NCO Sgt. Kerry Proffitt likes the new M26 12-Gauge Modular Accessory Shotgun System (MASS). At least in theory. “This may come in handy as an attachment to the M-4 for non-lethal purposes,” the Missouri National Guardsman told pulaskicountydaily.com. “That way we can maneuver quickly between non-lethal and lethal ammunition — use the shotgun for non-lethal and the rifle for lethal purposes . . . We can breach through a door real fast and then use our rifles. We can also use the shotgun for its scatter shot ability, in case there are multiple targets in one general area.” Yes well, some of you may wondering why we didn’t put the MASS in our What Could Possibly Go Wrong category. (Or will do once you make the jump and see the weapon attached to the mothership.) Quite simply, the Mossberg 500 Chainsaw got there first. Speaking of Mossberg . . .
Spc. T.J. Hubbert, who lives in Ballwin, is a veteran of three deployments during his more than eight years in the Guard. He said he’s used the Mossberg 500 pump action 12-gaugue shotgun while in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I think the M-26 is better,” Hubbert said. “If you need a shotgun, the Mossberg is a second weapon that you have to carry. But with this one, you attach it, and you have both. This one is also a little bit lighter.”
Having the push-pull action as opposed to a pump action also is faster for firing, according to Hubbert.
Using the M-26 as an attachment should require more training, Hubbert said, and Soldiers who are assigned the shotgun, should qualify with their M-4s with the attachment on.
“If you are used to shooting an M-4 when it’s light and you put that attachment on it and you’ll hold it differently too, that will throw some people off on how they shoot the M-4,” he said.
Deployment is set for this year.
Who’s going to be a Real Man and shoot the M26 by itself with just a pistol grip? I volunteer!
And I thought the Sons of Guns: Master Key Breaching Gun was the first…! ;->
That episode was driving me crazy, its a tie between the masterkey and the time they ruined a perfectly good Tommy gun by making it tacticool that rank as the worst episodes for me. WTF do you need a rail on a tommy gun for anyway?
+1
This pretty much sums that show up.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/52hn/#by=sp
i bet the recoil on that is fun, i bet it is 3x’s worse shooting a slug. i wonder what the weight on that is compared to Saiga shotguns that I’ve seen chopped down for under barrel use.
I don’t understand the straight pull design of the Shotgun over a semi-automatic design. I assume it’s to save weight. The autoloaders available in the 12gauge range aren’t light by any means, but I gotta belive the added weight is worth not having to work the action after every shot. Son’s of Guns mounted a SBR Saiga to an Ar but it looked just as heavy and awkward as every other “Master Key” shotgun available but it is faster. The U.S. Army as been workin on the design for 20+ years and this is best thing they came up with, I assume there is some varrible that I am missing that makes a semi-automatic shotgun less desireable than a pump action.
field use durability perhaps? i dunno, Saiga are built pretty tough, but they are heavy.
I think the reason they’ve been working on these for 20+ years is that there isn’t really a good way to do it, no matter what steps you take to lighten the shotgun portion at the end of the day you are still attaching a shotgun to the underside of a rifle and that’s going to make the thing unwieldy and heavy.
Will it fit on the front of my bike? Hey, Rebecca-one on the back would work for tailgaters…
Hey Cujo, you don’t need firearms of any sort to ward off tailgaters. Down here in Tennessee we mount a 12 volt clay pigeon thrower in the bed of our trucks, run the foot pedal through the back of the cab and viola! Get the large capacity thrower. You may pick up a cop once in a while and need a few more clays.
I don’t know if it works or not, but I do know that it’s ugly. Oh, well. We’ll find out more about this monstrosity if Missouri is atacked by Kansas.
I’ll take Mizzou and lay the points.
Because no one has ever done it may be a good enough reason to climb a mountain, but it is definitely not a reason to screw around with our soldiers weapons. Some improvements that are being proposed may help (piston vs. direct impingement, heavier barrel). But mounting a shotgun under a rifle ain’t it.
Last deployment, I carried a Mossberg 500 and an M9. Before anyone says what they would have rather carried, those are the two weapons I was issued. I had one choice, an M4, but I gave it to my medic because his only weapon was an M9. Contrary to myth, US service members do not have a choice to carry any weapon they want. I carried the Mossberg most days, but there were a few days when the M9 was the only weapon due to my responsibilities.
When you need a shotgun on the battlefield, you need a shotgun. You do not need a slide action under mounted Rube Goldberg machine. Breaching usually requires 2 breaching rounds. The shots must happen quickly and the door breach must happen in split seconds. Otherwise, soldiers are standing in the fatal funnel when the enemy brings their weapons to bear. Bang, fiddle, slide, eject, slide, bang…. that is too long.
A pump action shotgun (ala Billy in Predator) would be more appropriate IF you must mount a shotgun under a rifle. But that is only IF. If you are only using the shotgun as a breaching tool, then put pistol grips on it to keep it small and handy. If you are using it as a shotgun, then you need a stock and a good pump action. What I see in this design is the worst of everything. They have a heavy attachment that does not allow for quick follow-up shots.
I know some of you will say that the article quotes the push-pull action as allowing faster shots. And I will tell you that this BS. If it were so, then why have we not seen this action on true shotguns?
Sid, first off thank you for your service to this country. I find your observation on this shotgun quite interesting given your overseas experience i also thought this guy’s push pull rational bizzare , it goes again the natural movement of the human arm for starters. That is also one of the ugliest desigins i’ve ever seen.
“reaching usually requires 2 breaching rounds. The shots must happen quickly and the door breach must happen in split seconds.”
That makes me wonder, has anyone ever tried a modern SBS double barrel for breaching? A short pistol gripped over & under would be very light and compact compared to a repeater and you’d have that second shot a bit faster too.
Comments are closed.