15 Oct 00

Duck plugs installed in law-enforcement shotguns!

A student attending a Rifle/Shotgun Course we conducted in Nevada this weekend brought a newly purchased Mossberg pump shotgun. It featured a four-shot magazine tube, an eighteen-inch barrel, and a law-enforcement, plastic forend.

As the student attempted to charge the magazine tube, he discovered that it only allowed two rounds to be inserted. There was obviously a duck plug in the tube! We were unable to remove the duck plug, so the student had to struggle with a plugged magazine tube for the rest of the Program. We advised him to get the shotgun to a competent gunsmith at his earliest opportunity and have the plug removed.

Another student brought a Winchester pump shotgun which also had a duck plug installed. That one we were able to remove and pitch into the nearest garbage can.

We all wondered why a law-enforcement shotgun would be shipped with a duck plug in the magazine tube, which could not be readily removed. The least they could have done would have been to include the duck plug in the package but separate from the shotgun itself, on the slim chance that some grass eater would actually want it. We concluded that manufacturers are all scared to death that they might produce a weapon which could actually be effectually used for personal defense.

/John