#20Ga

Beretta brought out their latest shotguns to SHOT Show Range Day. The first shotgun that caught my eye was the new XCEL400 Black. Due to customer feedback, they are now offering the XCEL400 in black anodizing rather than blue anodizing. It comes with a 30″ barrel with extended black edition Optima HP chokes. On top, the barrel has a carbon fiber rib. The stock will come with the kick off limb saver and is Gun Pod ready. Most interesting was the oversized controls that you see on Beretta’s Tactical 1301 on the XCEL400 Black. Such as the over sized charging handle and bolt release. The XCEL400 Black will retail for $2200.

The TOZ-106 is a bolt action 20ga shotgun with a short barrel. It is magazine fed and made in Russia by Tulsky Oruzheiny Zavod back in 1993. I was not able to find this shotgun available on their website.

For those that favor a 20 gauge shotgun for your defensive long gun, Winchester has now released the 20 gauge fragmenting slug.  The slug is designed to fragment into three large segments when it encounters a soft target, which helps to enlarge the temporary wound channel, and create three separate permanent wound channels increasing the likelihood of hitting vital organ or blood vessel.  In recent years many have started looking to the 20 gauge to fill their home defense needs because of the reduced recoil and length of pull, many women also prefer it to a 12 gauge, even with reduced recoil loads.  This load looks to be much easier to use, and will reduce pellets that would miss the target, which can happen even on a well placed shot.  Below is a graphic depiction of what the slug looks like before and after fragmentation.