Idaho lab creates new breaching shotgun

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Idaho lab creates new breaching shotgun

Posted: 9/23/2005 12:42:38 PM EDT

Saw this in the local paper today, looks pretty interesting...

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050923/NEWS02/509230326

Posted: 9/23/2005 12:51:44 PM EDT

[#1]

www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050923/NEWS02/509230326

Posted: 9/24/2005 12:05:22 PM EDT

[#2]

http://vh10503.moc.gbahn.net/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=G0&Date=20050923&Category=NEWS02&ArtNo=509230326&Ref=V2&Profile=1029&MaxW=500&title=1&Maxh=400&Q=80

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Police and military officers will soon be able to use a single gun to break down doors and detain suspects during hostage rescues or drug raids, thanks to a new weapon the Idaho National Laboratory designed.

About five engineers at INL created the Breaching Shotgun — a rifle and shotgun in one — that law enforcement officials and military personnel can easily use to blast through a door and fire like a rifle at the same time.

Currently, it takes at least two officers to knock down a door and enter a room, said Steve Frickey, an INL engineer who helped design the weapon.

One officer shoots off the door knob or hinges with a shotgun and kicks in the door, but he does not have enough ammunition left after that to enter the room. So he has to get out of the way after knocking down the door and let other officers step in, Frickey said.

But the new Breaching Shotgun is a standard military rifle with a 12-gauge shotgun attached underneath it, so one officer can use the shotgun to blast through a door and then grip the rifle trigger to fire as he enters the room, if necessary. Having these two weapons in one will save officers a lot of time, Frickey said.

The 14-inch shotgun component of the Breaching Shotgun can attach to any standard military rifle, including M4, M16 and MP5 models, Frickey said.

"You put it up against any other breaching weapon out there, and it'll win hands down," he said.

It is the first weapon to combine the rifle and shotgun so the two triggers are near each other. Engineers also designed it so officers can easily reload the shotgun with non-lethal ammunition, like rubber bullets or tear gas, Frickey said.

"It's a very unique design," said Sven Evers, president of proSWAT Inc., the Boise-based weapons manufacturer that has an exclusive license to produce and sell the Breaching Shotgun. "Definitely the first of its kind."

The U.S. Department of Energy's Applied Technology Program asked the INL to create the weapon after the department held a competitive bidding process, said Ethan Huffman, an INL spokesman.

DOE funded the project, which cost between $125,000 and $175,000, Huffman said. Engineers in INL's National and Homeland Security Division worked for nearly two years to create the weapon and test it. The laboratory has five patents pending for its design.

ProSWAT expects to start producing the weapon soon and to begin selling it by the end of this year or early next year.

"Right now, we are still tooling up," Evers said.

The company already has "federal law enforcement" agencies lined up to buy the guns, but Evers would not disclose any specifics about the buyers. He said he is marketing the weapon to the U.S. military, too.

Evers estimated he will sell nearly a thousand guns a month at about $1,000 each when they hit the market.

INL tested a prototype of the weapon with several police officers and INL security personnel last year, and Frickey said feedback was positive.

"They can't wait to get one," he said. "The only comment was it's different, but that is just a matter of training."

The Breaching Shotgun is unlike other shotguns because instead of just pumping it back before firing, officers have to pump it forward and then back, Frickey said.

The shotgun will not be sold to civilians in its current form, but proSWAT plans to rework the gun's design in the future so it will be legal to sell to the public under federal laws.

The company will have to shorten the barrel and limit the number of shells the shotgun magazine can hold from seven to three, Evers said.

ProSWAT is currently working with INL on other weapon development projects, Evers said, but most of the projects are classified for national security reasons.

Weapons design makes up less than 1 percent of INL's security division, Huffman said. The division, which employs nearly 400 people, mostly focuses on developing ways to prevent a terrorist organization from obtaining nuclear materials, he said.

INL and the individual inventors will receive a portion of the weapon sales every year, but Huffman could not say how much that will be.

Posted: 9/25/2005 1:50:04 AM EDT

[#3]

"Definitely the first of its kind."

I take it INL is located in a cave?

Posted: 9/25/2005 8:25:48 AM EDT

[#4]

How do you fire it? I don't see a trigger.

Posted: 9/25/2005 3:03:33 PM EDT

[#5]

That looks HEAVY.

Posted: 9/25/2005 3:18:45 PM EDT

[#6]

I wonder what kind of 7-round mag that is....

LB

Posted: 9/25/2005 3:56:44 PM EDT

[#7]

Mag release looks AK style

And it IS the first of it's kind to be mag-fed, IIRC...

The 'masterkey' is a conventional tube-fed weapon, IIRC

Posted: 9/25/2005 4:09:56 PM EDT

[#8]

pump forward and back... no visible trigger...

slam fire?

The worlds first mag-fed bang stick..

Posted: 9/25/2005 4:22:50 PM EDT

[#9]

The shotgun will not be sold to civilians in its current form, but proSWAT plans to rework the gun's design in the future so it will be legal to sell to the public under federal laws.

The company will have to shorten the barrel and limit the number of shells the shotgun magazine can hold from seven to three, Evers said.

Idiot media.

WTF does DOE need a new breaching shotgun for, anyhow? I know they've got some high speed stuff but I thought they just did guard work and convoy escorts.

Posted: 9/26/2005 12:41:05 AM EDT

[#10]

Yeah I saw this article at work today.

Biggslic where in Idaho are you? I'm in Boise.

Posted: 9/26/2005 12:47:42 AM EDT

[#11]

I saw that two-three years back.. don't think its anything new..

Posted: 9/26/2005 1:20:27 AM EDT

[#12]

www.special-operations-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=491

www.defendamerica.mil/articles/feb2004/a022404c.html

Posted: 9/26/2005 1:20:38 PM EDT

[#13]

Wow, that looks even less usable than the master key........

Posted: 9/27/2005 12:02:13 AM EDT

[#14]

Is it just me, or does that picture almost look like Photoshop?

Anyway, the LSS is much cooler.

Posted: 9/30/2005 8:26:20 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Yeah I saw this article at work today.

Biggslic where in Idaho are you? I'm in Boise.

Boise eh? Come...join your Idaho brothers. We do a shoot about tri-weekly it seems.
www.ar15.com/forums/forum.html?b=8&f=37

Oh and so this isnt a hi jack, I saw that in the paper the other day too. It looks interesting, but did you see how much they are spending on the research for the project. I'd bet for that price they could hire more officers and have money left over to get them trained to do such entries, rather than some super expensive gadget.

If I won the lottery and decided I needed one of everything, I'd try to get one.

Posted: 9/30/2005 8:37:01 AM EDT

[#16]

What a heavy, clumsy looking piece of shit.

I think I'd rather have a double-barreled sawed-off in a holster to breech and then go to the carbine without that fucking monstrosity attached to it.

ETA: Note that my option is in the $100 to $200 range for a double-barreled and a hacksaw. I'm sure agencies that can get that dumb underslung thing can cut barrels off without any hassles.

Posted: 10/2/2005 4:30:44 PM EDT

[#17]

Ghetto LSS.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Idaho lab creates new breaching shotgun

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