You may know G2 Research from their uber-hyped G2 R.I.P. ammunition. That’s the personal defense round with “trocars,” shards of metal that break off from the main bullet on impact intended to maximize internal damage. While ShootingTheBull410 wasn’t particularly impressed with R.I.P.’s performance, the Brit Ministry of Defense apparently were.

Now comes word that G2 Research is doing for shotgun lethality what they’ve done to for handguns. They’ve just announced a 12 gauge round that launches a 303 grain slug…with trocars! Here’s their press release . . .

Winder, GA, August 9, 2017, G2 Research’s NEW extreme performance self-defense 12 gauge round.

In development for over three years by G2 Research this new high-performance 12 gauge self-defense round will hit the market this Fall. The all brass 303-grain individually machined CNC slug is designed for incredible performance against soft targets.

First of all the G2 slug is 0.725-inch in diameter (about a quarter inch larger than a .50 cal. Bullet). When combined with the proven G2 Research R.I.P. technology which releases six trocars (large metal petals) into the target the result is incredible and instant devastation.

Upon impact the six trocars will open, detach and independently spread through the target some 6-inches wide delivering 9-11 inches of penetration resulting in massive damage and shock. The .70 caliber base of the slug will continue forward for another 5-6 inches.

Recoil is greatly reduced due to the lightweight all brass 303 grain slug.

The $49.99 price for five-rounds is painful but this is not intended for shooting at tin cans and cinder blocks. The typical scenario is the average person will go to the range and launch a round or two at a target of some type and load the remainder into their gun for the time should the need arise.

Mike Nickerson, G2’s marketing director says–“This 12 gauge round is very specific in its design and mission; that of a person defending his life and/or that of his family. The real question is how much value we put on put on our own life or that of those we are protecting.”

Specifications:

12 gauge
0.725-inch diameter 303 grain all brass precision CNC machined slug
1430 FPS velocity depending on barrel length, etc.
Effective performance design range 0-10 yards
MSRP $49.99 box of five

IMPORTANT NOTES: This round is designed for self-defense only and has a true effective performance expansion range of 10 yards. Several reasons for this: Much beyond that range the slug will begin to yaw which can affect correct strike angle for it to open as designed. Beyond the design distance of 10 yards it will still do massive damage however.

Second, it is not designed to be used for hunting, sporting or barrier penetration–it is designed for self-defense. Self-defense means just that and it is difficult to convince a jury that self-defense much past 30 feet really is self-defense.

Will it penetrate hard objects such as doors, walls, etc.? Of course but it may not expand as designed and, shooting through doors and walls presents a difficult legal case of self-defense in court.

This round must NOT be fired in guns with rifling, compensators, chokes or modified barrel cylinders, etc. The only type of barrel safely used is a modern smooth bore riot type shotgun barrel.

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97 COMMENTS

  1. Sooooo. A one ounce slug or 9 pellet 00 buck is less killy than this? I could’ve sworn dead is dead. I didn’t know you could make something more deadlier. The only thing this new BS shell will be killing deadlier is your wallet if you buy this shit.

    • I can only imagine that the manufacturer will claim that their slug will incapacitate an attacker faster than other available slugs … not that their slug is necessarily more lethal.

      • I think I’d stick to 00 buck. Either 9 or 12 pellet. I’m pretty sure that would incapacitate the shit out of someone as is. And I don’t need to be 10 yards or less or some bullshit like this G2 garbage either. And I’m not wasting $10 a shell to send someone to the afterlife either. Just sayin… I don’t want to sound like a bitter hater or anything. But this kind of product irks me. They charge $50 for a box of 5 because they spend all that time cnc machining something that really doesn’t seem to be better than cheap lead buckshot. In my opinion. It just serves a purpose to fleece shotgun owners.

        • Right? Like what if the bad guy is beyond 30ft and shooting at me am I just supposed to stand there and get shot? These clowns.

        • The 2 3/4″ 9 shot 00 military loads generally drop someone like a sack of potatoes if you hit center mass. I saw one guy take 2, but they were so close together it probably didn’t matter. I can’t see needing a slug at any kind of legally defensible distance unless the perp had a rifle or something.

