How do you keep your HD shotgun?

[captainamerica]

In a bedroom corner or in the closet fully loaded with one in the chamber on safety.

 

[Cap'n Jack Burntbeard]

I keep my mossy 500 cruiser in the closet, 5 in the tube and the safety on.

 

[sm]

Remember, thier house rule was to ALWAYS call in advance prior to arriving onto thier property.

Folks,
Communication is the key.

Now I am not the only one familiar with hi-risk industries. WE take prudent steps in all areas of our lives. Preventative measures include a lot of things many folks never consider.

No disrespect, still there are some models of criminals those in hi-risk industries have to concern themselves with, that many J.Q.Public never will.
Point blank, they are not going to waste their time on you for what they get in return.

Yes, besides common courtesy, one calls ahead. Upon arrival, there may be codewords exchanged, especially if one arrives with a guest unknown to whom is being visited.
Is this person visiting under duress? Meaning is their wife and kids being held at gunpoint as hostages while they are visiting you , to lure you away?

You damn straight I and mine had a shotgun loaded with one in the chamber and I admit some of my personal guns either had the safety off, or the safety was removed on purpose.

Some professional thugs had me as their number one pick, but I had a reputation for being hard to peg.
So their number two pick was some folks I knew.
While they had the husband/dad, his wife was raped repeatedly by some less professional thugs "babysitting" her and the kid. Thank goodness that kid was sick, and the medicine made him sleepy.

I am speaking of some serious dollar value, on what they forced the husband /dad to get out of his business.


Security Dawgs are another darn good reason to call ahead.

1. Some punks tried to break into the house of a person I dealt with, with his wife and kids at home.
One left parts of his hand and fingers on the front porch and just inside the house.
Easy to find this guy, and he gave up his friends. Their game plan was to use the wife and kid to get this guy to give them money.
They had no idea what industry this guy was in, they just saw him get a ride home in a Limo one time, (not a funeral situation), and noticed he had gotten a ride home in some "nice rides".

2. Buddy of mine was between a structure and his vehicle. He had his security dawg in his vehicle.
I had just pulled up as we had made plans when two thugs decided to take down my buddy.

That German Shepard came out of his vehicle and was doing some serious damage fast to protect my Buddy.
Now this dawg knew me, still I stayed in my vehicle, keeping tabs on threats and being mobile.
That dawg was doing what it was trained to do, and I was not getting too close, or out of my vehicle.

Threat stopped, police called, and the dawg escorted him back to his vehicle. I used my vehicle to watch six.

Then I told Police about the Security Dawg. You do not make a sudden move, or one the dawg perceives as threatening.
Yes, there is training with master and dawg, and some special words used...


When I was married, with a teenage stepson, we had preventative measures and plans.
Yes, guns were part of what we did.

Wife and her son might go for a walk, when they returned, there were codewords.

Doorbell rang, and the wife in the bathroom, there was codewords when the boy or I answered that door. The way this house was built, new construction and some things I did, the wife had long guns, and handguns accessible to her.

Texas Style, master bedroom, then enter master bath, and off the master bath were two huge walk in closets.
Once in the master bedroom, one layer of defense. Enter the bathroom and multiple layers of defense.
One was fortified to be a safe room. There was also access to attic, with a way to evade two ways, through the attic.

She and I often worked different hours, so we called before we left, or were about to come home.
We had all sorts of communications.

One shotgun "handy" was a Citori 20 O/U, bone stock, and I do mean handy.
You could look for that shotgun, and not find it.


When we built the house, some "tweaks" were built into the house.
The wife and I carried on person handguns around the house. There were guns accessible, even if we were outside, messing with the dawg, or I was mowing, or she was doing flower stuff...we had a long gun, "accessible".

MY deal has always been exiting and entering a structure, or answering the door.
I cannot go around with a shotgun, or rifle slung.


Full tilt boogie is when I was standing on the courthouse steps and the Judge, and Baliff heard my life being threatened.

Trust me, security was immediate for me and my family.
I had to tell the Judge, in private, I had practiced plans and my people (work associates) had security too.

Meaning, do not have some undercover cop just running up to the house or my wife is going to go in to full tilt boogie practiced plans.
Once I called the wife, and my people, then matters were easier to deal with.


Hey, even where I parked, or others parked in visiting each other was a code.
I mean even before we exited a vehicle, we had that much of a "early signal" , which gives one "distance" and "distance" includes time, to take prudent steps.

So if we showed up unannounced, just "parking vehicles" was a code.
Either everything was fine, or something seriously wrong.


Software, not hardware.

You do realize a Remington 1100 in 20 ga, loaded with slugs, including one in the chamber is not going to go off all by itself.

That is one set up in a business...the shotgun was sitting on a table, behind a wall that would stop a 30-06 or 12 ga slug.
There was a couple of one way mirrors, and some "mesh" that reminds one of air vents.

