New to shotguns, picking one up for HD.

[Hharvey123]

Hey all, glad to have found this place

So I've been using handguns for HD for years now and never really had much experience with shotguns, until I shot a friend's Mossberg 500 a few months ago. I've been thinking about getting one for awhile and have decided to go ahead and do it.

One thing I'm curious about is grip selection. I've seen the 500 with pistol grips and I've seen it with full stocks. Which one would/did you select for home defense? I'm thinking a full stock is much more comfortable to shoot, but a pistol grip might be a little less "unwieldy" in a stressful situation.

Is a full pistol grip practical, or is it just a "cool" factor that makes them attractive? I have rifles for long range shooting, so the shotgun I buy is going to be for in your face defense situations only.

Also, I'm pretty uneducated when it comes to ammo selection for shotguns. We were shooting some sort of turkey load out of my friend's gun, and it wore me out even with a stock. What would you recommend that is a little lighter to shoot, but still nasty?

Thanks a lot!

Harvey

 

[Veen]

I'd reccomend a Mossberg 590 with a pistol grip if you absolutely must go with a pump. Good capacity, and it's short enough that you can maneuver it through doorways and other tight places. The alternate option is the Remington 870. Both are reliable contenders, it's all a matter of taste when it comes down to those two.

Personally though, I prefer my Saiga-12. Semi-auto, magazine fed, AK style pistol grip conversions available, and it's perfectly reliable. I know it doesn't get much mention around here, but it really is quite a nice little shotgun for an application like home defense. It has two gas settings for shooting lower powered "low recoil" loads, and the AK style action eats a LOT of the recoil. Install a recoil pad and a recoil buffer in the gun and it's going to have virtually no recoil. I constantly shoot 3" magnum loads out of mine and don't even get a bruised shoulder, and all I did was slip on a Limbsaver $20 pad on the butt. Also as a bonus, if you saw the barrel down to a liberal 18", the entire length of the gun even without a stock comes in at just about 27", making it one of the shortest and highest capacity autoloaders you can get.

The only disadvantages to this gun are the fact that there is no pump backup to it, so if the gun fails to knock the bolt back far enough to extract the spent shells, you have a really cumbersome bolt action 12ga. The 8rd and up magazines are also a pain to find, though word is that there's going to be a couple US made options available for about half the price of the authentic Russian made. Your options as of this moment for more than 5rd capacity are either pay out the nose for a Russian magazine, or take something like a Knoxx NLFD for a Mossberg and modify the tower to lock into the Saiga-12 (which has been done before)

As for what loads to use, any 3" 00 buck reduced recoil load should do you just fine. It'll knock down the recoil enough that you will be able to follow up with more shots if you need to, and today's reduced recoil loads still have more than enough velocity to take down a human. If you live in an apartment or a crowded house or whatnot you might want to consider going to a lighter shot size to lower overpenetration, but generally anything in the 1 to 00 range should be good enough to down an intruder.

 

[No_Brakes23]

The first shotgun I ever fired was a riced out 500 with a PG and a PG pump. It hurt, and I couldn't really see much point. It WAS smaller, but concelament probably isn't an issue with HD.

Some shooters, (Myself included,) find that a pistol grip stock combo, (See below,) is more comfortable. I also learned to shoot long guns with the M16A2 as my first rifle, so I naturally associate a good shooting position with a pistol grip. Some shooters find that the PG/stock helps when dealing with recoil

This is a SpeedfeedIII PG/stock combo.

As for shell selection, I don't believe Turkey loads are HD appropriate. Try patterning 2&3/4 #4 buck, #1 buck, and #00 buck to see what you like. You can get some low-recoil rounds to see if that helps, but I think just switching from those magnum turkey loads will help a lot.

Hope that helps.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Mine the archives, there's tons of input.

Briefly, few shotgun cogniscienti have PG only shotguns. A PGO shotgun is a big awkward pistol with poor sights that's very hard to hit with.

A standard stocked shotgun in trained hands is one of the most effective weapons yet devised. Adding a PG is a BIG step in the wrong direction.

 

[Hharvey123]

Thanks for all the input people!

I've been looking through past threads and online a bit. I don't think I'm going with a PGO on my shotgun, as it just doesn't seem very practical and I'd like the option of shooting hot loads without hurting myself. I like the looks of that SpeedFeedIII. I think that would be the best of both worlds in my case.

I'm going shopping tomorrow, so I'll let you know what I come home with.

 

[Black Majik]

Handle the big 4 of pumpguns: Remington 870, Mossberg 500/590, Ithaca 37, and the Winchester 1300's.

Find out which feels best for you, and the ergonomics of each. Some guns have safeties in odd places, and forearm release in different places also.

My recommendation, in the end, would be the Remington 870.

As for pistol grip or not, if you definitely want a pistol grip, get one WITH a buttstock. Not only is the PGO shotgun painful to shoot, it isn't very effective nor accurate. Dont try to sight it along your shoulder using PGO, gonna get a bloody nose or loose tooth.

Get some good training, and get a shotgun with a buttstock, with or without the PG. But certainly don't go pistol grip only.

Good luck

 

[pauli]

it's worth noting that shotgun (and rifle) stocks evolved the way they did for some darn good reasons. people were using and refining them decades before pgos and ar clone pistol grip/stocks were brought to market. traditional full stocks are as natural as can be once you've got them in your hands.

 

[No_Brakes23]

traditional full stocks are as natural as can be once you've got them in your hands.

Maybe for you.

 

[Zach S]

The Speedfeed III stock feels awkward to me, the reach to the trigger is pretty far. The traditional stock that came on my 590 (and the 500 I previously owned) feels akward, but unlike the SFIII I can deal with it.

With most of my longarms rangetime being behind PG-equipped rifles, traditional stocks feel akward and I'm more accustomed to PGed longarms. So I'm gonna try one of the AR stock adapters. Well, I'll probably try two, the armstech and the low-tube from Mesa.

My SG is loaded with 2 3/4 low-recoil 00 buck from Federal.

 

[scout26]

You might want to check:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=154237

 

[Biaxident]

As has been mentioned, check out the ergonomics and the general feel of all of the big four. My personal favorite is the Remington 870, but some people really prefer Mossbergs for some crazy reason.
Also, for your own sake, stick with a normal buttstock. If you absolutely MUST have a tacticool look, get something with a buttstock and a pistol grip. PGO's -hurt-.

Also, sup Veen.

 

[GigaBuist]

What Dave said.

Buy a shotgun that looks like something your grandpa would use. Grandpa's are smart. I'm 25 and dumb... but I try and listen to my elders.

Then buy a metric buttload of ammo and start running through it.

I can't explain it, just do it... and eventually you'll say to yourself (like I did).. "Hey, those old guys with beat-up shotguns.. they know what they're talking about!"