    • It not only takes your life, it steals your soul and enslaves your ghost to do the bidding of the man who fired it.

    • But, but, but, more deader is better. Just another ludicrous G2 solution for a non-existent problem. But everyone needs a gimmick and G2 stands for ‘Gimmick times two’.

    • Perhaps it’s designed to trick the procurement department as the projectile weight of 303 grains specifically matches the caliber of one of the greatest battle rifle rounds ever!!

  7. Lol deja vu much? I seem to remember the exact same marketing ploy for their last POS snake oil offering. 5 for 50, that is some expensive hype.

  8. A 3″ 1 3/8 oz Brenneke 12g slug is almost twice as massive, is slightly faster out of the muzzle, is accurate out to 100 yards, and costs one fourth as much.

    If anybody knows of any self defense cases where any assailant absorbed such a slug to the trunk or head and kept coming, I’d like to hear about it.

    • … where any assailant absorbed such a slug to the trunk or head and kept coming …

      (snicker)

      agreed!

      (still snickering)

    • Copper sabot rounds I use on deer are positively devastating. 5 for 12 dollars. At 25 yards 3 rounds make one jagged hole.
      It would definitely incapacitate anyone.

      • Those copper sabots are down right deadly and near rifle like accuracy. Just for shitz and giggles my son bought a rifled barrel for his 500 mossberg. It came with fiber thingy sights, green I think, mounted on the barrel.

        Slapped the barrel on the reciever, did nothing to the sights, and away we went to the range.

        He fired 2 shots at 75 yards that touched near center of the target. I fired the third and it was right next to the other 2. No adjustments had been done to the sights at that point.

        If I still hunted in a shotgun only area I’d get a set up just like it for me.

    • To the trunk in Vietnam. The VC would do drugs before attacking and you could hit them with practically anything designed for anti-personnel (M-12, M-16, and even 90mm recoilless, etc) and they could still be coming at you firing as they bled out. Ma Deuce worked and I imagine todays Barrett would be great to have but it didn’t exist in the 60s.

  10. How is this lightweight round better than the DDupleks Hexolit steel fragmentation round? Hell the DDupleks rounds are only $8-$10 per box of five, are slightly over an oz (Tech specs for the Hexolit are: Slug weight: 495 gr / 1 ⅛ oz, Muzzle velocity: 1400 fps, Muzzle energy: 2130 fp) So what makes the RIP slug better? Does it have a proprietary coating of leapricuan tears and unicorn semen?

  11. Self-defense means just that and it is difficult to convince a jury that self-defense much past 30 feet really is self-defense.

    Because someone shooting at you from a distance greater than 30 feet is not a real threat…

    • CueBaller,

      Great minds think alike!

      And, apparently, your mind thinks faster than mine. (Or you type faster than I do!)

  12. Self-defense means just that and it is difficult to convince a jury that self-defense much past 30 feet really is self-defense.

    I do not agree with that statement. If an attacker has a firearm, they are a credible, deadly threat well out to 50 yards and likely beyond depending on the particulars of any situation.

    The above is my opinion and not legal advice. I am not an attorney. I AM a potential juror.

  13. It sounds to me like the answer to a question no one asked.

    00 buckshot has been around for centuries and it does the job just fine on 2-legged predators.

  14. Pretty sure I’ve seen Taofledermaus blasting gummy bears with something similar and with predictably ho-hum results?

  16. “Leave me alone or I will shoot you with bullets which have trocars to do massive damage to your internal organs.”
    BANG! BANG!
    “Take his gun with them funny-lookin’ boolits. Oh, and his car keys, too. Mebbe we can find that tro car he wuz talkin’ about and get that, too.

  17. Take a slug drill the center out part way, notch it cross ways put a steel ball bearing inside hole crimp lightly re install slug, illegal as hell, yet these guys can make dum dums and charge big bucks! Guess #4 buck isn’t deadly enough or how about flechettes? whole lot cheaper!

