05 March 2010

Tools of War: AA-12 Automatic Shotgun


Shotguns are wonderfully versatile weapons, due to the variety of rounds that they can use. Slug, buckshot, birdshot, beanbag, sabot, flechette, tear gas, breaching rounds, heck even TASER and mini-grenade rounds can all be fired through a shotgun.

Shotguns are also incredibly powerful, especially at close range. With OO-Buck rounds, which (along with slugs) are the most commonly used shells in military and police applications, you have NINE .33cal rounds hitting the target all at the same time....with devastating effect. However, with great power comes great...recoil. That, as well, as the sheer size of a shotgun shell, have limited shotguns to semi-automatics...until now.

After over 18 years of development, the AA-12 is finally ready for the big-time. Will it be as reliable as advertised? Will it be adopted by any of the services? Who knows. But what we DO know is that nothing, and I mean NOTHING, puts out the close-range firepower that the AA-12 does. And with mini-grenades added to the mix, the effectiveness at longer ranges is promising as well.

Recoil has been managed very well, and the weapon is primarily made from stainless steel, making cleaning and lubrication a "yesterday's tech" concept.
Versatile and devastating...who wouldn't want that on the battlefield with them?

And now, once again, an annoying, whispering ex-SEAL tells us all about it...



By: Steve

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