KS-23

R

RusCan2013

Active member
KS-23-1 and KS-23M
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KS = "Karabin Specialny" ("Carbine Special"), 23 mm calibre Russian-made shotguns issued to security forces over there
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Normally, they prefer good old AKs to shotguns, which they believe are too "American", but the KS is apparently great at shooting doors open during forceful entries
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The interesting thing about these shotguns for me is that they load a fresh round by racking the forestock forward instead of to the rear like in typical Western pump-action shotguns and they've been around since the early 1970s but - no surprise really - just didn't get heard about in the West until the 1990s.
 
KevinTheCynic said:
The interesting thing about these shotguns for me is that they load a fresh round by racking the forestock forward instead of to the rear like in typical Western pump-action shotguns and they've been around since the early 1970s but - no surprise really - just didn't get heard about in the West until the 1990s.
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Russians always gotta do things their own way ;) Like Putin over there always says, "Russian must walk her own path". :D
 
I think Russia's always been in that "different" position, sitting on the middle line between Europe and Asia so they couldn't afford to look at anything exactly like the European nations or exactly like the Asia nations do.
 
The Russian military is becoming more and more like the US military...even their gunships are seeming more western. They went from the Mil MI24 to the KA52. I doubt they're mimicking the 5th generation fighters much though. Probably due to economical problems.

Back to the topic, this weapon looks quite compact compared to the shotguns we get here. Its pretty ugly though. Another Russian touch is the fact that it's barrel is made from rejected anti aircraft weapon barrels.
 
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Roughly, what, six gauge? Aprox .90 inch. That gun must be quite a handful to shoot. I notice that some of those guns have either a wire stock or no shoulder stock. That's a good way to wind up eating the shotgun. Any gun with recoil that heavy needs a shoulder stock. Otherwise, the dentist will get rich.
 
Coming back to this post after many, many months I realize I have mistaken the KS-23 for the RMB-93. The KS-23 uses a conventional "pump-backwards" action while the RMB-93 uses the unorthodox "pump-forewards" action to reload.

Max Popenker who runs the Modern Firearms site has the KS-23 listed as 4gauge. From the look of the shells, I'd take a wild stab in the dark and say the powder charge probably isn't high based on the small amount of metal on the shell wall, so recoil may be okay?
http://world.guns.ru/shotgun/rus/ks-23-e.html
As an aside, the rotary locking head on this thing reminds me of my Winchester 1300.
 
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