Double-barreled shotgun
Encyclopedia
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
or combination gun
Combination gun
A combination gun is a break-action hunting firearm that comprises at least two barrels, a rifle barrel and a shotgun barrel, often but not always in an over and under configuration; side-by-side variations are known as cape guns. A ' refers to a combination gun that has three barrels...
with two parallel barrels, allowing two shots to be fired in quick succession.
Construction
Double-barreled shotguns, often known as doubles, are almost universally break openBreak open
A break-action firearm is one whose barrels are hinged, and rotate perpendicular to the bore axis to expose the breech and allow loading and unloading of ammunition. A separate operation may be required for the cocking of a hammer to fire the new round...
actions, with the barrels tilting up at the rear to expose the breech ends of the barrels for unloading and reloading. Since there is no reciprocating action needed to eject and reload the shells
Shotgun shell
A shotgun shell is a self-contained cartridge loaded with lead shot or shotgun slug designed to be fired from a shotgun....
, doubles are more compact than repeating designs such as pump action
Pump action shotgun
Pump-action shotguns, also called 'slide action repeating shotguns' or 'slide action shotguns' are a class of shotguns that are distinguished in the way in which spent shells are extracted and fresh ones are chambered. The weapon has a single barrel above a tube magazine into which shells are...
or Lever Action
Semi-automatic shotgun
A semi-automatic shotgun is a form of shotgun that is able to fire a cartridge after every trigger squeeze, without any manual chambering of another round being required...
shotguns.
Barrel configuration
Doubles come in two basic configurations, the side by side or SxS and the over/under or O/U, indicating the arrangement of barrels. The original double barreled guns were nearly all SxS designs, which was a more practical design in the days of muzzle-loading firearmFirearm
A firearm is a weapon that launches one, or many, projectile at high velocity through confined burning of a propellant. This subsonic burning process is technically known as deflagration, as opposed to supersonic combustion known as a detonation. In older firearms, the propellant was typically...
s. Early cartridge
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...
shotguns also used the SxS action, because they kept the exposed hammers of the earlier muzzle-loading shotguns they evolved from. When hammerless
Hammerless
A hammerless firearm is a firearm that lacks an exposed hammer or hammer spur.In rifles, using a firing-pin rather than a hammer is a substantial improvement because the time from trigger pull to firing can be less...
designs started to become common, the O/U design was introduced, and most modern sporting doubles are O/U designs
One significant advantage that doubles have over single barrel repeating shotguns is the ability to use more than one choke at a time. Some shotgun sports, such as skeet
Skeet shooting
Skeet shooting is one of the three major types of competitive shotgun target shooting sports . There are several types of skeet, including one with Olympic status , and many with only national recognition.- General principles :Skeet is a recreational and competitive activity where...
, use crossing targets presented in a narrow range of distance, and only require one level of choke. Others, like sporting clays
Sporting Clays
Sporting clays is a form of clay pigeon shooting, often described as "golf with a shotgun" because a typical course includes from 10 to 15 different shooting stations laid out over natural terrain...
, give the shooter targets at differing ranges, and targets that might approach or recede from the shooter, and so must be engaged at differing ranges. Having two barrels lets the shooter use a more open choke for near targets, and a tighter choke for distant targets, providing the optimal shot pattern for each distance.
Their disadvantage lies in the fact that the barrels of a double barreled shotgun, whether O/U or SxS, are not parallel, but, slightly angled so that shots from the barrels converge, usually at "40 yards out". For the SxS configuration, the shotstring continues on its path to the opposite side of the rib after the converging point; for example, the left barrel's discharge travels on the left of the rib till it hits dead center at 40 yards out, after that, the discharge continues on to the right. In the O/U configuration with a parallel rib, both barrels' discharges will keep to the dead center, but the discharge from the "under" barrel will shoot higher than the discharge from the "over" barrel after 40 yards. Thus, double barrel shotguns are accurate only in very short ranges, though the range of their ammunition easily exceeds four to six times that range.
