I keep mine loaded and leaning away from the bed against the wall in my bedroom. I have no kids anymore running round the house or I'd stash it away. But, I've never had a shotgun go off that I didn't intend to go off. I've been hunting with shotguns every season since I was about 9 years old and I'm 54 now. I've fired tens of thousands of rounds in that time. The Spartan is my second double. I have an old Sarasqueta Spanish built 28" 12 gauge I bought for hunting in 1971 and it still can do the job, though I retired it from waterfowling when steel was mandated.
For HD, I think you are barking up the wrong tree. Why would you want a double when a pump holds more rounds, is often lighter and faster to reload?
When it comes to home defense or any kind of self defense, I don't mess around at all. I buy and use what works the best for me.
Well, I hit what I aim at. I only need one. I've got two with five on the stock and that's excessive way I see it. My shotgun is for safe room duty. If I have to leave the room, it'll be with my .38 snub with which I also hit what I shoot at.
I don't need no lights, lasers, bayonetts, can openers, 50 rounds in a saddle pack, hangin' off my shotgun. I ain't goin' to Iraq with it, I'm simply defending my bedroom. I'll likely never need it, never have needed it, but it's there if I ever do need it.
I hunt all the time, will be out with my Spartan next week slaying doves. If I can hit doves on the wing at 35 yards, what's a bad guy at 12 feet and stationary in the door of my bedroom? The secret is knowing how to hit what you aim at. If you can do that, firepower is moot. I ain't tacticool, but I am very handy with what I like and I like normal shotguns, no pistol grips please, good balance and quick pointing and the coach gun points about as quick as a shotgun can point. It's light and easy to the shoulder and I can take out the BG quicker with it than with any heavier pump. They're a lot quicker on a flushing quail, stands to reason they'd be quicker on a BG.
Hell, I don't use shotguns for squirrel hunting. Squirrels don't move much, faster than any human and a lot smaller target, though, and I still consider hunting them with a shotgun cheating, too easy. I prefer using a .22 pistol when I squirrel hunt, rifle at most. Shotguns are just too easy. I don't recall ever missing a squirrel with a shotgun. That's what makes 'em great survival guns, though, only takes one shot. If you need more than 2 to take out an intruder, you need to get into trap and skeet and learn how to handle a shotgun, way I see it. Take that "shoot where you look" course.
The nifty thing about the Spartan is, with its interchangable chokes, it fills more than one niche for me. It's a handy defense gun with the open chokes in it. Put in the tighter chokes and I can hunt dove or even ducks over decoys with it. It's a great backpack/survival gun for the outback and next back packing trip, if it involves the possibility of small game or if it's in bear country, a slug in one barrel, number 5 in the other, and you got a combo gun, rabbit's withone barrel and bear defense with the other. It breaks down into a small enough package that I can carry it on my GoldWing, one of the MAIN reasons I got it over a longer barreled gun. I was lookin' at one of those Turkish OUs at Academy when I decided on the Spartan and the handy 20" length is the reason I went with the Spartan. If I had a tacticool pump gun (have a Mossberg for waterfowl), all it'd be is a bedroom gun, whadda waste! It'd probably never fire a shot other than maybe a few rounds at the range to test it. Target shooting with a shotgun is stupid unless it involves clay birds off a trap. Our club sorta frowns on people tearing up the target boards with shotguns, anyway. I go out there and pattern a load now and then, but don't waste time blasting the target boards to pieces. And, I mean, far as fire power goes, my doubles only hold one less than my pump. I keep the limiter in the magazine because it's a waterfowl gun and can only hold 3 rounds by law. I don't wanna get out to the marsh and discover I forgot to reinstall the plug. Game wardens wouldn't see that as a good excuse.
I feel a gun that I KNOW and am familiar with in the field is going to be more effective than one that sits by the bed and collects dust. I've I've killed a few hundred dove with it, it's become a part of me and natural to point.
If the barrels are different from each other, then 2 triggers are nice, though in a high-stress situation you can STILL forget which barrel you've already fired. Sometimes yesterday I thought I'd fired 2 shots, and I'd only shot one. My brain just didn't compute, even under the "stress" of friendly competition.
