Tag Archives: shotgun

Shooting Sports

PSA 570 Pump Shotgun: SHOT Show

Palmetto State Armory are the Mad Scientists of gun makers, coming out with new AR and AK designs and recreations of guns. This year they brought out over a dozen prototypes including their first 12ga. pump shotgun. Much of this gun shares design features with the venerable Remmington 870. This will part of their new Build Your Own series of kit guns designed to be easily built and assembled at home without specialized gun smithing tools.

Notable in its design is the position of the bolt catch release which is in the form of a slide-switch above the trigger; similar in position to an AR. The receiver is cut and designed to attach RMR footprint red dots. The front sight post is compatible with GLOCK front sights.

PSA has too many ideas and but too little engineering time so they’re asking fans to vote for their favorite prototype guns that PSA should focus on. This means the 3 guns with the highest votes will be most likely to see testing and production later this year. Cast your vote at https://palmettostatearmory.com/

Shooting Sports

New KelTec KSG410

KelTec came out with KSG, an innovative double-tube bullpup pump shotgun a few years ago. I got a chance to shoot the single-tube KS7 model during a video review two years ago. It was very easy to maneuver and point due to its compact size but it’s light weight and polymer construction really transferred the recoil energy, making even birdshot feel like shooting slug.

In reaction to the desire for a lighter shooting defensive shotgun, KelTec developed a KSG chambered in the svelt .410 shell originally designed by Elley in the late 1800’s for backyard pest control, birding, and self-defense (in cane guns!). These shells are the size of chapstick tubes but shoot slugs bigger than a 9mm bullet. While shooting with the same recoil as a Sub-2000.

While small compared to a 12 ga. shell, .410 shells are still quite formidable at close range where the KSG excels. It’s not then surprising that KelTec (always the iconoclast), chose to chamber their next KSG variant in .410 instead of a 20 ga. This new pump shotty is due to hit retailers later in Q3 2023.

Shooting Sports

New Aguila 20ga Minishells

https://youtu.be/XJyoV_jHULc

A few years ago Aguila invented the Minishell, a 12 ga. buckshot shell that was half the length of traditional shotgun shells. The Minishell round was released along with Mossberg’s new handheld defensive Shockwave pump shotgun. Minishells sacrificed range and spread but effectively doubled the magazine capacity which is more than a fair trade-off in defensive applications.

This year, they introduced a 20 ga. version of the Minishell for use in 20 ga. shotguns preferred by smaller frame shooters like young adults and many women. Given the increased need for home-defense firearms the last few years, this new load option is sure to find many customers.

Shooting Sports

New Aguila Rata 22LR

At the Aguila booth this year, Luis showed me their new packaging for the relaunch of their 22LR shotshell cartridges, renamed “Rata”, spanish for rat. Aptly named as this speciality cartridge was designed for dispatching fast moving pests at close range. Rata is unique in that it uses #10 bird shot, which are larger balls than their competitors such as CCI and Federal.

Because of the low recoil energy of this shells loading, this round does not cycle reliably in semi-auto firearms and should be used single-shot or in revolvers. Luis provided me with their gun range ballistics gel footage showing how effective it is in squirrel sized target. While not immediately obvious due to the small shot size and clear gel, on closer review of the footage, you can see multiple concurrent hits on the gel and an obvious transfer of energy. That varmint is d-e-a-d.