Versatility of the Shotgun

[sully]

What are your thoughts on the shotgun?

I find the shotgun greatly understood. There are many myths that surround it. It has been called a street sweeper. Many people believe that you can just point it in the general direction of your inteneded target, or down a hallway from the hip and hit your intended target.

In my career of Law Enforcement I have been trained in many variations and styles of its implementations, theories on shooting styles and tactical uses. I have seen great improvements in ammunition, especially lately thanks to Federal. The shotgun can be used to hunt small or large game, as a great self defense tool, door breach, launch gas, deliver less lethal rounds, launch flares, EOD work, etc.

I find the pump shotgun to be the most versatile weapons system available. I base this on the availability of ammunition to shoot through it. There are the traditional birdshot, buckshot, slugs, then we move off into loads like sock rounds, bean bags, distraction devices, bird bombs, muzzle blast dispersion, hard rubber & plastic batons, rubber buckshot & slugs, string ball, thors hammer, dragons breath, flares, CS/CN/OC ferrets, launching, door breaching, EOD disposal, and many others. The pump shotgun is more versatile in that it can be used with just about every round, where a semi-auto may not cycle many rounds.

IMHO a perfect versatile all around shotgun will be a Remington 870 or Mossberg 590, equipped with a shell carrier that bolts to the receiver (MesaTactical recommended over others), with an oversized safety, ghost ring or rifle sights, 18"-21" barrel, Surefire 6V light system, short conventional stock, and a good three or single point sling.

CY6
Greg Sullivan "Sully"
Chief Instructor
SLR15 Rifles
TheDefensiveEdge.com

 

[usmccpl]

I have heard of the rest but what is thors hammer and sock rounds.






one shot one kill

 

[Spinner]

Sully, I'm guessing you'll get little to no argument from many of the folks here. Seems like a lot of folks have arrived at pretty much the same end point through experience and observation as you have.

I would suggest that while you point out the versatility of the pump shotgun with many and varied types of rounds that civilian users would probably be best to avoid the less lethal and specialty munitions and stick with buck and/or slugs for serious duty while none of those specialty rounds would be appropriate for a hunting situation.

To my mind that means that a semi-auto that functions well with buck and slugs as well as hunting loads has a similar level of practical versatility for civilian users, though the pump gun is still acknowledged as being able to run any and everything.

Spinner

 

[JohnBT]

While not quite as versatile, a 12 ga. O/U will cycle all of those rounds too.



John

 

[Fred Fuller]

There are numerically a lot more plain-ordinary-citizen shotgun owners than there are .gov or .mil. For us plain ol' Joes there are some other big advantages to the pump shotgun.

Chief among them is that it's among the least expensive options for a truly effective defensive firearm. Mechanically sound examples of products from major manufacturers in used condition can be found for $100- 150 with some judicious shopping. This is important to people who don't have a government budget to spend.

Ammunition is also widely available and also relatively inexpensive. Venues for practice are not too hard to find either. To top it off, training ranging from good to world class is available at numerous venues as well.

Pump shotguns often get a lot of latitude in areas that are not otherwise very firearms friendly, especially for handguns or rifles. That can mean a lot in some big-city environments. Pump shotguns are ubiquitous and often not regarded with the level of suspicion that ownership of certain more high profile firearms can cause.

Lastly, necessary modifications for fit and function are generally easy to accomplish and don't require highly skilled (or expensive) gunsmiths to produce.

lpl/nc

 

[B.D. Turner]

The shotgun is a versatile weapon given all of the munitions it will fire. Most every police car / officer has one assigned to it. The officers who responded to the North Hollywood bank robbery had shotguns available to them too but due to policy were unable to have rifled slugs something that could have changed things. Even with the protection of the bad guys bodyarmor the impact of a 1oz slug could have caused massive damage simply from impact.

The sheriff's department I worked for did issue five rounds of 00 buckshot. and a Moss. 500. The supervisor had the slugs so if you needed slugs you had to get them from him when he got to where you were. What a silly policy. I don't know about the rest of you guys but I carry more than five rounds when I am deer hunting and always carry slugs.

The most important thing about shotguns is knowing your range. Knowing how your shotgun patterns at a given distance with what load. Don't assume that your shotgun is going to be a ray of death at 50 or 100 yards without some range time.

 

[foghornl]

Shotgun = Versatility

Form very light target/skeet loads, good for training purposes and breaking those "clay" things, and some game bird species

Medium weight/shot size charges for fur-bearing small game

"Heavy Loads", some with non-lead shot for waterfowl & turkey.

Slug & Buckshot, [as the name suggests] for deer/large game, and all the home/self defense uses, plus as needed for "Military &Police Duty"

And the specialty rounds...lock breachers, "Screamers & Bird Bombs" for moving annoyance/hazard species temporarily, rubber pellet/slug loads

For just about any job up to say 50*** yards, hard to find something as versatile as a shotgun.

***With proper sights/slugs/barrels, up to 100 Yds for deer.

 

[dfaugh]

I agree that the shotgun is about the ost versitile type of weapon out there...So much so that, if I could only have one gun, it would be a shotgun. Everything from small game hunting to serious BG disruption, all in one package. (And to take it one step further, a pump gun would be my 1st choice,)

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

I have heard simply racking the slide will cause bad guys and kittens to drop dead from fear within a 2 mile radius!
It is a quite useful firearm and probably impossible to beat if you want the most bang for your buck (pun intended I suppose). Few other weapons can be used for everything from little birds or squirrels to charging grizzly (not to mention 2 legged predators).

 

[Rob1035]

I bought a plain jane mossberg 500 as my first centerfire long gun, even while getting excited about an AR15. I bought a AR reciever to build (and I will someday...), but the versatility of the shotgun has steered to buy a second Mossberg. I have the plain jane 18" one (beat up wood stocks, etc) for house duty and a 20" with 7 shot tube for zombies/SHTF/etc etc. The sad part is I paid about half of a decent AR build for BOTH 500s, something to thikn about for the less than rich me.

Basically, I'm not trying to start a X vs Y debate, but for my purposes, a simple, reliabile shotgun does much more (for me...) for much less money. I call that a winner. I really really want to take a shotgun course (geared more towards defense than sport) in the very near future.

 

[PJR]

The shotgun is a very versatile firearm within its limitations. But be cautious of the 3 "R's" of shotgunning: Recoil, Ricochet and Range. The shotgun has too much of the first two and not enough of the later. Within 50 yards there is nothing better. Between 50 and 100 yards it's competitive but beyond 100 yards it's out of its league.

Shotguns recoil more than a .223 rifle. Buckshot and slugs are more prone to flying off in all directions if a pellet or slug hits a rock. These are concerns worth keeping in mind and valid reasons to consider other options.

Don't get me wrong. I love shotguns, remain fascinated by them and shoot thousands of shotshells annually while shooting far fewer rifle rounds.

Inside our rural hacienda I want my 870 close at hand but increasingly when I go outside in response to a concern I'm more likely going to reach for the .223. Loaded with Federal Blitz rounds I know I have a couple hundred yards reach for pesky predators while safe in the knowledge that should my round miss the mark and hit rock the round will fragment into harmless pieces.

No doubt the shotgun has its place but when a rifle is required the shotgun is not the ideal tool for the job.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

JOHN BT!

What is wrong with you? You cannot use a O/U as an HD weapon, you need a SxS. It makes you look soo cool.

Even better if you make it a pistol like in Mad Max

 

[jad0110]

Shotgun versatility

One other way you can use a shotgun: If it jams up/breaks/etc, it makes a nice, big, heavy club to bludgeon a bad guy with .