Serious shows up, mount gun to face and shoot through the glass or mess.
Shooting lanes with backstop to again stop a 30-06 or 12 ga Brenneke slug.

This is my world over too many decades.

A Model 70 in '06 , and Model 94 in 30-30 are two more pcs of hardware that supplemented Software.

Nobody knew this upstairs area was even up there, still it did. It looked down onto the downstairs.
Actually there were 4 of these areas, looking down...

On private property this was set up using scaffolds and there was live fire, and plans practiced.

Don't ask me about the newest shotguns, or accessories...
Now I might be able to assist with Software...


-s

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Great Post SM.

Wife and I uses Code Words every day and night and constantly communicate to update the day's Plan of Day as Life throws changes at our plan. Nothing complicated. Just simple words easy to hear and understand.

The people I referred to years ago were people who have done this nation a great service at a price and as necessary, they require order. Order as in peace, tranquility and orderly living with NO surprises. As far as I know they are doing quite well and life is good to them.

There is a saying in the Good Book. Iron strikes Iron to sharpen and make better. I may have been a young man that knew nothing, but with very good friends as these alot of the... fluff has been removed so that I wont be so stupid as a adult.

You can never put a price on those lessons learned.

 

[Cannonball888]

Converted Saiga-12 in the armoir now locked gun cabinet. Empty chamber. Bolt open. 10rd mag of 00 buck in place.

 

[freeborn]

Interesting question...

On returning from range, empty SG is cleaned. After cleaning, I perform a function check with a snapcap, including 'firing' the snap cap. I then leave the snapcap in chamber. Fully load tube, safety off, and store in handy location.

To deploy, grab the weapon, do not rack the slide, until ready to fire, in my house the sound of a 12 ga. racking is not a warning sound, but the sound that will immediately precede a discharge.

My reasoning for the snapcap, is so that I can store the SG with the action closed, and without a live round in the chamber, but be able to chamber and fire a round without having to find the action release button/lever. The amount of time required to rack the slide and fire on the first shot, rather than just snap the safety off and fire, is a trade-off I've decided to make, rather than storing the SG with a loaded chamber.

FWIW, the shotgun is not our primary home defense weapon, it is a backup. Both my wife and I train with our primary weapons, and the SG; we both consider the SG to be a secondary (or in some cases tertiary) choice, and we practice deploying it in this manner.

 

[Mike U.]

I'm very happy to see so many practicing common sense with regard to loaded chambers and children.
If I had little ones, my shotgun (and ALL guns) would be stored like those of you with children store yours.
Looking out for the little ones is what it's all about, after all. Good on ya!

 

[inSight-NEO]

For my Mossberg 590 (8+1) I keep 5 rounds of 00 Low-Recoil ammo in the magazine tube (I prefer to download by 2 or 3 rounds as its easier on the spring and ammo) and in addition, sometimes will keep 2 slug rounds in the speedfeed stock. I also tend to swap the ammo placement/order roughly every 2 to 3 months as I believe this would help in minimizing/equally distributing pressure and/or wear on the tube-stored rounds. All rounds stored within the tube are fired every 6 months and then replaced. Absolutely no round is ever stored in the chamber and the safety remains engaged.

During the day, the weapon stays locked up. At night, it comes out of the lock.

 

[1-cavediver]

My Remington 870 HD with extended magazine is in my closet with an empty (unlocked) chamber with the magazine filled with 2-3/4 00buck and a 4-round side saddle filled with 00buck.

Of course I have my Ruger P97DC .45 acp loaded with Remington Golden Saber's including one in the tube in my nightstand. And then there is that Ruger P95DC 9mm in a small stand beside my living room chair loaded with Gold Dots with one in the tube as well.

BTW, all the children are grown and out of the house.

 

[stiletto raggio]

Bolt locked to the rear, 10 round AGP magazine full of #4 buck. Keep it next to the bed. If I have guests, the room is locked. I take the mag out and put it elsewhere if need be. Saigas rule. Reloading quickly is only half the story. Unloading quickly and superior capacity are other advantages to a mag-fed gun.

 

[mljdeckard]

Inside the closet door, magazine loaded with #4, chamber empty, slide locked. I don't leave the chamber empty to be able to scare someone when racking the slide, I do it because I have small kids in the house, and that is a safety level that makes sense.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Loaded with one in the barrel and 9 more in the tube. I keep it handy on my side of the bed.

 

[MCgunner]

Laying next to the bed, both barrels loaded, safety on, butt cuff with 3 buckshot, 2 slugs.

 

[jakemccoy]

muzzle down, hammer down, empty chamber, magazine full with 00 buck, safety on, propped in corner next to bed

 

[jojo200517]

While I do realize that accidents can happen I think it is better to teach kids, and heck even half wit adults and friends to treat EVERY GUN like it is loaded. If they think it is loaded as soon as they spot it they won't dick around carelessly.