  18. And again, G2 releases a new and improved fire retardant paper hat. I’ll stick to buck or buck and ball loads. Slugs are just plain overkill for human sized threats.

  19. $10 bucks a round?
    Not hardly. For that much I’ll just throw my cat at an intruder.
    He’s a mean sumbitch and has a longer range than 10 yards…

    • As someone who recently laid to rest the meanest cat on earth, I can testify that an ill-tempered feline can be far more terrifying than any shotgun.

      A truly pissed off cat is an unholy terror

      • A cat is a ticking time bomb period. They say a dog is man’s best friend. No one ever says what place cat’s finished in, ’cause they didn’t. Their nation pulled out of those Olympics.

        • But they’re such cute, fluffy balls of teeth and claws.

          I have friends who hate cats and friends who are allergic to cats and every single one of them threatens to kidnap my kitty because he’s just that fucking awesome.

  20. Take a slug drill the center out part way, notch it cross ways put a BB in the bottom and shove in a .45ACP hollow point round packed with mixed Tannerite. Dip the whole thing in cyanide laced glue, roll the ogive in crushed glass. . .

    Or, practice shooting head shots and vitals more.

  21. If you want to look manly with your 12 gauge shotgun but you aren’t really manly enough to handle 12 gauge recoil (even though plenty of adolescent girls can), then you are definitely going to want some of this!

  22. 50bucks + tax for 5 huh? I’ll stick with my cheap but effective Herters 00buck,minibuckshot and slugs. They have buck and ball too. Honestly I’ll my grab my 9mm’s in each hand.Grab my shottie for the zombie apocalypse😄

    • Still around. Was sidelined with some unfortunate medical issues, which resulted in 5 operations, and then further sidelined by having to do a lot of work to pay for those operations under my wonderful “ObamaCare” plan, so — no time for testing for quite a while.

      I do have a whole lot of testing ready to go once I can get the narrative videos shot for it — finishing up the 9mm Ammo Quest, and a complete .38 Special and .45 Auto Short Barrel Ammo Quest. I’d say they’ll start being posted “soon”, but my track record with “soon” hasn’t been that great recently, so — they’re coming, just can’t say exactly when.

      • “Obamacare” as a one word answer is a sufficient explanation. Most of us will understand what a nightmare you’ve recently been through.

      • I thought the word Soon was trademarked by Blizzard.
        Glad to see you’re still here, even if not seen.

    • Gunny used to say that ‘overkill’ was just a wussie’s term for the proper amount of killing.

      ; )

  25. “Proven G2 research technology…”

    While I’m sure this slug will mess some stuff up, I thought the RIP stuff was evaluated and found significantly wanting… possibly even by this site. Military/police adoption is argument by authority and is for the most part worthless. Surprised there’s not more pushback.

  26. It’s a 303 grain slug…
    Seriously how much F—ING over engineering is needed to make a 303 grain slug a deadly projectile?

  27. the most unbelievable part of this: people have bought enough of the RIP crap to keep these guys in business.

  28. $10 for 303 grain round!

    So does anyone want to buy my 350 grain homemade solids I use on pigs for $15 then? Real cost about $1

        • I got an email ad today from Clark Armory and they’ve discounted this round. Instead of $50.00 for 10 rounds, they only want $49.99. There was no mention of a pizza or blowjob and maybe that’s why they discounted them.

  30. I have witnessed too many people failed to be stopped by “instantly devastating rounds” to believe the hype.

    • A bit over a half-century ago I was informed that the M-16 fired a “devastating” 5.56mm bullet which “tumbled” upon impact, stopping an enemy dead in his tracks. The reality proved to be somewhat different.

      • Word. And now I hear they want to replace the wonder round with a 7.62 round. Like they had over 50 years ago.

        I suggest that going forward a special unit is established. In this unit will be the sons of 100 generals, 50 congressmen and 10 senators. And the first born child of the current POTUS. This unit will have the honor of carrying any new and improved gear into combat for the first time.

      • I heard the same thing just a few years ago by one of the Afghan war generals, General McChrystal, who was arguing that the AR 15 had no place in “civilian” hands because it was just “too powerful.”

