Romero 77 Handcannon

Romero 77 HANDCANNON. (See also, SAWED-OFF SHOTGUNS) The Romero 77's utilitarian design - a single barrel and no magazine or reloading mechanism - made it simple to modify, the most common modification being a shortened barrel. This offers many advantages, most notably, greater mobility and easier handling, particularly advantageous in wooded and urban areas. The main drawback was losing the choke, making it less accurate at range. There was an additional psychological benefit to such modification, sawed-off shotguns are infamous with good reason.

Journal of Daniel Glanton
Severely deteriorated, bound in unidentified leather, 8 x 8 in.
3/5

May thirtieth

Pa never would have forgive me for losing his old shotgun. Once had pride of place on the mantle, though he hardly would of recognized it. I left it when we scrabbled out of the burning barn while the Spider was ripping the hunters from New York limb from limb.

The man with no name led the way through the darkness, surefooted through the cattails. You can never be sure who to trust, he ranted, people here from all over, with religious creeds and blood oaths and contractual obligations, everyone wants the same thing, don't matter why, when there's not enough to go around.

I repeated to him what my Pa had always said, Providence will provide. He grunted.

We walked through the night and eventually left the grounds. We found an abandoned church suitable enough to hole up in and rest. Searching for something to eat, I found a Romero 77 shotgun in the knave. I repeated again Pa's saying, along with some blasphemy. The man grunted and said it was not a surprise, pastors needed protection too and weren't known for their taste in firearms.

We woke up as it was falling dark again. We would go back, the man said. He had cut down the Romero to be half the size. Better in close quarters, he said

I didn't want to go back, we were weaker, we were worse equipped. But there was no use saying that to the man. Something inside him had snapped in the burning barn.

I fired a few rounds in the yard to test out the handcannon. It would do. The final shot, I aimed up one-handed at the bell, dangling by a rotted rope in the tower. The shot swung my arm back, hit myself in the head. The bell pinged rather than rang as the shot recoiled off it, then dropped. The shot had spread and severed the rope. It clattered to the floor, the man then headed off into the woods, shaking his head.