Do you REALLY want to rack a shotgun when you hear a bump in the night?

[Min]

I have been thinking about this classic home invasion scenario: when you wake to a noise in another part of your house, do you really want to rack a Remington 870 (or other pump) shotgun, thereby alerting the intruder you are awake and armed?

I would not want to inform the intruder where I am by doing so. Some may say the intimidating sound would scare them away, but to me that is presuming too much.

What I would really do, is flick the safety off a .45 handgun (with mounted light), grab the cell phone to diall 911, and hide.

If they are burglars, they can take anything from my home. I'd rather lose "stuff" than have to shoot someone, and face the legal and psychological baggage later.

BUT if someone in my home is in danger, I would (after dialing 911 and telling the police I was armed), cautiously make my way into the hall toward the noise. The whole time the lights are OFF. Even my gun light is off. I try to get my eyes adjusted to the darkness. As I go quietly toward the intruders, I'd get as much info about them as possible - how many, armed or unarmed, etc. This is BEFORE I confront them or let them know I'm aware of them.

Even if they turn on the lights, I'd still try to conceal myself until I get some intel about them.

Racking a pump shotgun would not be a good idea in such a situation, in my opinion.

 

[clubsoda22]

Well, that's what they do in the movies...which is why i also shoot all my handguns sideways.

 

[Delmar]

A couple of things to consider-

1. It's your house and you know the layout better than they do, especially in the dark. Your advantage. I don't suggest you go looking for them, but chambering a round should tell them the house is occupied and that you are armed.

2. Racking the slide should get some kind of response-either they are going to come after you or they are going to leave.

3. One of those "it depends" situations. I do not have a driveway, so they would see my vehicle in the driveway.
If they still break into my home, I would make the sweeping assumption they either mean to do me harm or they do not care.
In either case, when they hear me lock and load, it is their last warning.
And unless they make it plain to me that they are leaving in a big hurry, I'm going to have one heck of a mess to clean up after the sherriff's deputies finish their investigation!

 

[clubsoda22]

you do make a good point. If i call 911, rack the shotgun at the top of the stairs and yell, "the police are on their way!" It kinda emhisises the fact that this guy better take what he wants and get the heck out....and by no means approach the stairs lest the next sound he hears be a boom/splat.

 

[Pheonix]

Boom/Splat

I like that!

 

[Tamara]

do you really want to rack a Remington 870 (or other pump) shotgun,

Since that's the only way to get a round into the chamber of my home defense gun, it kinda limits my options.

I ain't going anywhere looking for anyone. I live alone, so I'm bunkerin' down in my bedroom with the shotgun, watching through the doorway 'til I hear the heat pull up outside.

 

[444]

"What I would really do, is flick the safety off a .45 handgun (with mounted light), grab the cell phone to diall 911, and hide."

Please don't "flick off" the safety of any gun until you know you have to shoot and you are bringing the gun to bare on the target. There is absolutely no reason to remove the safety when you are in the bedroom by yourself.

I agree with those that see this as melodramatic and an attempt to base a real life tactical senario on something you saw in a movie. No matter what your course of action, it is better to maintain the element of surprise. I wouldn't make any noise at all if I could help it. There is no reason to let him know that you are going to defend yourself; oh and by the way I AM RIGHT HERE.
I also don't agree with keeping a gun intended for defense unloaded. By it's very nature, if you need it, you need it right now. Murphy is around every corner; you don't know, you might wake up and the guy is standing in your bedroom doorway. You might wake up when the guy is on top of you. I don't want to have to struggle with everything I have to make my way to my gun only to have to load it afterwards.

 

[ID_shooting]

The racking the shotgun ploy does work, or at least it did for me.

Back in the day, just out of high school, a bunch of us guys rented a big house. We used to have people comming and going all hours of the day and night. Me and another guy shared a large basement. He slept on one side and I slept on the other and we had a divider hung up so we could "entertain" with some privacy. Anyway, everyone else expect us were off at a kegger in the woods and we were racked out as we had to work the next day. We woke up to a crash up stairs and then whispering. Now, normally, when people came in a night, it was usually a shout and then followed up by, wheres the dang booze and why are the flippin lights out. We both got up and listened up the stairs, we could hear them talking about how no one was home and they could take stuff to pawn off. My pal went back to his side and produced his shot gun, he then moved to bottom of the stairs and racked it hard. All we heard was "OH SH*T" and *ss over tea kettle trying to get out the door. We never did find out who that was, but did notice two guys that came by every now and then never did show back up.

I know a bunch of drunk teanagers might not make for a typical scenario, but it sure beat trying to scrounge money for a new TV and whatever else they would have made off with.

