The Firearm Blog

The Sun Sentinal reports ...

Kelly Jr., 49, of Navarre, admitted shooting his daughter's boyfriend in the groin with "The Judge," his silver Taurus .45-caliber revolver.

"The Judge" was loaded -- three chambers were filled with bird-shot and the fourth with lead. But only one chamber had been fired.

“I shot him in the nuts with bird-shot because he was beating my daughter,” Kelly said.

[ Many thanks to Abraham for emailing me the link. ]

Taurus's Judge revolvers have proved to be incredibly popular. Not resting on their laurels, Taurus has introduced the gigantic Raging Judge Magnum. In additional to the standard Judge cartridges, the .410 shotshell (2.5"/3") and .45 Colt, the Raging Judge can chamber the .454 Casull! Outside of Africa there is probably nothing that cannot be taken down with a Raging Judge Magnum.

Kristin Hunt and the Judge

Raging Judge Magnum (6" barrel)

The handgun will be available with either a 3" or 6" barrel and in either a stainless or blued finish. The 6" version includes a vent-rib for use with a scope mount.

3" barrel model

Like the Taurus Raging Bull line, the gun is big and it is heavy. The advantage that the Judge has over similar .454 chambered guns is its ability to chamber shot shells. A hunter or fisherman can load a shotshell in the first chamber for snakes and .454 in subsequent chambers to defend against bears. The cylinder holds six rounds.

The November issue of Shooting Illustrated published a letter from a reader who suggested Taurus make a carbine version of their Judge revolver and name it the "Supreme Court Judge". Gary from Oklahoma has had his wish come true. The new Taurus Circuit Judge is a revolver carbine that can chamber .410 shotshells (2.5" and 3") and .45 Long Colt.

The design is very similar to the Russian KBP MTs 225 revolver shotgun. The Circuit has a very attractive Monte Carlo stock (I guess a synthetic stock will be introduced at a later date). A cylinder guard on the left side of the gun prevents gas and flames from scorching your arm.

The Circut Judge will be avalible with either a rifled barrel or a smoothbore barrel. The smoothbore version will only be able to fire .410 rounds.

I really look forward to shooting the new Judge. It looks nice, feels nice and I am sure is a lot of fun to shoot.

The "El Juez"

The "El Juez" (thats "The Judge" in Spanish) is a limited edition of the Taurus Judge revolver. This model features a stainless finish with a gold plated hammer, trigger and cylinder release.

Just 1000 will be manufactured, so talk to your dealer soon if you want one. It will be distributed through Davidsons.

Next year Winchester Ammunition will introduce a line of self defense shotshell ammunition called Supreme Elite PDX1.

.410 Gauge Bonded PDX1

The PDX1 2.5" .410 gauge round is optimized for use with the Taurus Judge revolver. The reduced recoil round is loaded with three 000 Buckshot sized discs backed by 12 BB sized pellets.

A buckshot / slug combo is utilized in the 2.75" PDX1 12 gauge round. A 1 oz. Targeting Ranger Slug is pushed at 1200 fps and is backed by three 00 buckshot pellets. It too uses a reduced recoil load.

The .410 and 12 gauge rounds will be available in February and March respectively.

It is good to see more self defense specific shotgun ammunition being developed. I wonder if the ammunition being developed in response to more Americans choosing shotguns for defense, or is being developed in the hope that people will see the ammunition and buy a shotgun to use it ... a chicken and egg problem.

Arsenal Inc are now selling a heavily modified AK-74-styled version of the Saiga .410 gauge shotgun.

Arsenal SGL41


Standard Saiga .410

Many of the components have been removed and replaced with AK-74 parts. These include:

* hand guards
* gas block and gas tube
* front and rear sights
* buttstock
* pistol grip
* muzzle brake
* Bayonet lug

Some of these modification require changes to the receiver itself. IZHMASH, who manufacture the Saiga and the official AK rifles, went out of their way to ensure that a pistol grip could not be easily fitted (so it could be exported as a sporting arm). Arsenal have also added their own two stage trigger group.

