Re: Single Barrel Shotgun.
Clint Smith is correct, you have to how to run the gun you have.
Awerbuck shares the same suggestion; one has to have a shotgun, know how to keep it fed, and how to make effective hits.
Clint Smith keeps a 20 bore shotgun beside.
Awerbuck travels with a break open side by side, and I have heard a single shot has accompanied him as well.
Yes, I use a Youth, H&R 20 bore single shot.
Mine is bone stock, from the factory which is 36" total length, including the 22" fixed modified barrel, and factory recoil pad.
I. Want. Choke.
This guns shoots some of the best pellet, buckshot, patterns and slug groups , and I have patterned a few guns, over the decades.
I can stand, with shotgun in hand, and you cannot tell I have that shotgun in hand.
I am 6', and the muzzle does not touch the floor. If I am answering the door, I can have gun in hand, and use gun with with either hand.
If I am near a door facing, or chair, or sofa, or anything, you will not see the gun, for sure...unless I choose to let you see it.
If I am in bed, or reclining in a chair, that shotgun is "handy" and my lessons, and sets ups ( you folks call these training and stages) included such lessons and many more.
I am older, and was raised before political correctness, 911, and long before the great equipment race.
When I was coming up, it was common , "how raised-what you do" , that there was a single barrel shotgun in the home, most often, a youth 20 bore.
Applicable to barns, sheds, and businesses too.
Any family member/employee /person could operate that shotgun. From kid, to teenager, to parent, to elderly, to temporary physically limited ( i.e. expectant mom, broken leg...) to permanent physically limited such as Veterans of previous wars, Polio Victims, wheel chair users to bed ridden.
We were concerned about Gun Control, and this was back when Eisenhower was President.
This was in a time when one could order firearms from the back of a Field & Stream catalog, and have it delivered to your door, C.O.D.
Folks had been in war, and seen first hand Gun Control, in many countries.
JFK had not been assassinated in Dallas yet, still folks were concerned with Gun Control, and concerns of "The Ruskies" coming, with a Cold War, and having their own supplies and being self reliant, even though there was Civil Defense.
Civil Defense , yellow and black signs, and drills. I swear as a kid, I did more CD drills than I did fire drills.
The single barrel had a proven history of putting meat on the table, protecting the property of pests, and keeping evil away.
No credit cards, and the only credit was signing a ledger, which was paid up, on pay day.
Folks did lay-a-way.
Folks shot firearms others had, to investigate and verify what fit them, and what they shot best, before they purchased a firearm. Be this a shotgun, rifle, or handgun.
Folks did not have a lot of money, they made do, patched up, or went without.
Again, no whipping out the credit card. Again, they investigated and verified for themselves, tools for tasks, they could afford.
Then they learned that "tool" like a body part, and became one with the tool.
The Single Shot also had a proven history of self defense, in countries, where rights were eroded, restricted, and denied.
i.e.
-No Repeating firearms.
-No Magazines
-One could not have what "Police" or "Military" used.
[This is the reason some countries today have the 32ACP, or .380 being popular. J.Q.Public, cannot have 9mm for instance, because the Police or Military, use 9mm. One would be wise to investigate , and check history, before they talk down to others , from other countries]
Gun Control Act of 1968 had not become - yet.
And folks not only continued to buy single shot shotguns in 20, 28, and .410, they hoarded them back.
Why these, and not 12 bore?
What gauge do Police and Military use?
While folks had 12 bores, and some were set back...concerns of Gun Control, Folks snitching and ratting them out were in the minds of folks.
History had taught them, neighbors would snitch , and rat them out, to "Police"/ "Military" for the "good of the people" and by snitching and ratting them out, they were "Good Little Boys and Girls" and "Good Comrades" and "Good Citizens"...etc.
Awerbuck travels, and not all areas of the USA are friendly to firearms, and firearm owners.
Awerbuck, has an interesting life history, he knows about a country at war, and civil unrest, and having to fight oppressive governments and peoples.
He carries a break open two barrel shotgun for very very good reasons.
If, he does carry a single shot as well, again, it is for very very good reasons.
Some of my Mentors were interesting people as well. As not all of mine were born in the South of the USA, as I was, nor were some born in the USA period.
Yes, some came from other countries, and yes, some of mine had served in war, and continued to travel to other countries to "fight" a Cold War.
Time would bring Vietnam and other Conflicts...and even today, our brave Service Men and Women see peoples "restricted" in firearms ownership and use.
i.e I had a classmate from Croatia. She was in the US, on a volleyball scholarship.
Her family were restricted to single shot .22 rim fire, and single shot shotgun , where she was born, and raised.
i.e. Ireland has a minimum barrel length of 24" for J.Q. Public.
Think about that the next time you whack a perfectly good and legal shotgun down, with a 26" barrel, with choke, to 18.5".
Now "if" Gun Control in the US, were to impose that 24" restriction, or impose "one must have factory barrel, and no mod". Then I am fine with my youth, shotgun with fixed modified choke, plain, 22" barrel.
The 18.5" , cut down with a hacksaw, would be illegal.
It does not matter how ultimate or extreme, or how many rounds a shotgun holds, if (a) one cannot run the gun, and (b) the government has confiscated your shotgun.
Just for what it is worth, and it is only worth what I am charging you for this.
A shotgun ( any firearm) is not a viable tool if the firearm has no ammo to go "bang" when the trigger is tripped.
All firearms have a "empty" and "need to be loaded" characteristic.
Some places in the USA, just as they do in other countries, do not allow for a firearm to be kept loaded.
Some places, such as New Zealand, requires gun and ammo to be stored separate.
The local "police" will not issue a permit for you to have firearms, until they come to the house, and see, and approve the secure, locking storage's; and, they do conduct inspections, both scheduled, and one is subject to random.
Q. How come a person with a single shot shotgun, can clear a plate rack faster than someone with a repeating shotgun?
A. Load one, shoot one and the single shot is making hits, while the person with the repeater is still loading up the magazine.
I don't have a problem with Benelli's per se', I do admit having a problem with the great equipment race and folks with attitudes of trying to buy skill and targets.
I do not spend time with Bennelis, so that is a training problem for me, I freely admit. Still dang! If I let a Benelli run dry, I am screwed, blued and tattooed, and am reduced to "shoot one - load one".
I can shoot a single shot faster than a Benelli, if I am going to be "shooting one, and loading one".
Meaning, grabbing a shotgun and getting into action , in a "restricted setting" gives some ...positives to a single shot, or double barrel.
Before IDPA, IPSC, and 3 Gun come to be, we had serious "set ups" and games if you will.
Folks run what they brung.
Do not tell me, a person with a bone stock, long barrel shotgun, cannot shoot serious, even indoors with such a gun.
I know better.
It would blow your mind as the Mentors sharing how to do this.
Folks that had been there, done that, and had used bone stock shotguns, with long barrels
Including using a single shot, or double gun...as they used what was local to blend in with the peoples to do what they were there to do.
A single shot shotgun is another tool in the tool box.
Like any tool, it is no better than the user of a said tool.
It is one helluva tool, in the hands of someone that knows how to use it.
-s