Trigger mechanism
The early doubles used two triggers, one for each barrel. These were located front to back inside the trigger guard, the index finger being used to pull either trigger, as having two fingers inside the trigger guard can cause a recoil induced double-discharge. In double trigger designs, it is often possible to pull both triggers at once, firing both barrels simultaneously, though this is generally not recommended as it doubles the recoil, battering both shooter and shotgun. Discharging both barrels at the same time has long been a hunting trick employed by hunters using 8 gauge "elephant" shotguns, firing the two two-ounce slugs for sheer stopping power at close range.Later models used a single trigger that would alternately fire both barrels, called a single selective trigger or SST. The SST does not allow firing of both barrels at once, since it must be pulled twice in order to fire both barrels. The change from one barrel to the other may be done by a clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
type system, where a cam alternates between barrels, or by an inertia
Inertia
Inertia is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. It is proportional to an object's mass. The principle of inertia is one of the fundamental principles of classical physics which are used to...
l system where the recoil of firing the first barrel selects the next barrel. Generally there is a method of selecting the order in which the barrels of an SST shotgun fire; commonly this is done through manipulation of the safety
Safety (firearms)
In firearms, a safety or safety catch is a mechanism used to help prevent the accidental discharge of a firearm, helping to ensure safer handling....
, pushing to one side to select top barrel first and the other side to select bottom barrel first.
One of the advantages of the double, with double triggers or SST, is that a second shot can be taken almost immediately after the first. Pump-action and semiautomatic guns require that the fired round be ejected and a new one be loaded, which takes time. Even the few fully automatic
Automatic shotgun
An automatic shotgun is a form of shotgun that is able to fire cartridges continuously while the trigger is pressed, unlike semi-automatic weapons which require the user to depress the trigger for each projectile fired.- Design :...
shotguns which have been built, such as the USAS-12
USAS-12
The Daewoo Precision Industries USAS-12 is an automatic shotgun designed as a combat shotgun manufactured in South Korea by Daewoo Precision Industries during the 1980s.- Design :...
have cyclic rates that can be exceeded by a quick shooter with a double.
Regulation
Regulation is a term used for multi-barreled firearms that indicates how close to the same point of aim the barrels will shoot. Regulation is very important, because a poorly regulated gun may hit consistently with one barrel, but miss consistently with the other, making the gun nearly useless for anything requiring two shots. Fortunately, the short ranges and spread of shot provide a significant overlap, so a small error in regulation in a double will often be too small to be noticed. Generally the shotguns are regulated to hit the point of aim at a given distance, usually the maximum expected range since that is the range at which a full choke would be used, and where precise regulation matters most.Regional use
The double-barreled shotgun is seen as a weapon of prestige and authority in rural parts of North IndiaNorth India
North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...
where it is known as 'a dunali', literally meaning "two pipes". It is especially common in Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, Purvanchal
Purvanchal
Purvanchal is a geographic region of north-central India, which comprises the eastern end of Uttar Pradesh state...
, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, Haryana
Haryana
Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
and Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
.
See also
- Multiple Barrel FirearmMultiple Barrel FirearmA Multiple barrel firearm is a firearm of any type with more than one barrel, usually to increase the rate of fire/hitting probability and to reduce barrel erosion/overheating.-Definition:...
- Combination guns and drillingsCombination gunA combination gun is a break-action hunting firearm that comprises at least two barrels, a rifle barrel and a shotgun barrel, often but not always in an over and under configuration; side-by-side variations are known as cape guns. A ' refers to a combination gun that has three barrels...
- Double barrelled nameDouble-barrelled nameIn English speaking and some other Western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen and is also known as a hyphenated name. An example of a hyphenated double-barrelled surname is Bowes-Lyon; an example of an unhyphenated...
- Double-barreled cannonDouble-barreled cannonThe double-barreled cannon is an American Civil War-era experimental weapon and is now a modern landmark located in Athens, Georgia. While originally built for warfare, the cannon never saw battle.-Concept:...
- Double rifleDouble rifleA double-barreled rifle or double rifle is a type of sporting rifle with two barrels instead of one, available in eitherside-by-side or over-and-under barrel configurations. Double rifles are one of the family of combination guns...
- LuparaLuparaLupara is an Italian word used to refer to a sawn-off shotgun of the break-open type. It is traditionally associated with Cosa Nostra, the Italian organized crime group dominant in Sicily for their use of it in vendettas, defense—such as its use against Mussolini's army when he decided to break up...
- Boxlock actionBoxlock actionThe boxlock action is a hammerless action of a type commonly used in double barreled shotguns, dating back to 1875. The boxlock action was developed by Anson and Deeley, based on the earlier Westly-Richards action. The boxlock action uses concealed, self cocking hammers in a break-open action...