Description
Compared to a standard shotgun, the sawed-off shotgun has a shorter effective range, due to a lower muzzle velocity and wider spread of shot. Its reduced size makes it easier to maneuver and conceal. Powerful and compact, the weapon is especially suitable for use in small spaces. For example, military vehicle crews, and entry teams running through doorways (see entry shotgun) often use them.
To make shotguns less concealable, many jurisdictions have a minimum legal length for shotgun barrels. Most gun makers in the U.S. have not offered sawed-off shotguns to the public since the early 1900s when shotguns with barrel lengths of under 18" were restricted, although they had been offered prior to that time without being illegally modified. Currently, aftermarket companies and Special Occupational Taxpayers exist that legally convert most name brand shotguns into such weapons, upon payment of either a $200.00 or $5.00 Federal fee for transferring ownership.
However, a sawed-off shotgun is often an unofficial modification of a standard shotgun. In countries where handguns are more costly or difficult to obtain, criminals might convert legally purchased or stolen shotguns into concealable weapons. For criminal organizations, the availability of standard hunting ammunition is another advantage of sawed-off shotguns. However, this practice is not limited to localities where handguns are difficult to obtain. Sawed-off shotguns might be made for a number of reasons, such as the reputation they have gained through portrayal in action movies and news reports of crime incidents.
The term most genuinely applies to illegal weapons that are created by cutting off the barrel of a standard shotgun. This has a dramatic effect on double-barreled or single-shot shotguns because the barrel can be cut to any length. Pump-action or semi-automatic shotguns have a tube magazine attached to the underside of the barrel which limits the minimum barrel length to slightly longer the length of the magazine tube, when only the barrel is modified. Although the magazine can be shortened, with a corresponding loss in magazine capacity, such a modification tends to be much more technically complex, often involving large diameter square threading, and welding or silver soldering, at a bare minimum. Repeating-fire shotguns with box magazines do not lose shell capacity when sawed off, but they are far less common than those with tubular magazines. Shotguns manufactured with barrels under the legal minimum length frequently fall into special categories.
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