldn’t complain about the cost, you can get a new 870 for 275 or so. Think about the uses for it too. In addition to the best home defense, you are talking shooting skeet for fun, to smaller birds, to ducks, to turkey, all the way to deer or larger with a slug. Quite possibly the best bang for your buck out there!

Plus that 870 (or either for that matter) you could customize the crap out of… a pistol grip is just the beginning. Here is mine (actually a mossberg 535) after I popped a surefire light on it.

Shotgun q's:
Does your mossberg get much play? What do you think of it? mossberg 500 or other? And which winchester?
And how come you went with the 12 gauge instead of a 20? Is the recoil much different from a 12 to 20 because I want the best shotgun for a home defense situation, something that could provide enough kick but not be over'kill'. Either way, i'll invest in some bean bag rounds so this peeping tom doesn't rock out with his c*ck out [/quote]

20 gauge would be plenty to take down an intruder hopped up on meth no problem. With a 20 gauge, you have about 25% of the kick of a 12 gauge, but with 75% of the takedown power. Better suited for a teenager or your wife or whatver. IMO, 12 gauge with a 2 ¾ 00 buckshot load is fine. You could shoot it all day and your shoulder will be fine. Step up to 3 or bigger shells with a 2 ounce load and that is when it will throw you off. Those aren’t for home defense though. Also screw the bean bag rounds. If the rack of the gun doesn’t scare them off, you don’t want bean bags loaded in the pipe. You can do what you want, but IMO, don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. GL

All is true, and I am steering closer to a remington 870 anyway since I learned how to shoot hip fire and shoulder fire in the navy with it.


For anyone that's ever been in a situation where a shotgun went off in a house, u think u would go deaf if u couldn't grab the earplugs in time to subdue the intruder? Say if u needed to fire more than one shot at the unfortunate perp?

I'm thinking of an 870, but not an ordinary one.

NolimitZ32 wrote:Rock salt may degrade the barrel but it will definitely degrade that a**.

For sure, they definitely wont want to get up and fight unless they are a bad a** mother trucker...

themadscientist wrote:Yes, indeed, become a felon.

Someone doesn't know how to take a suggestion with a grain of salt, guess I should have put a disclaimer.
Op, do as I suggested at your own risk/persecution.

There all better now?

Way to recover....

mossberg 500 tactical with a collapsable stock and tactical ppl shredder rounds are a win.

its cheap holds IIRC 6 in the tube if you remove the wooden dowel from the magazine, and the tactical rounds wont penetrate walls but will ruin someones day fast

300ZXttZMAN wrote:Excuse me sir but where have you been.

Lurking. (Insert sinister laugh here.)

I got a new job at a body shop as the repair estimator for 50+ hours a week. Kinda hard to do anything else lol.

TTkickedin wrote:Shotgun q's:
Does your mossberg get much play? What do you think of it? mossberg 500 or other? And which winchester?
And how come you went with the 12 gauge instead of a 20? Is the recoil much different from a 12 to 20 because I want the best shotgun for a home defense situation, something that could provide enough kick but not be over'kill'. Either way, i'll invest in some bean bag rounds so this peeping tom doesn't rock out with his c*ck out

Ya, the Mossberg is well worn and almost up for retirement. 12 vs. 20 is a huge difference... 12 is a much more common round and has a lot more kick. Stopping power is slightly increased as well. 20 would be suitable for smaller people or the ladies. Oh, and the Mossberg is a 500A and the Winchester is a 1200. Basic, yet effective.

TTkickedin wrote:For anyone that's ever been in a situation where a shotgun went off in a house, u think u would go deaf if u couldn't grab the earplugs in time to subdue the intruder? Say if u needed to fire more than one shot at the unfortunate perp?

Well... you could keep rubbin that pearl in the vag. you seem to have lol. Or... reach down and grab a pair and shoot that f-ing intruder before he makes you bleed. I'm kidding man, but in that situation... the last thing I'd be concerned about is ear pro. Plus, how many damn rounds are you planning on pumping into that poor SOB?? Remember... one shot, one body man.

z32pilot62 wrote:Do like a friend of mine did, buy a double barrel and cut it down to the stock. Reload one shell with rock salt and the other with buck shot. Load the rock salt round in chamber one and buck shot in chamber two. If they can bring themselves to get up after getting shot with rock salt they WONT have what it takes after the buck shot.

Nope. screw rock salt or less than lethal. You're protecting yourself not breaking up Occupy protests.

while there's some nice double barrels on the market, most are gonna run 400 bucks for a halfway decent one.