 

[clubsoda22]

story from a friend of mine. he was up late playing poker with a few guys. Heared something at the door and quickly realized that someone was carefully trying to pry it open with a crow bar. He grabbed his shot gun, stood by the door and racked it. Crow bar dropped to the ground and the guy ran off as fast as he could. Friend still has the crow bar.

 

[VeT|Us]

I live in at the top off a small hill/elevation, some 30-50m from two busstops. The back of the house faces down to the highway and the busstops, and the front of the house is at the end of a long dark one-way road. It's a magnet for nightly visitors..'

Once a couple of weeks ago I woke up about 0300, and heard steps.
Someone was walking on the backporch, and this is where the big backdoor is (note: almost just glass, one smash and you're in).

Adrenalin: ON.

Tuck'd my knife in the boxer, ran to other bedroom. Load up 870.
Went up stairs, (stairs end very close to the backporch) looked, still footsteps outside..
Racked the action as loudly as I could, and they took off.

 

[Tamara]

444,

Everybody's circumstances are different, aren't they, and circumstances dictate tactics.

In my case:
1) I live alone on the top floor of a two-story house.
2) There is only one way in or out: a doorway at the top of an external stairway at the far end of the house from my bedroom.
3) My house only has three rooms: a large one running the length of the house, with a bathroom and a bedroom off of it.
4) There is only one doorway into my bedroom, visible from my bed.
5) I don't like keeping my 870 chambered for long periods of time, so I store it "cruiser ready."
6) In case of surprise, I have loaded handguns to fight with until I can get a round into the chamber of the 870.
7) If I have advance warning, I am not stepping out into a main room that, again, runs the length of the house, with no intervening cover or obstacles between me and the entryway; I'm staying right where I am and covering the bedroom doorway with a loaded longarm while chatting with the police dispatcher on the cell phone. I'm not terribly worried about giving away my position, since one wouldn't exactly need to be an astrophysicist to deduce it from the available evidence, anyway.

Your Mileage, almost certainly, May Vary.

 

[clubsoda22]

I'm not terribly worried about giving away my position, since one wouldn't exactly need to be an astrophysicist to deduce it from the available evidence, anyway.

My thoughts exactly. Racking that shotgun only says "one ounce of free buckshot to the first person through that door!"

I also keep my shotgun "cruiser ready"

 

[Chris Rhines]

It's your house and you know the layout better than they do, especially in the dark. Your advantage. I don't suggest you go looking for them, but chambering a round should tell them the house is occupied and that you are armed.

Louis Awerbuck wrote several excellent articles mentioning this particular fallacy (The Mark of a Smart Shooter, in Tactical Reality, was one.) Short version is, you have very few advantages over the intruder, especally if you go looking for him. The intruder knows the layout of your house at least as well as you do, he's wide awake, almost certainly armed, and constrained by no particular legal or moral rules of engagement. Don't go searching for him!

Racking the slide should get some kind of response-either they are going to come after you or they are going to leave.

Do you really want to give your position away to the bad guy? Very few residential interior walls provide cover against bullets.

IN GENERAL, I would suggest keeping your defensive gun with a round in the chamber. There's no mechanical reason not to. Of course, your particular circumstances may dictate otherwise, but I can't see any advantage to keeping an empty chamber.

- Chris

 

[Mike Irwin]

I think if the intruder were to come upstairs and get close to my bedroom, which is my saferoom, then I'd rack the shotgun and call out that A) I'm armed, and if he doesn't watch it he's a dead man, and B) the police are on their way so he'd better haul butt.

 

[Tamara]

Do you really want to give your position away to the bad guy?

...and I'm supposed to communicate with the folks at 911 how? Mental telepathy? If he's gonna hear me chatting with the po-po, he may as well hear the shotgun, too.

 

[hillbilly]

If the BG is breaking into the house in the middle of night, won't he already pretty much know where you are, if he's cased the house at all?

Wouldn't the safe bet be, at 3:00 AM, that the people in the house are in bed in the respective bedrooms?

I'm trying to imagine a situation wherein the BG breaks in at night where the BG would not have a pretty good idea where the home owners are.

If the BG is coming in during the day, or while there are lights on and noises indicating an alert, concious home owner, then that would indicate that the BG is going to have to be shot anyway.

BGs who break in because there are people home aren't looking for an easy TV to steal. They have other reasons for breaking in....rape, murder, thrill of terrorizing others.

But BGs who wait for cover of night and no lights and no noise are probably wanting to steal stuff. Part of that BG's method would be to have an idea where the home owners are in the house at night in order to avoid contact.

