Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1516388
the carrier latch button must be pressed all the time. Shells must be pushed firmly to make sure that they are going to be held by the rim. If you missed this part, the shell will exit the magazine and you will have to forcibly remove the shell from the tube. Also, loading a magazine with a hammer not fully cocked, will cau- se jam and problem with the extrac- tion of the shell. Loading SPAS-12 with both char- ging handle or massive forend is easy and rather smooth. Of course, before trying to charge with forend, check first if the gun is in manual mode. Below the ejection port, near the end of the receiver there is a tiny magazine cut-off button. It has a couple functions. It allows you to extract the shell/case from the receiver without cycling. To acti- vate, press the button and charge the shotgun. The shell from the re- ceiver will be extracted but another shell won't be loaded. The bolt car- rier will move rearward, the carrier latch button will hold it in the rear position. In the other scenario, the same operation allow to load a dif- ferent type of round into chamber without first unloading the chambe- red round, and the second that wo- uld otherwise subsequently be rele- ased from the magazine. The maga- zine still remains in cut-off mode. If the cut-off is activated, the bolt carrier is in the rear position, then quick loading of the shotgun is pos- sible. Releasing the cut-off button will release the bolt carrier and the follower will load a new shell to the chamber. The shotgun is ready to fire again. Simple, ain't it? Safeties. SPAS-12 has a safety switch lever on the right side of the receiver, located in front of the trigger guard. This standard switch has a 180 degree throw. Move to rear – gun is on safe, move to front – front toward enemy. Unfortuna- tely, there is multiple evidence and examples of shotgun accidentally discharging with safety switch tur- ned on safe. I haven't experienced that personally, but you can check YouTube videos. To solve the pro- blem, an aftermarket push-pin style safety switch was developed and even a complete trigger group with safety switch and trigger guard was available as a solution. Cost of the upgraded trigger group is approxi- mately 250 EUR. My suggestion is simple, with a charged shotgun, do not use the main safety switch but the "quick employment safety" which is again, a dual-use lever. The quick employment safety, which is on the left side of the trigger guard, disconnects the trigger when put into safe mode. The quick employ- ment safety can be disengaged with the trigger finger when ready to fire and is intended for compe- tition or tactical use. Same lever also allows to release the bolt car- rier lock and to move the bolt car- rier rearwards without uncocking the hammer. FYI: The SPAS-12 prototype and some of the first serial production shotguns are known to have a grip safety lever on the front of the pi- stol grip which released the trigger only if the gun was properly gras- ped. The remainder of this feature is cutout in the pistol grip with a rubber plug installed. Iron sights. The aperture sight has (surprise!) two functions. In my SPAS-12 the rear sight features a notch looking like number 8. Top hole is for shooting buckshot, bot- tom one is for slugs. Depending on the shell you are using top or bot- tom hole. Sight is factory zeroed to 50 meters and is non-adjustable. It's a shotgun if you haven't realized that yet. Some SPAS-12 came with aperture sights with single hole but split into two. Upper part was lar- ger and smaller in the bottom one. Well, with the owner of the another SPAS-12 we still haven't find out how it works. Stock. Another mul- ti-functional part of this gun. Steel foldable stock with foldable butt pad. Quite comfortable, but not if you're "shorty". Since it features the buffer and the shotgun itself is Spas 12 21 www.fragoutmag.com FIREARMS