Simple, Handy, And Under The Radar

Recently, while scouring the local pawn shops for bargains, I aquired an old "Springfield Arms" side by side 12 gauge.(not the one pictured above) The old girl was actually made by the Crescent Arms Company sometime in the 1940's. Back then Crescent Arms made a lot of utilitarian "farmer guns" under a variety of names and mine is one of them. The previous owner had allowed the stock to get loose and quite a bit of filth and some rust to accumulate. This same genius had removed about 2 inches of both tubes. I assume he used a hacksaw but from the look of the wound it could very well have been done by a grizzly bear with steel teeth. Anyway, I tightened the stock, cleaned it up, and had a gunsmith trim the tubes to 21 inches and install a brass bead. While she still isn't much to look at she does have some nice wood and everything works fine.

Now to the interesting part, this handy little shotgun with twin cylinder bore barrells will put 6 of 9 00buck pellets in a man size target at 25yds and if that doesn't impress you, it will put 3 of 9 in the same target at 50yds. That's right 50 yds! Kingselfish and I were also able to quickly and easily hit a man sized target in the vitals with a slug at 50yds using only the bead sight. After our shooting session I think I can safely say that bad guys should stay at least 51yds away from anyone armed with this type of weapon.

Now my question. Why don't more homes have one of these? For the guy who isn't interested in guns but sees the value in protecting his home, this gun is perfect. It is handy, as simple as they get, devastatingly powerful, and legal to own in all 50 states. They have the added benefit of looking "old timey" and don't seem to cause the gun haters to soil themselves like handguns and the black guns do.

If you've got 300ish dollars, and a need for a Spartan no frills weapon that will allow you to repel the huns when they come to sack your castle, something like this could be just what you need.