Hilton Walker DAO-12

The Hilton Walker DAO-12 is named after its creator, Hilton Walker, who redesigned his brilliantly conceived and widely used Striker shotgun in the 1980s to rid it of certain design flaws. These included a bulkier-than-feasible rotary cylinder-type magazine, which he got rid of and replaced with a auto cartridge ejection mechanism. Up to then, the flaw reportedly caused problems with reloading the weapon within a reasonably convenient span of time. The result of these revamping efforts was the Hilton Walker DAO-12, also known as the Protecta, Striker and Street Sweeper).

The DAO-12 is a semiautomatic shotgun that chambers 12-gauge ammunition. The DAO stands for double action only, which means that the trigger performs it function and returns to its de-cocked position after every discharge. It was specifically designed for helping law enforcement personnel in controlling riots. The purpose may have something to do with the fact that Walker conceived and designed this shotgun in the highly unstable political environment of Rhodesia, South Africa. It is manufactured and in use by various law enforcement purposes to the present day.

The Hilton Walker DAO-12's front vertical grip (which can be swiveled to the right and back) and the rear pistol grip, which is part of the trigger unit housing, consist of plastic. The Striker model is 506 mm long with its butt retracted. With the butt extended, it measures 792 mm. The Protecta is 500 mm long with a retracted butt and 800 mm long with the butt extended. Both models weigh 4.2 kilograms in an unloaded condition and 4.4 kilograms when fully loaded. This shotgun has a firing rate of two rounds per second and is equipped with a top-folding butt for better portability. The butt is made of sheet metal. This shotgun has very streamlined and contemporary urban looks that have shades of the military. For this reason, it has erroneously been marked as an assault weapon by ignorant gun control advocates.

The fact that it lacks all the defining features of an assault weapon, most particularly the automatic reloading capability seems to have been overlooked. All arguments notwithstanding, the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has designated the Hilton Walker DAO-12 as a Class 2 destructive device with 'no sporting purpose' and it is, as a result, not easily purchasable in the United States. It requires special documentation before a civilian in the United States can obtain it. Other countries like Russia restrict its purchase to civilians only, and even then it is supplied with certain specified barrel lengths and abbreviated magazine capacities.

Many state that the embargo on the Hilton Walker DAO-12 is justified because it is seen as dangerous to the shooter himself. This is because it tends to develop 'hang fire' problems because of the slow reloading mechanism. This means that missed rounds will remain in the cylinder until they are removed manually by the shooter.

In its latest design avatar, the Hilton Walker DAO-12 features a pump-action style lever on the lines of other shotguns. Uniquely, its drum magazine accommodates twelve rounds of 12 gauge ammunition. It has a semiautomatic firing mode option. Because of its short length, it is a perfect weapon for home protection and riot control. On the other hand, it has also found favor with criminals who find the fact that it is easily concealable for this reason very advantageous. Among its most popular versions is the recently developed Protecta, which comes in various barrel lengths. These range from 171 mm (in the Protecta Bulldog) to 760 mm. It is manufactured by Reutech Defense Industries in South Africa. Despite the controversies surrounding its legality and safety, the Hilton Walker DAO-12 is the object of much admiration by gun connoisseurs around the world. In fact, there are reports of a gold-plated Protecta, which additionally features a gold-plated muzzle brake, which was sold in Moscow for a huge sum of money.