Posted on 11/29/2011 6:50:34 AM PST by Kaslin
Not empty gun, empty chamber. Racking the slide when confronting an intruder means one of two things, you had an empty chamber OR you just dropped a perfectly good round on the floor, lessened your firepower, and identified where you are just to make a cool sound that MIGHT magically solve a deadly confrontation without any force.
If you are taking a shotgun to investigate something you think requires a shotgun, it should be loaded, chambered and ready to do what you need it for. Anything else places you in greater danger.
Looks like a pretty good way to shoot your own left hand off to me.
Now days a .45 will just bounce off the bad guys pigeon chest, not like the old days when it would go straight through them and maybe one or two others that were standing behind them.
You can custom-load ammo for your own tastes and purposes. Cowboy Action is a great example.
As long as you hoard some primers, you have plenty of ammo even if some idiot decides to ban it, or if you shoot goofy calibers (I have .303 Brit and .455 Webley, it's either custom loads or 50 year old Greek surplus ammo that has been apparently stored in fruit crates at the bottom of a lake!)
Also, if you buy your press and scale and even some dies used, you just decreased your initial cost substantially. We have a RCBS Rock Chucker that's on its 3rd or 4th owner. Still works fine (of course, we had to get a progressive loader because of the cowboy action. You can figure shooting around 150 rounds per person per match, more if it's a two-day or regional shoot.)
It surprises people who buy 'cruiser' style shotguns (stockless, pistol grip-only) how inaccurate they are at all distances.
Believe it or not, any shotgun load will basically stay compact to about the bore size until the wad is some fifty feet away. At home defense distances, the shot size stays about the size of a nickel coin regardless of barrel length. A 'Cruiser' shotgun can usually be expected to be less effective than a typical handgun as a home defense tool.
People who buy Cruisers and think that they'll sweep a whole hallway with buckshot are chagrined to find out at the range that what really happens is they're often unable to hit a dinner plate-sized target at 25 feet.
Then, switching to a full stock shotgun and actually aiming down the sights they discover that they can hit whatever they're aiming at. There is just no firearm that can reliably make hits without being aimed, and 'Cruiser' style shotguns are about the least capable of being effectively aimed.
If you want a compact shotgun, get a folding stock. Of course, this just adds one more step of complication in unfolding the stock when you might not have time. Also, the police learned years ago that top-folding stocks prevented the addition of quality rear 'ghost ring' sights and that side folding stocks interfered with hasty operation of a pump action slide and usually ended up being heavier than a standard stock.
So why do they (Mossberg only, typically) still sell 'Cruiser'-style shotguns? Well, they look all kickass and everything, don't they? That's pretty much it.
I think we are saying the same thing differently : ) I am not knocking the .45 long colt. Ballistically, the .45 long colt can be a great round and can be loaded to achieve impressive results in the right barrel length. However, the Judge (and even more so the Public Defender) barrel length’s seriously compromise the benefits of even the hottest .45 long colt rounds.
There is sufficient data on all the specialty rounds available for the Judge which illustrates the limits of the platform in both .410 and .45 long colt. It is too far from a .45 long colt in a 5 or 6 in barrel. IMHO
I used to use IMR 4350 to load my dad's .348 Winchester rifle.
Sadly, somebody stole it from his house, probably a repairman. I'm just sick about it, but there's nothing I can do. He didn't even have the serial # written down.
Great explanation!
Thanks!
We have a couple of Rem 870s because we run HRC hunting tests. Great shotguns, work no matter what and you can't break them with a sledgehammer. Barrels on ours are a little long for house guns -- my cowboy shotgun is a Stoeger coach gun in 20 ga that (1) is extremely maneuverable in close quarters and (2) I can shoot it VERY accurately and reload it fast. Not as fast as an 870, but I can only put 3 rounds in the 870 on account of the game laws.
If the excrement hits the rotating ventilation device in the middle of the night, I'll grab my primary carry gun - the Sig P245 with the extra magazine. But given a little time to prepare, I'd go get the Stoeger and my shell belt. And if the excitement is outside, I'll get one of the 870s and a pocket full of shells. Before we owned the 870s, we had two armed robbers flee from a nearby road into the woods behind our house. While the police were on their way, I put the kids in their beds and set up behind the woodpile with grandfather's Browning Light 12 and a box of shells. The K9 squad got them both, and they were probably better off being nibbled on by the Malinois than being ventilated by grandpapa's duck gun.
The one that hurt the most was a S&W 1950 target (4 screw) in .44 special.
We keep ours locked up unless they're actually on our persons. Just a habit from the days when we had small kids in the house, including my youngest who is as curious as a monkey and has no common sense whatsoever. But it also means that they can't just walk off with the air conditioning man.
Hopefully the U.S. Marines have managed to instill some common sense in my son by now, but the watermelon-and-12-gauge demonstration didn't do it, so I doubt it.
My practice is: no warnings. Just a flash and a loud noise. Perhaps several of them.
Ping.
If someone’s where they shouldn’t be - as in the case of a break-in - then they left their rights at the door. No warnings. No shouting ‘freeze’ or any of that nonsense.
How you expect to "repizent" like that?
When I was living in Corpus Christi, I had all my guns stolen.
CC police just couldn’t find any of them. I made one phone call and found all but one of them. Sadly it was also another S&W 24 (new model).44 special.
I’ve replaced both with stainless and the 4” shoots almost as good as the 1950, but almost is just that almost.
Eh? Say what?
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