The extended family had a 18' camper that several households took on trips. There was a choke point in the middle where the stove and sink were on one side and the closet and bathroom were on the other. I had an old Iver Johnson single shot 12 gauge that was an 18" Barrel & 28" OAL. That little shotgun was so handy in those tight spaces. I had a nylon slide on the butt that held 5-2 3/4 Fed. Premium No.4 Buck rounds (27- copper plated .24 pellets each). The no choke barrel patterned a true 1" per yard. (15 yards=15" pattern)

I had the wife practice (with an unloaded gun) getting the gun from the camper's closet to the exit. She never fire that gun, because the recoil would be too much to enjoy! But she fired the kid's 20 gauge single shots at backyard trap for reloading practice.

Tale from the past: August 1968, there was a riot inside the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. Several guards had been captured and were held hostage. It was decided that the several foot thick stone wall would be breeched (at the same time as the roof of the neighboring cell block!) An assault team in 2 columns would charge through the breeched wall, and a Highway Patrol sniper team of 4 would repel from the roof. The sniper team's job was to shoot everyone standing in the area of the hostages. The assault team, one column was all armed, the rescue column was 3 armed men followed by medic, fireman and armed office, repeat a dozen times.

The Highway Patrol decided to issue all weapons to be used, but gave each man his choice of a M-2 Carbine, a 1928 Thompson with 30 round mags or one of several riot shotguns. My Father-in-Law was the first man and leader of the armed assault column, his weapon of choice was a Stevens 12 gauge pump and No.4 buckshot shells.

There are a number of interesting stories from that incident! One of them is; In the aftermath, every poisoner was taken to the exercise yard (small baseball field sized) and was to strip naked then lay down until all the cells were searched. One inmate tried to fight a Highway trooper, and came at him with an improvised knife. A point blank blast from a 12 gauge into the chest (with total penetration) ended the disagreement! With the dead inmate lying next to the "strip point", there were no more disagreements or protests from the remaining inmates!

As a follow up; all the guards were rescued without further major injury. Several inmates had "rescued" a guard held elsewhere are were in the process of smuggling him out when they were caught in the blast from breeching the outer wall, They protected the guard with their bodies from injury. (they were all transferred immediately to a different prison and were "early released" within 6 months!

From a prison ministry I was in later I knew one of the regular population inmates and one of the death row inmates of that time. I knew from family functions about 8 of the Columbus PD & Ohio Patrolman involved. My wife was just short of her 13th birthday, Her mom had shielded the kids from the news, and knew almost nothing of this until she was 35!

Epilogue: Columbus PD used Remington 870's for riot guns (they had 750 of them!) but my F-I-L always carried a Stevens for "special occasions" (I never had the nerve to ask, if it was the same gun from August of '68!)

Ivan