        • My favorite FFL dealer put it quite succinctly – “Why would you shoot at someone who will probably shoot back with a rifle you’d not likely use to shoot at a deer?”

  31. Could this ammo be twisted by a lawyer into saying it is a flechette round, thereby making it illegal in Hellinois, and putting the good guy in jail?

    • I don’t know about there but it likely would be considered so in New Jersey, where even the cops are prohibited from using hollow points.

    • Personal opinion: I don’t know why someone would use this round instead of buckshot.
      I guess that it would be effective, but more effective than buckshot?
      Practice is needed, even with “miracle” rounds. If you miss, or even if you hit but not someplace near center of mass, neither is really effective, so practice is needed. I get that practicing with buckshot will make this round hit the target with more certainty, but if you do that, then buckshot is just as effective.
      And no opposing lawyer (or prosecutor) can make the claim that you were being bloodthirstier than someone using buckshot.
      While personally I like a decent 12 gauge for home defense, I load #4 buck.
      But these look like expensive, not necessary, add-on frill that will have no noticeable difference, if you practice like you should.

  32. Regarding this round — I’m sure it is quite deadly. It is hard to imagine a 12-gauge slug that wouldn’t be deadly.

    Will the “trocars” contribute to the deadliness? Seems like a good bet, given that they’re claiming 8″ of penetration this time (versus an observed 3.5″ of gel penetration on the 9mm round).

    This general idea has already been on the market for several years, although at considerably less cost (about $1 per round, vs. G2’s $10 per round). I tested the Hexolit 32 vs. the Winchester PDX1 12-gauge a couple of years ago: https://www.full30.com/embed/a67720ec74655d1c68b475bae94a99aa

    I don’t know that either would outperform a time-tested, proven good load like 00 buck or Federal’s exquisite Tactical #1 buckshot. But it’s hard to imagine how you’d make a 12-gauge slug that wasn’t deadly.

  33. Uhhhh… Don’t $1 a pop foster slugs do the exact same thing? I hope this product flops.

  34. Annotated to add: the limitation on 30 feet seems somewhat absurd; they’re basically saying their round is aerodynamically unstable and will tumble after 10 yards? A 300-grain .70″ projectile will still be quite deadly even if it’s off axis and hits sideways, but I’d think for $10 per round users would want more all-purpose capability. I see no such 10-yard restriction on competing rounds like the Winchester PDX1 Segmented Slug or the DDupleks Hexolit 32, despite those rounds selling for drastically less than these new G2 rounds.

    Brass is an interesting choice, as it’s specifically banned for handgun ammo under the guise that it is “armor piercing”. If there’s a 12-gauge handgun on the market anywhere, then this G2 brass ammo might run afoul of ATF “armor piercing” regulations. The only 12-gauge handgun I’m aware of was a one-off custom revolver made for some drug lord though, so perhaps this is a non-issue.

  35. The first shotgun slug to be forged by dwarves.
    Hardened in monstrous spider’s saliva.
    Tempered in virgin’s blood during full moon.
    Hand-polished by palms of twelve eunuchs.

    Nothing else explains pricing of the round which costs twice more than factory-loaded .50 BMG.

  37. The only reason these guys are still in business is the ignorance of people that claim to be gun people, yet have no understanding of ballistics. I once saw a comment about the RIP round saying “the ammo I use in my pistol is called R.I.P. so you know if I hit you with it your dead”. Yea these people actually own firearms.

  38. G2 giving legal advice is laughable. This coming from the company that made “the most deadliest round ever made with more CNC machinining to be even more killer” and then named it the RIP. Ha. More like our rounds suck and don’t fly straight at 10 yds so don’t say we didn’t warn ya.

  39. I don’t claim to be an expert, but it seems to me a 12 gauge is already a fearsome defensive weapon, using plain old buckshot or slugs. Both of which are far cheaper and likely have far more utility than these G2 things.

  40. That is some expensive fairy dust. (escalating degrees of dead: dead, deader, stone cold dead).

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