I also think its odd how people flip about a shotgun having a round chambered but not a handgun. Are these the same people who keep there revolver chambers empty?

Now for me I keep (in shooting order) 1 bb shot load in the chamber, three 00 buckshots and 2 rifled slugs in the tube. Mossy 88 hanging on the headboard bedpost muzzle up safety on by the sling. Just across the room in the gun cabinet lies approximately 75 rounds of buckshot, 30 slugs, a flat (250) of 7.5 birdshot, 2 boxes of turkeyshot. Thats not just the shotgun stuff.

 

[MCgunner]

Quote:
I also think its odd how people flip about a shotgun having a round chambered but not a handgun.






Shotguns are not handguns. Handguns are made to be carried with a round in the chamber (at least the modern ones are - don't try this with a German Luger). Shotguns aren't. You can drop a handgun on concrete and there's not much chance at all that it will fire. Don't try that with a shotgun. There's a good chance it will fire.

Handguns sometimes have multiple blocks to prevent them from firing. They have hammer blocks and firing pin blocks and trigger blocks etc. depending on the gun. Shotguns usually don't have these things. For example my Taurus PT-145 has a firing pin block and a trigger block in addition to a key operated lock (which I've never used). All 3 of my shotguns have a safety and safeties can get turned off by accident and they can fail to prevent a gun from firing if it's dropped.

One reason handguns are so much safer is that California mandated that all handguns sold there be able to withstand a drop of a certain height without firing. Gun makers put a lot of effort into developing better blocks against firing from being dropped because of that.

But even my Sig P220, which is fairly old now, came with a hammer block which essentially makes it impossible for it to fire just from being dropped.
__________________

I have been bird hunting, dove and waterfowl, for 47 years, started at age 9. I have carried shotguns all that time locked and loaded, safety on, round(s) in the chamber(s) and I've never had a gun go off in the field unless I was baring down on a bird and wanted it to go off. There are two safeties on my shotguns, the one on the gun and the fact that I don't put my finger on the trigger until it's time to shoot. Now, I've never dropped one off a 10 story building to see if it'd fire, just don't seem right and not something I care about.

 

[jojo200517]

Shotguns are not handguns. Handguns are made to be carried with a round in the chamber (at least the modern ones are - don't try this with a German Luger). Shotguns aren't. You can drop a handgun on concrete and there's not much chance at all that it will fire. Don't try that with a shotgun. There's a good chance it will fire.

Handguns sometimes have multiple blocks to prevent them from firing. They have hammer blocks and firing pin blocks and trigger blocks etc. depending on the gun. Shotguns usually don't have these things. For example my Taurus PT-145 has a firing pin block and a trigger block in addition to a key operated lock (which I've never used). All 3 of my shotguns have a safety and safeties can get turned off by accident and they can fail to prevent a gun from firing if it's dropped.

One reason handguns are so much safer is that California mandated that all handguns sold there be able to withstand a drop of a certain height without firing. Gun makers put a lot of effort into developing better blocks against firing from being dropped because of that.

But even my Sig P220, which is fairly old now, came with a hammer block which essentially makes it impossible for it to fire just from being dropped.

The Taurus key lock is very effective at keeping it from firing, heck its as effective as a cable lock thru the slide. Go ahead and fumble around with that in the dark in the middle of the night when someone had already kicked in the door or crashed thru the window. You might as well not even have a gun.

I have never experimented with throwing a loaded gun down on cement but I did accidentally knock the very same shotgun off a sporting clay tower handrail approximately 35 feet into onto the dirt and then it tumbled another 15 feet down the hillside loaded with the safety off. I got a couple light scratches in it and a lot of dirt all over it. Cleaned it up and good to go. I wouldn't recommend trying it but it didn't fire then with the safety off and a round chambered. I think I'm ok with safety on and hanging securely by the sling.

 

[withdrawn34]

Also, keep in mind that most shotgun safeties only physically block the actual trigger from moving. That's it. There are no additional safeties, such as with handguns, physically blocking the pin or such. So that is why there's a much higher risk when dropping shotguns. They are not drop safe. No one knows for sure how much a shotgun can take, though.

I wonder if a rifle is a similar situation?

 

[Big_E]

I have my 535 w/ 22'' turkey barrel close to the bedside. It is unchambered w/ #5 shot, 00,00, slug. An 870 tactical is in the closet but its not really mine so I don't mess with it. If I was able to purchase a pistol yet I would keep the hunting gun locked up and use the pistol.

I like to keep the chamber empty so if I acidentally set it off during a normal day my mom won't get mad I destroyed her nicely painted drywall or expensive carpet . My dad also taught me that the sound of racking a pump shotgun is one of the scariest sounds an intruder can hear.