The retail price is $889. This is a premium over the standard Saiga, but you are getting a lot more.

Pictured with folding stock and picatinny rail.

Kamil Arikut, who works at Safir Arms, makers of the .410 AR-15 shotgun, posted a comment on the blog saying that a english language forum has been created for American users of the Safir T-14 so that they can get in touch with their Turkish counterparts. If you have questions about the gun, they probably know more about it than anyone in the USA.

Earlier this year ATI began selling the T-14, an AR-15 style .410 shotgun that uses a standard AR-15 lower. I have been asked many times if and when just the upper on its own will be available for sale. I learnt from Suburban that AIM Surplus are now selling just the upper for $499.95.

The upper had a 20″ smoothbore barrel and is supplied with a five round magazine. Two models are available, the Classic and the Compact. The only difference between the models is the handguard length.

The Compact Model


The Classic Model

There has been a discussion on the blog about the controversial new Federal Personal Defense Handgun .410 shotshell ammunition designed exclusively for the Taurus Judge .410 revolver.

.410 Personal Defense opened and pellets dumped. Thanks to Stephen for the photo.

The round contains 60 pellets of #4 bird shot (each pellet is .13″ in diameter). The load of pellets weight 1/2 oz (218.75 grain). Velocity is listed as 1200 fps which makes the total energy delivered at the muzzle to be 700 ft/lbs.

Federal said to Guns Holsters and Gear that:

The #4 pellets (approximately 10) penetrate to a depth of up to 6″.

(the pellet number is wrong, but the penetration depth sounds right for .410)

So with these facts in mind do you think that this round is capable of delivering a blow that warrants its name? I am not sure it does, but I welcome your opinions in the comments. I have a few issues with this round and how Federal have marketed it.

Firstly, the FBI requires penetration of at least 12″ for their ammunition, added to this is the fact that the pellets are individually, only .13″ in caliber and weigh about 3.6 grain. I would not want to be shot by one, and they could certainty kill if they traveled around the body and hit a vital organ, but I seriously doubt an attacker would be stopped in their tracks.

Another problem is shot dispersion. Dick wrote this comment on the blog about he groupings he achieved.

NOT SUITABLE FOR PERSONAL DEFENSE AGAINST MUCH OF ANYTHING LARGE ENOUGH TO WARRENT “SELF DEFENSE” EXCEPT PERHAPS SMALL SNAKES! A large one shot with this round at 21′ will likely kill you before it bleeds to death! With 2 rounds it put 18-20 pellets inside a 12″ circle so the snake better be curled up and there were plenty enough large gaps to miss a head shot.

Another issue I have is the published velocity. When firearm manufacturers publish velocity they usually base it on their test barrels, which are usually longer than what you would buy. For example shotgun velocities would be recorded from 28″ or 30″ barrel. The 1200 fps this round achieves is very similar to other standard shotgun loads, the difference being it is intended for the Judge. Most of the Judge models have a 2.5″ chamber and 3.5″ barrel. Revolvers measure barrel length forward of the chamber, so compared to a normal shotgun this works about to be 6″ of barrel. I believe shotguns are loaded with fast burning powder (reloaders please correct me if I am wrong), but this seems pretty amazing if it can achieve maximum velocity in only 6″ of barrel.

Finally, if Federal believe this is an adequate round for self-defense, why have they not published their own internal studies? Telling me it has 6″ of penetration, presumably in ballistic gelatin, is just not enough information.

So far Federal have not delivered a .410 buckshot model of the Personal Defense Round, but likely will later this year.

I am interested in your opinions. I don’t consider myself very knowledgeable in this area.

UPDATE:

Other blogger have weighed in on the issue. Go read what they have to say (if you have blogged about it and I don’t know, tell me and I will add your blog to the list):

Michael Bane @ The Michael Bane Blog

Caleb @ Gun Nuts

The Tuffy is a new single shot youth shotgun chambered in .410. It features a thumbhole stock that can store five rounds, and has a viewing window for checking how many rounds are stored.

