The Genesis of the Kriger Shotgun: Part I

Our company’s initial focus was building accessory rail mounts for the popular shotguns on the market. At some point, the realization was that we could do better, starting with a clean slate to build an entirely new shotgun-one that incorporates some of the features that we built as add-ons. However, the first thing that needed to be established was the core design. It goes without saying that it needed to be rock solid, reliable, and it had to operate over a extensive range of shot shell offerings. The twin piston, short stroke gas system was the best solution to this wide operating range of pressures. The designs were complicated at first with lots of moving parts. Testing revealed that it just did not have to be that complicated. We found that using just two moving parts was the ticket. This gave us a couple of advantages. The first, developing maximum pressure for those few milliseconds needed to work the action translated into a very fast operating time-hence, higher cyclic rates. Second, once the payload leave the barrel, the venturi effect pulls the gasses and heat out of the the front of the barrel. This makes life much more pleasant if you grab the barrel after running several magazine tubes through the gun rapid fire. The next thing on the list was how to control the muzzle climb and recoil. We decided early on that it was not necessary to reinvent the wheel. That led us to the AR-15 buffer system. Instead of relying on a stiff hammer spring to slow down the rearward travel of the bolt carrier, we utilized a buffer and a spring in line with the bore axis. By using this dynamic approach, we gained the ability to tune the Kriger shotgun for different power loads by changing the spring rate. The direct benefits are

  1. minimal muzzle climb with rapid strings of shots,
  2. the ability to handle loads to the lightest 2 3/4″ to the heaviest 3″ by merely changing the spring,
  3. not needing and ice pack for your shoulder if you decide to run a case or two of ammo in a single day, and
  4. the shotgun can be shot and will function reliability off the shoulder, such as breaching a door.

Happy Shooting!