Honestly, the best bang for the buck is to look for a used Mossberg 500 or Remington 870. Get one with a short barrel and full stock. Pistol grips aren't fun to shoot and difficult to aim. Despite what you see in movies, shotguns MUST be aimed. in a distance of 15 yds (longer than any hallway in most homes) most buckshot loads won't spread more than 10 inches.

If you want a new shotgun, check out a Mossberg Maverick 88. You can find them for 200 bucks, they have a huge aftermarket for stocks and accessories should you feel the need to change things to suit you better and it's built around a proven design (the 500, there's some differences between the two models though but either is a fantastic gun for the money)

If you have to use it for protection, the adrenaline dump will most likely cause you to barely notice the blast from it.

I personally own a Mossberg 500 that currently wears an 18.5" barrel that I put a Meprolight front night sight on (these are about 30 bucks and not hard to put on if you have basic mechanical skills as you may need to fill the threads down so it's not sticking in the barrel.)

I've had it for I think 17 years now. It's seen a lot of abuse in it's life. The only thing ever to give me issue is the tang safety (it's on the top of the receiver, great for south paws and very fast to engage with your thumb). After so many rounds through it they'll start slipping under recoil. You can rebuilt them with a parts kit for about 20 bucks and 10 minutes of work. Lemme see if I have a picture of it...

I'd recommend a 12ga as there's MUCH MUCH more options for good personal defense ammo. If you're timid about recoil you can get reduced recoil buckshot loads for them as well as recoil reducing stocks (these aren't cheap, a good KNoxx Spec Ops stock will run around 150 I think but usually cuts felt recoil by nearly 30%) and most accessories are made for the 12ga models only.


That's how my Mossberg currently sits. I don't need much more really, I might have a shell holder that slips over the buttstock...but that's about all else I'm gonna put on it.


And yeah, I'm familiar with doubles too

Wow! You look just like Randy!



I could pass for Earl myself. We need a sitcom!

themadscientist wrote:Yes, indeed, become a felon.

Someone doesn't know how to take a suggestion with a grain of salt, guess I should have put a disclaimer.
Op, do as I suggested at your own risk/persecution.

There all better now?[/quote]

I took it as intended. I already knew the laws on owning a sawed off in MA, (even though they make the taurus judge 'shotgun' pistol which shoots 5 or 6 .410 rounds yet fully legal ) With that said, doing this the legal way. If I was doing it illegally, I would've had my hands on an AA12 or m60 by now.

i keed!

i guess it's all coming down to either the rem 870 or moss 500.. no words on the ithaca, and i can't even find one for sale.

Anyone in eastern* MA know when the next gun show's comin around?

The judge is a pistol, though, different animal. It's the same reason my Sig 556 can have that, I think it's a 10 inch barrel. It has no stock, so it's a pistol. If I put a stock on it without satisfying the necessary legal requirements I just became the BATF's b****. In Mass. I don't think you can have it in any manner. The northeast Liberals have made it really tough on responsible gun enthusiasts.

the judge is technically chambered in .45 Long Colt.

and a gimmick gun. I'll be damned if I'll use .410 for protections when I've got an XD45 with 14 rounds of 230gr Hydrashoks around.

Ithacas, when you find them, are good guns. So are the Winchester 1300 defenders and the new model they have, SXP I think?

What's your background with firearms TT?

The Mavericks are fine guns if you wanna just get one new. I'd definitely suggest getting one with a full buttstock. Pistol grips, while you may think look freakin' badass, just aren't pleasant to shoot and difficult to effectively aim.

This is an excellent base for a home defense shotgun.

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/prod ... s_id/42628

and yeah Mike, I do.

I'm hoping to bag a Catalina at some point too.

I wouldn't say I'm fully knowledgeable about firearms, (I do know a fair amount about pistols though.) Just recently started getting into shotguns and rifles. I'm military qualified (or was due to my oth discharge ) to operate a 9mm pistol, the remington 870 and a m16/m4. I'm trying to start getting into firearms more, as well as a few other hobbies here and there. Haven't had much time to capitalize on any of them before, but now I definitely do.

The discharge doesn't really mean anything; holding a steady job thanks to yearup.org, talking to the vso here to change my discharge so I can get back in (marines next time,) and I can still legally pick up my fid now and my class A in a few months.

I don't think the Marines will be interested with the mark on your record even with some white out on it unless you have some crucial skills that fit into critical MOSes. If you do get in, you might get to mess with the Benelli autoloaders they use.

or at least some Mossberg 590 A1's.

You can't go wrong with the Mossberg/Maverick or an 870.

They're durable weapons. I'm partial to the Mossberg as I like the tang mounted safeties on them.