PANCOR JACKHAMMER: The Most Famous Shotgun That Never Was

By Bob Owens

The Pancor Jackhammer never existed as a production firearm. Only three prototypes were ever built, and two were destroyed in military testing. Precisely one Jackhammer prototype (the first one) exists… and yet it became incredibly famous, thanks to the gun being used in movies and 18 different video games (to date), including the Battlefield, Fallout, Farcry, Ghost Recon, Max Payne, and Rainbox Six franchises.

The Pancor Jackhammer was a select-fire combat shotgun designed by John Andersen in the 1980s. He was a Korean War veteran who had used a pump shotgun in combat, and while he liked the shotgun concept, he felt there must be a more efficient way to make a shotgun than a single-loading pump action. The tinkered with ideas and designs, and ultimately devised the Jackhammer. It is a remarkably clever and interesting mechanism, combining mechanical elements from the Mannlicher 1894, 1895 Nagant revolver, and the Webley-Fosbery automatic revolver.

After making several dozen mockups out of wood and clay to get the mechanics just right, Andersen built a fully functional prototype, which is the gun you see here. It used a lot of large cast parts (and weighed a fully 17.5 …read more

Source:: Bearing Arms