Biggest CCW
 

I've been thinking I could have the biggest, baddest concealed carry pistol if I created a new cartridge and then a gun to go with it. Sounds hard but it could be really quite easy.

1. Shorten a brass 12ga shotgun shell to 1 1/2 inches or so and then load it with a single round ball. Designate this as the "75 THOR" or something similar (12 GA. is actually 0.729 in diameter).
2. Write up a short piece for a magazine about the cartridge using any full size
12 ga shotgun as the testing gun. Establishes the cartridge legally
3. Get one of the companies making custom shotguns to build you a "pistol" chambered for standard 12 GA using a rifled barrel. Since the "Pistol" has a rifled barrel and is chambered for a cartridge shooting a single projectile it would be a legal pistol requiring no special permits, the fact it also chambers and fires regular 12 is of no consequence... The only sticking point legally might be the bore size but since the 50 caliber barrier was broke many years ago (577, 700 NE etc), probably just a small bureaucratic hurdle to be overcome.

If you doubt my logic consider all the pistols out there that feature dual chambers for 45 Colt / 410 shotgun such as the recently introduced Taurus Judge revolver.

BTW: This would really satisfy the LDBG (little d++k, big gun) market.

This could be really cool with flechettes...

MVP

Hmmm. Is that why I EDC a 45fs?

BTW, great post. It made me smile.

Long ago in a far away land one of my former 18Bs (IIRC he was actually the F at the time) used a 26mm flare pistol with a "barrel insert" (1" water pipe) and 12 ga shells as a breaching tool. More of a novelty item than anything practical but we all lined up to shoot it. :D Nobody was permanently injured and for single shot breeches it was better than lugging around the Mossbergs and Ithicas we had in the arms room. Not sure who would have to approve the risk assessment for that today.

Got your back boss:

And this function in your 870t's and Benelli's...

Interesting.

I thought about purchasing one of the "Judge" pistols, just to say I had one(I can get away with stupid crap like that because of my job title). Something about having a shotgun in your holster seems right...

75 Thor
 

Part of making this legal is marketing a new cartridge not just a mini 12GA.

MVP

I once heard ( second-hand but from two usually reliable sources) about an intrepid, young, slightly intoxicated individual who put a full-house 10 gauge shot gun shell in a flare pistol of the same chambering, cocked the hammer, and pulled the trigger. The pistol DID fire; it DID NOT explode. Pretty much the entire upper right quadrant of the shooter did "explode" - severely torn hand ligaments / tendons / etc., broken hand, wrist, and arm bones, dislocated shoulder.

Big Bang / Small package, if taken to extremes, becomes just as dangerous to the shooter as the shot.

Just make a pistol version....
 

Just load a 535gr lead bullet cast for a 45-70 or better, and put it in a 45 long colt brass and load it in a short barreled revolver chambered for 45LC. should be fun.
Blitzzz redneck engineering.

Added note just pick up a 60 Nitro Express Hodah.

Pictures please..


Which reminded me of the British Howdah, A Monster..


Before moving to the rock, I hunted BP. As you could not carry any encased ammo, I carried a Lyman Plains pistol in .54 cal. My rifle is a .54 cal Renegade.

The Lyman is a full sized .54 barrel cut to 10 inches. It can be an eye opener if you stuff it with a full load. I did it only once. I lowered the load to 35gr (50gr max) Pyrodex RS and used the same bullet as my rifle.

I carried it for the coup de gras shot. At 10 ft it is very effective.

An Aside,, The grip on the pistol and similar BIG bores is a bit funny looking and not the easiest to hold. The roundness only comes into play when you pull the trigger and watch the barrel rotate up, somewhat mitigating the recoil. I think if you had a 1911 style grip, you palm, fingers, wrist, and butt would be sore from the recoil..

More details on the 75 Thor
 

I have seen the 45-70 caliber revolvers, think they have been around since the early 1960's. They are big, awkward, and fire a single projectile. Guess you could build a shotload but then you may as well be shooting a 410. I think 12ga w/buckshot could be a hoot.

I had thought the first prototype of the Thor might be based on an 870 with a 7-9" barrel, this is why it is important that a shotgun builder do this from the outset so the gun is not classified as a cut-off shotgun. I would use the old Secret-Service grip vs the popular pistol grips on the market. The Secret service design is relatively straight and does not wrench the wrist, it looks more like teh regular stock cut at the comb and then rounded off. A double barrel ala the old Ithaca Auto-Burgler would be the final version. The tough part of that would be getting an barrel bundle with rifling but there are lots of custom smiths out there working on shotguns....

MVP

75 Thor
 

Spoke to a BATF enforcement guy, concept is sound, checking further, more to follow.

MVP

I always thought that the cut down M-79 was the biggest pistol I had seen.

TR

Oh yeah...!
 

...and with a bandoleer full of Flachete.

75 Thor
 

The chopped n channeled M79 truely is the biggest but I can't see any way of getting it as a "sporting" pistol...

MVP

A public service announcement for all new 18B candidates...

Recoil is not your friend...

600 Nitro express, a very large can of whoop-ass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXc6TcOASMM

different shooter,, same pistol,, same results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea_Q8C_67jY

and another (watch the tung action):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRgYtp3HfvY

background:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_X5nyGu5LQ

and a picture: