This gun exemplifies what I want this blog to be about. This is an outrageous, impractical weapon idea that people thought would never get past the stage of a sketch of some drunk, Ruskie madman in his workshop of horrors. But somehow, it came out sexy. Revolver actions have been experimented with in unconventional ways in the past, and sometimes it worked out. Hell, a revolving rifle was in service with the North in the Civil War. Other times, the crazy rush to expand revolver technology turned into abortions like this cult classic pictured here:
But when you think to use a revolver action for a shotgun, especially in such a classy way as the beautiful MTs-255, gets people like me excited.The MTs-255 was developed by the TsKIB SOO subsidiary of the KBP Russian Design Bureau. The MTs stands for 'Model TsKIB'; a designation that comes with all guns of TsKIB design. The 255 is essentially a monstrous revolver, and works in all the same ways. The cylinder falls away to the left and down when loading, and it can be fired double action with a long trigger pull or single action by cocking the hammer. Upon looking at the gun, I couldn't help but want to see some combat practicality. In fact, the MTs-255 comes in 12, 20, 28, and 32 gauge and .410 caliber shells. All versions holds five rounds, not amazing for an actual combat situation. Here's another picture of the hunting and sport MTs-255, because here's where shit gets real:
MTs-255-12 is the largest rifle in this line, charges of 12 gauge are used for firing. It is recommended to use cartridges 12/70, the use of cartridges 'Magnum' 12/76 is strictly prohibited. This gun is sold complete with interchangeable choke tubes; MTs-255-20 is the most popular modification among the whole family. Revolving hunting shotgun model MC 255 developed at the Central Design Research Bureau sporting and hunting weapons (TsKIB SOO) in Tula, in the 90s. At the moment the gun is available in five calibers (the second digit after the caliber 255 MTs): MTs-255.410, MTs-255-32, 255-28 MTs, MTs-255-20, 255-12 MTs.
The TsKIB SOO design bureau is going to come up on this blog quite a bit, because they are most commonly known for their military advancements. They make some of the most interesting modern weapon advances out of Russia, and the MTs-255 is no exception. Clearly higher-up in Russia liked this thing, because a tactical combat version of this shotgun was created for special forces:
That's right: In a world where high capacity shotguns have been around for decades in much more reasonable, practical forms, someone in the TsKIB thought a 5-round revolver shotgun was just badass enough to push into production. But that's not all: This isn't even it's final form! Someone else took this idea even further. The KBP was like, 'If it's a revolver, make it an effing revolver!' and made the OTs-62 'Service Revolver Shotgun'. This weapon is so shockingly insane-looking that you'll think it was photo-shopped. It is just a revolver, loaded to the brim with FREAKING 12 GAUGE SHELLS! I don't know about you, but this would be my secondary weapon of choice in basically any situation. In America we make a Raging Judge that fires .410's and we think we're totally badass. Looks like Russians have outdone us again...
Mts 255 Revolving Shotgun
Mts 255 Revolver Shotgun Price
Here's the downside: This weapon doesn't work. There's a reason that no one has done this before, and that reason is this: The bigger you make a basic revolver, the more impractical the revolver action becomes. On a revolver, double action shooting trigger pull is already quite heavy, and with most it's much more practical to just cock the hammer manually. In this case, you're not trying to do the work to turn 6 .357 magnum pistol shells, you're turning 5 12 gauge shells and enough solid steel to contain them. Now mind you, I've never touched any variant of this shotgun, and I'm talking purely hypothetically, but there may be a reason info on this thing is so rare, and that the picture above is the only one currently available on the internet of the revolver version.