The Bandayevsky RB-12 (РБ-12, Ruzh'ye Bandayevskogo, Bandayevsky's firearm in English), also known as the Zlatoust RB-12, is a rare Russian pump-action shotgun.
History
The RB-12 was an attempt by Aleksandr Bandayevsky, CEO of JSC Uralmashproekt, to create a tactical shotgun for home defense, police or security use, and requested production for the weapon to begin. Unfortunately for him, the RB-12 was very unsuccessful in its attempt to do so, and its failure is mainly attributed to complicated internals, poor reliability, being very problematic to use and just being a very unorthodox concept for a firearm in general; this caused it to disappear from the market shortly after release. Because of its commercial failure, only 50 RB-12s were actually produced before Bandavyevsky's subordinates convinced him to halt all production of the weapon. Today, the RB-12 is a prized collector's item due to its rarity, but holds little practical value mainly due to the reasons that caused its failure in the market.
Design Details
The RB-12 employs a stationary breech and a movable barrel, and unlike most shotguns, the action is cycled forward, then rearward to chamber a new round. While this action does help to reduce the length of the weapon, it makes operating the RB-12 all the more problematic. The RB-12 uses proprietary 6-round detachable box magazines. The weapon's receiver is made of skeletonized steel, and fitted with removable wooden side panels. The RB-12 features no manual safety; the only safety present on the weapon is the grip safety. The weapon has an unusual feature where the trigger is locked up when the stock is folded; this is because mandated Russian firearm laws prohibit civilian use of firearms deemed "too short in length". Another unusual feature with the weapon is that the stock is unfolded automatically when the weapon is charged. The weapon has a carrying handle quite similar to the ones seen on AR-15-pattern rifles, with the rear of the carrying handle having iron sights.