What the heck is a "social" shotgun?

"Social shotgun" or "defensive shotgun"; both terms are much better than the ancient "riot gun" or "alley sweeper" monikers. These would offend those who are queasy about self-defense just as badly as the other terms AND they tend to perpetuate the myth about how a shotgun best used in the anti-personnel role...as an indiscriminate "area" weapon.

I suppose that the term "defensive shotgun" best describes the use to which most of us put these weapons (keep in mind that the weapon is defensive in the context of being kept ready for defense. When the fight starts, its operator had better be on the OFFENSIVE).

However, don't kid yourself. The anti-gunners efforts to disarm us will not be lessened by us adopting the mealy-mouthed tactic of calling things other than what they are.

Rosco
 
Rosco makes a good point. You can call it whatever you like, the Grabbers will want to take it.


I don't see what the big deal is about the term social shotgun. Some hunters wouldn't know what the heck you're talking about, let alone Sarah Brady. Now if you like to call it "Bloody Bess", that may raise a few eyebrows.

If you want to terminoligate someone, go after those Sniper Rifle dudes. Most of them bug the heck out of me. Some of them think that any rifle with a scope on it suddenly becomes a coveted Sniper Rifle. Now THERE'S a term that will raise eye brows in the lunchroom at work.

Wait a minute, that threads been done. :)

I've been wanting to say this for weeks. One of the things I enjoy so much about reading posts in this forum is this. Smith and Wesson doesn't make shotguns! ;) One less thing to fuss about.
 
I don't object to the modifier "social" for politically correct or politically expedient reasons. We all know that being nice, "reasonable," and accomodating to the gun grabbers won't dissuade them from carrying on with their immoral confiscatory intentions. I object to the term "social" because it is an attempt at being funny and clever about very solemn matters, such as using a shotgun to PROTECT myself and my fellow man.

Honestly now, how would you react if you heard the term "social shotgun" coming out of the mouth of people like Robert Higginbotham the Third or Lon Horiuchi?
 
AR-10, you forgot!!

Smith and Wesson did at one time market both shotguns and rifles under the S&W brand.

The rifles were pretty good the shotguns so-so, at least from the onse I've seen.

BTW, to the best of my knowledge, the S&W shotguns were not social. All of them wore long hunting tubes.

Doc Hudson
 
A brief monograph on the Models 1000, 1500 and 3000 S&W long guns…

Smith and Wesson did at one time market both shotguns and rifles under the S&W brand.
Click to expand...
'Struth, Doc… they were manufactured in Japan by Howa, and marketed by the Lear-Siegler edition of S&W, the shotguns as the Models 1000 and 3000 to directly compete, respectively, with Remington's Models 1100 and 870. When Tomkins came in back in '87, they discontinued everything under the S&W label save the handguns and 'cuffs. Mossberg immediately picked up the Howa shotguns 'til Alan Mossberg, rocket-scientist that he is, figured out that he was cutting his own corporate throat, and they were de-catalogued after just one year.

I owned a really neat 28" Model 1000 for about ten years, then gifted it to a lady friend who was getting interested in backlot trap. It was in all respects an excellent sporting arm.

The Models 3000 were actually an improvement over the contemporary Model 870 (whose lifter design was subsequently changed to reflect the Howa advancement) and were very much "serious social shotguns." CHP had contracted for a bunch of them with 18" inch tubes, a side-folder and a phosphate finish, some of which still show up on the refurb market… excellent values! The President of our sandpit combat club found a bunch of contract overruns back in '84, NIB and with a nifty black cordura case, being blown out by Edelman's (the Long Island retail subsidiary of the now defunct Nationwide distributor) at $139.95 a copy, and cracked his plastic to glom onto the last of them, graciously making them available at cost to whoever in the club wanted one. To my eternal regret, I passed… they made an excellent "go gun" for your vehicle.
The rifles were pretty good the shotguns so-so, at least from the onse I've seen.
Click to expand...
Absolutely right on the rifles… "Japanese Mausers," we called them… which are still available, BTW. Interarms brought them in, as is someone else now… the Models 1500 designation is still utilized. You can get a barrelled action for under $250, drop it in a RamLine synthetic stock, and you've got a helluva gun!

But I demur on your assessment of the shotguns, for the above reasons.
BTW, to the best of my knowledge, the S&W shotguns were not social. All of them wore long hunting tubes.
Click to expand...
As I noted, you're probably right on the semi-autos… at least I never saw an "entry gun" configuration among the Models 1000, just as I never saw a "sporting" version of the Models 3000; all were either 18-inchers with that side-folder, or a full-stocked 20-inch slug-gun version, always "bad-arse black," rather than in a pattern.

Memo to Romulus: try prunes!
 
MD DOC tried out some of those S&W 3000s,ca 1980-83, Dean. They didn't hold up under prison conditions. I noted at the time that they worked very well when kept clean and lubed, but did not when neglected, ignored, and abused by non motivated, lackadaisical and sub standard personnel.

Besides the variants you mention, we had some with full length magazine tubes. All the ones we had functioned well with double feeds. 'Bout the same time we started to get in Flextabbed 870s.

If I had bought one of the S&Ws when they were surplussed out, I might still have it....
 
Dean,
Thanks for the info. the only S&W shotguns I've handled were the semi-autos. According to the owners, they were not up to the A-5's league in reliability. Never had a chance to check out the pump guns.

As for the rifles, aren't these the same ones Weatherby, and later Mossberg inported under their brand? Is Howa still bringing them into the US?

Doc Hudson
 
Doc Hudson asks:
As for the rifles, aren't these the same ones Weatherby, and later Mossberg inported under their brand? Is Howa still bringing them into the US?
Click to expand...
As I've already said, someone is still bringing the Howa Models 1500 in… they're too good to not bring in.

And yes, they once made rifles for Weatherby.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top