Of course, where I live, Meth throws the expectations out the window. Only Meth Heads really know why they break into houses at all hours, occupied with people or not.

hillbilly

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Rack the shotgun, cry out to the intruder that you are armed, etc., all sounds really good and it may work if the intruder is just there to burgle you. If the intruder is there to kill you, you have tipped your hand as to your location and how well armed you are. If the intruder is bent on getting to you, s/he will now take those factors in consideration and so you have lost part of your home field tactical advantage. Surprise may no longer be on your side.

For example, say your intruder is two or more instead of just one. Hearing you pump the gun, he sends a buddy outside to grab a stick and rap on your windows, maybe a rock to throw through. The outside man distracts you and the inside man then seizes the opportunity and does you in.

Home field and ambush capability surprise are big advantages against an unknown force.

I know, I know, he usual pcp crackhead won't be that well organized. Whatever. The same pcp crackhead may have absolutely zero ability to understand threat signs or sounds. The racking of the shotgun may not many anything to him.

 

[larry_minn]

I guess I wouldn't want to put the AR down just to rack shotgun. The shotgun is for wife and she can rack it.
To be honest right now the AR is cased. Had guests over so only Glock with spare mag and single shot shotgun handy. (use it for skunks/racoons)

 

[444]

"Everybody's circumstances are different, aren't they, and circumstances dictate tactics."

True enough. My house is similar to yours Tamara. Less than 1000 square feet. If the guy comes in through the front door he is about 15 feet from my bed. For that matter, anywhere in my house is about 15 feet from my bed. Odds are, I won't even have time to close the bedroom door if someone kicks in the front door and rushes my bedroom. But I have one HUGE advantage in any home invasion situation. About the time the splinters from the door land on the carpet, my 135 pound male Rottweiler is going to be landing on his chest. Searching the house is not even a consideration.
Personally I am far more worried about my life than I am about my property. I am not grabbing the shotgun to scare people away, I am grabbing the shotgun to defend my life. The best way to accomplish this is by using the shotgun as a firearm and not a club. This requires the shotgun to be loaded. I can not see any advantage to leaving my shotgun or any other firearm intended for defensive purposes unloaded. And I am looking for advantages. I want as many advantages as I can get.
I live in a very modest house. There is nothing about it to indicate that I have any kind of wealth. I can't speculate exactly why anyone might want to break in my home or harm me other than the fact that they might have seen me loading or unloading firearms from my vehicle. There really is no way for me to hide this. When I go shooting (which is several times a week) I have to walk out my front door with cased guns in hand and put them in the car. Because I have no garage I have various reactive targets, target stands etc. sitting outside my house. Therefore, I think it would be a good bet that anyone breaking into my house has a pretty good idea that they are going to be encountering an armed homeowner. In addition, I have a large dog. It can be seen on a daily basis running around the yard. It's rather large droppings are lying in the lot next door. If they are willing to come in anyway, I seriously doubt that racking a shotgun is going to have much effect on them.

 

[Blue Line]

Ya know you can rack that thing relativly quite and not give away you postition. You don't have work it like you mean it until the second time!

 

[444]

I agree, but why ?

 

[Josey]

I'm SOL on the racking of an action. My HD SD SG for the BG is a SXS 12 bore. 18" barrel with #4.

 

[Moparmike]

My 'shotgun racking' is the warning to get out of my house. If I am feeling generous, I will give him a verbal warning. The 3rd warning will be a cluster of #8 shot in his chest.

 

[Tamara]

For example, say your intruder is two or more instead of just one. Hearing you pump the gun, he sends a buddy outside to grab a stick and rap on your windows, maybe a rock to throw through.

Good luck to him. I'm two floors up, and there's no windows in my bedroom.

My house is similar to yours Tamara. Less than 1000 square feet. If the guy comes in through the front door he is about 15 feet from my bed.

I didn't say my house was small, I only said it had three rooms. My bedroom doorway is at the opposite end (and off to the side between two large book cases) of a 25 yard long room (full of rocking chairs, cat furniture, futons, and computer tables) from the entryway. I'm jackin' a round in the chamber and bunkerin' down in my bedroom to wait.

I appreciate that others may have gamed out their particular scenarios in detail. This is a Good Thing. What works for me almost certainly ain't right for thee. This ain't my first rodeo, either.

 

[Blue Line]

there may be a more tactical reason not to give away your position until you need to, ie to move to a better more tactical/defensive position,etc. All I'm saying is that the action can be worked rather quitely if needed. There are probably no other sounds in the world that sound like a PUMP ACTION SHOTGUN being worked, especially in the DARK!
You can and should judge your own tactical situation as it happens, better be tried by 12 than carried by 6. Just make sure that its not a friendly coming home late, ID your target and commence fire.