Two models are available, one in stainless, the other in matte blue. Both has 18.5″ barrels and weight 3 lbs. The MSRP is $172 (I think this is for the blue version).

The first Rossi I shot was a .22 / . 410 matched pair. They are really neat guns and an ideal inexpensive candidate for teaching children shot to shoot.

Ed, who blogs at Tell Me Why?, interviewed Tony from American Tactical Imports about their .410 AR-15 shotgun, the AT-14 (otherwise known as the T-14).

You can watch the video here.

It answers a question I have had: is the lower standard AR-15? The answer is that it is almost 100% mil-spec and with a minor modification it can be used with other AR-15 uppers.

AT-14 / T-14. More photos here.

Tony says that the rifle is classified by the ATF as sporting shotgun partly because of the 5-round magazine. I have read it is possible to use modified AR-15 30 round magazines. This does raise the issue of Section 922R Compliance – converting an imported sporting arm into a non-”sporting arm” that would not be allowed to be imported in the first place. Saiga shotgun owners know all about this.

(I know nothing about 922R compliance – just what I have read – so don’t take anything I have said as legal advice)

It should be easy to get enough US-made replacement AR-15 parts to make the shotgun classified as a US made firearm by the ATF. A problem may be people messing with the shotgun not realizing that just because it looks identical to the Bushmasters sold at the local gun store, the ATF have other ideas.

Any legal eagles who understand the issues are welcome to sound off in the comments.

James @ The Next Chapter bought himself a .22 / .410 M6 Scout take down rifle.

Taken down and packed for transport.

More photos and information at The Next Chapter.

I covered the Safir T-14 / ATI AT-14 .410 AR-15 shotgun on the blog earlier this year. Mike, a reader of The Firearm Blog, emailed me photos the AT-14 he just received.

Click to expand the photos.

Two black shotugns. .410 Siaga shotgun (AK clone) left.


Annular piston system. ATI’s markings can be seen on the lower receiver.

If you have any questions I am sure Mike will be happy to answer them in the comments.

A big thanks to Mike for taking the time to strip his rifle shotgun for photos.

Many more photos after the jump.
Continue Reading »

Yes, you did you the title correctly. American Tactical Imports are bringing the Safir Arms T-14 stateside and calling it the AT-14.

T-14 Classic

Now you are probably asking yourself why would someone want such a gun? When I first learnt about the T-14 a few months ago I asked the same question. The T-14 is very popular in Europe. Many countries, including Turkey where the T-14 is manufactured, either ban semi-automatic rifles or make it hard to own one. This gun is the closest thing the average citizen can get to owning an AR-15.

So why is ATI bringing them to the USA where AR-15s are plentiful? I wondered about this myself. First of all they could be a popular hunting arm for AR-15 enthusiast for use in shotgun only hunting areas (I don’t hunt with a shotgun, so correct me if I am wrong). Ed Friedman made a good point that with the new self defense .410 ammunition from Federal this gun could make a good self defense weapon when over penetration is a concern. A .410 slug should give similar performance to a .357 Magnum.

The ATI advertisement.

Guns.ru describe the gas system as follows:

The gas system utilizes annual (ring-type) short-stroke gas piston, located around the barrel

T-14 disassembly. One BIG spring

The gun can be seen in action in this youtube video:

ATI will be importing the Classic model and the Compact model. Both feature a A2 carry handle style upper receiver, fixed stock and 20″ barrel. The only different is the length of the handguard.

AT-14 Classic

AT-14 Compact

According to Ed a 5 round and 15 round magazine will be available. I have read that AR-15 magazines can be converted to hold 10 .410 rounds. Ed hopes to review the shotgun in an upcoming issue of Guns and Hunting.

UPDATE: The MSRP is $979 and dealer price is $800. They should be available shortly (thanks War Wolf and Todd for the info).