Senior design project

brodbeckrt

Inactive
Hello all. I have posted this on other forums as well but I am trying to get input from as many people as possible. I am new here as a member on The firing line but I have read quite a bit on this site and I decided to join. I am a Mechanical Engineering Technology Student in my final year. Another student and I are researching a project we feel could be quite helpful. We are developing, designing and building a one handed shotgun for our senior design project. More of the design is the stock than the gun. We came up with the idea because we feel it would help single arm amputees enjoy shooting more comfortably and more accurately. We also have tossed around the idea of use in tactical situations as well. It would be nice to be able efficiently use a shotgun without even the slightest thought of using you other hand. My thoughts are using a Mossberg 500 or Remington 870 for the pump version and the Mossberg 935 or Remington 1100 or 1187 for semi-auto.

It is a requirement to gain input from other gun-owners and especially amputees.

I am asking you all for your input, suggestions, products you have seen like this(the more info on them the better. I want to make sure I am not taking anyone's patent or anything), which shotgun(make/model) do you suggest for semi-auto or pump and why?

We do already have a basic design and features list, but I do not want to put it up yet because I do not want to influence your answers in any way. I am more looking for accessories, features, or other things you have used that you added on, modified, or that came with a gun(i.e. a stock I bought for a mossberg was everything I wanted in a gun stock except the end of the butt stock was really thin and was very uncomfortable to shoot. Also when it folded the shells wouldnt eject properly because the stock folded in front of where the shells came out). Which things did you hate or love about them, and obviously why?

Thank you all for your input.
 
You seem sincere enough about your project, but the single arm amputees that I know don't really need any sort of special shotgun accommodation... they do just fine with what ever they have to work with.

The most "special", permanently affixed thing I'm aware of is a 50 cent eyebolt stuck into the forend of a vets pump Ithaca. A friend who shoots a lot of sporting clays has a home made, grippy-padded cradle prosthesis attachment for the forend of her Benelli SS auto.

Cheers,
C
 
I have gotten replies on other forums showing how single arm amputees shoot "standard" guns. Essentially what I am trying to do is make the gun more comfortable and less work to shoot. We will accomplish this re-balancing the gun to make it more maneuverable, adding more recoil absorption, relocating the trigger forward, and adding a second point of contact to the body to allow for better stabilization and accuracy.

Could you do me a favor and ask your friends who are amputees about what the most difficult parts of shooting are for them? What features they would see most beneficial to add to a gun to make it easier to shoot? What type of shooting do they do? Kind of repetitive, but is there any type of shooting that they don't do(very well or not at all) or cannot do?

Thank you for the help
 
have you tried shooting a shotgun one handed?studied the recoil dynamics properly?

it sounds like your simply working on a bullpup shotgun. and it would have to be semi auto as amoutn of amputation and residual physical imparmaint varies from person to person. might not loose the whole arm in the wheat thresher, but you may not have any muscle control below the elbow.
 
Yes I have shot one using only one hand. We haven't tested and analyzed the recoil yet, we are only in the research phase(researching existing "like" products, gaining customer input, etc.). Calculations such as recoil and designing the recoil system will be coming soon. You are correct we are looking into some type of modified bullpup design.
 
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