a new idea ???

[Magnum Wheel Man]

1st off, I design equipment, & may be giving away patent rights here

a buddy & I were chatting the other day... he watches all these "dumb" gun shows ( sons of guns, etc. ) I don't get into 90% of what they make, & don't like the made for TV drama... ( sorry... didn't mean to offend if you like those kinds of shows )... anyway they were contacted by a shot gun company, who wanted ideas of how to make their shotgun more tacto kool... from our conversation, sounded like they swapped some sort of street sweeper type cylinder onto the tube mag... sounded really dumb, heavy, awkward, tough to reload, etc. etc.

... but this got me thinking, ( for military use ) what if there were some cheap ( reads disposable ) plastic or aluminum tubes, that could be factory preloaded & carried in some sort of "battle pouch", that could "snap" onto the gun, would include a spring, & some sort of shell retention system, that would be part of the latching system that would mount the tube to the gun...

... just to expirement... I thought about doing this on a lever gun... it could be an interesting modification to a CAS gun, replaceing the cowboy speedloaders... allowing to just change out the tube mag, to reload...

anyone ever built anything similiar ??? thoughts ???

 

[g.willikers]

Interesting idea.
Like pre-loaded mag tubes, that have a type of quick connect-disconnect to the receiver?
The first problem to be solved would be the feed control of the rounds coming out of the mag tube.
Present designs have those parts in the receiver.
But it sounds doable.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

I'd think if those parts were still in the gun, & the latching mechanism retained the other most shell, until the tube latched on the gun, at which point the spring would push the shells up to the loading fork& it's mechanism...

 

[James K]

Sounds essentially like a detachable tubular magazine. I don't think a loaded tube without the spring and follower would work that well unless you had something like the old Henry thumbpiece to pull the spring back and dump in the shells. But something like that with shotguns shells would be pretty big and awkward. (Contrast a six round pump gun magazine with a 30 round M4 magazine - which would you rather have?) And carrying, say, a dozen of those tubes would be a PITA.

Jim

 

[Creeper]

what if there were some cheap ( reads disposable ) plastic or aluminum tubes, that could be factory preloaded & carried in some sort of "battle pouch", that could "snap" onto the gun, would include a spring, & some sort of shell retention system, that would be part of the latching system that would mount the tube to the gun...

In a similar vein... Are you familiar with TecLoaders and the Arredondo speedloader assist?

C

 

[JohnKSa]

Seems doable.

I see them with a jointed pivot at the front. You'd place the front of the tube in a guide and then swing it upward at the rear. The guide would narrow to a straight track which would align the tube so that everything lines up at the rear where it latches into place.

The rear would latch into place with some sort of a spring-loaded release.

The shell latch that holds the rounds in the tube would be operated by the shotgun's feeding mechanism just like the feeding mechanism currently operates the shell latches inside the receiver of a shotgun.

I don't see anything that would prevent it from working. The only real downside is that carrying fully loaded tubular mags around would get pretty old pretty fast.

The overall shotgun would also probably have to be heavier than a normal tube-fed design since normally, the tube magazine and the barrel provide some support for each other. Since the tube on this one would be detachable, the barrel would have to be sturdy enough and attached sturdily enough to support itself and also to provide a strong support for the tube when it is attached.

 

[HiBC]

Ageed typically the cartridge stops,etc are in the receiver.Not so much a problem,look at an old style primer feed tube.Crossdrill it,a hitch pin holds the rounds in the tube till you pull the pin out.Another possibility,go ahead and have some alternate cartridge stops in the replacement tube that are cammed out of the way as you install the tube,releasing the rounds to the cartridge stops designed in the receiver.

However;If you watch a good 3 gun match sort of person feeding his Bennelli,I suspect it would be hard to match the efficiency with your system.

These guys have the rounds in a belt pouch that strips rounds out the bottom,they dont take the shotgun off their shoulder.Right handed,they roll the gun 180 deg,,butt on shoulder,muzzle slightly down.The entrance to the tube is straight up,line of sight ,about 15 inches in front of the chin,and six inches down.On the move,going for cover or next target,they grab two or three rounds from the belt box,invert the gun,and stuff about one a second..

Not trying to rain on your parade at all,just suggesting you watch some folks real good at reloading a shotgun first.