This is going to be a long, rambling post (unlike my usually concise, single-topic pieces) but hey, it’s the weekend: why not ramble all over the place, even if it does take you well over an hour to get through, if you follow all the links? So mote it be.
Several Readers have sent me links to all sorts of fascinating stuff recently, and most especially on the topic of shotguns — all of which have been most gratefully accepted.
We already looked at the most-recent entry (re-entry?) of Weatherby into the side-by-side shotgun market in a Gratuitous Gun Pic post. A comment by Reader Ray is quite appropriate:
“Now they just need to eradicate the ‘Weatherby’ billboard and the exposed colored chokes.”
Colored chokes (which I also abhor because fugly) are nevertheless useful to those who are constantly changing their chokes according to the conditions in which they are shooting (high birds, skeet or whatever). I understand this, but frankly I am not one of those shooters, in that I prefer a consistent choke type so I can make adjustments on the fly, so to speak. Your mileage may vary, and that’s fine because when I do any shotgunning at all, it’s sporting clays and I make no claims of expertise in the other types.
As for the Weatherby “billboard”, that’s another point I agree with. Compare and contrast the following:
…with:
…or:
…where one can almost hear the murmurs of Messrs. Purdey and Holland: “There’s no need to SHOUT, dear boy, if you’re making a quality gun.” Point made.
Still on the topic of “Turkish” shotguns, Longtime Friend and Reader John C. sends me this article, talking about CZ’s Hammer Coach shotgun:
Okay, I am seriously considering this little 20″-barreled beauty as a future home defense option.
“But Kim,” I hear you say, “I thought you said that your AK suits all your home defense needs?”
And indeed I have said that before. However, I am starting to revise my opinion on the matter (“and not a moment too soon, ya old fart”) because in the very same email, John C. added a link to this wonderfully-funny but yet very informative medical take on the effects of a shotgun blast to the human anatomy. (It also features those raucous Zoomer kids at Garand Thumb, for double the hilarity.)
As to why a double-barreled hammer shotgun (two rounds) over a pump action (five rounds), I have two reasons for my choice.
The first is that one of the benefits of exposed hammers in a shotgun is that you know immediately whether the gun is ready to fire — no safety catch necessary — and while the cocking action is slow, it’s as quick as a well-practiced pump-action throw, especially if you cock both hammers simultaneously. That second shot happens as quickly as you can move your finger from one trigger to the other, which is not only quicker, but less disruptive to your aiming hold than shoveling the pump back and forth.
The second reason is that after watching the effect of buckshot on the human torso and Doctor Raynor’s excellent analysis thereof, I fail to see why I would need more than two shots to solve the problem (assuming that there aren’t more than two targets, so to speak — but if so, I’d be reaching for the AK anyway because then there’s a crowd dynamic to the whole situation).
Of course, I’d like to have a Purdey hammer gun, just for aesthetic reasons:
…but the barrels are too long and the old gun too expensive. And for a more modern take, let’s not even talk about the exquisite Famars Abbiatico offering, for the same two reasons:
I seem to have wandered way off the original topic of this post — if there ever was one to begin with — but I did warn you earlier.
All similarly-meandering comments are welcome, of course, because it’s the weekend.
$900 for a two-shot home defense shotgun? Which you’ll lose if you use it. Maybe not in Texas, but even there it’ll likely be held up for a bit. Judicious shopping among your peers* should find three second-hand pumps. Cops keep one and you still have a primary and an Amarillo Reload.
BTW, I’m recommending 20ga to folks looking at HD scatterguns. Less recoil, maybe more practice.
*I know – Fearless & Peerless 😉
When I went through law enforcement training in the early 1990s a 12 gauge pump was the “go to” gun when a deputy needed something with a little more authority than his Smith model 19 or 686. Back then most officers provided their own long guns so it was a choice between Mossberg and Remington. My department had a few old Smith and Wesson pump guns that were bought on a very low bid contract, but I never saw anybody even try to shoot one.
I spent lots of time on the range with my Mossberg. It had the short slug barrel with a decent set of rifle sights. Thankfully I never used it in action, but the gun did put down a couple of Michigan UP white tails in one shot, no tracking kills.
I retired in 2019. At that time my department was in the process of issuing ARs to their deputies and assigning a few of their old 870s to “non lethal” use. I was able to buy a very slightly used police model 870 from one of our full time officers at a very cheap price and that now serves as one of my house guns.
These days all of the cool kids have tricked out ARs with rails, lasers, red dots, folding stocks, fancy flash riders and/or muzzle brakes, and everything else on the Internet that’s described as “tactical”. At short range – and most residential home defense scenarios will be short range – a couple of rounds of double ought buck from a good quality shotgun will do the job. Even an old school double will handle the threat, and you can’t short stroke or jam those guns.
Thirty plus years ago our instructor described a shotgun as a ” powerful and versatile weapon”. That hasn’t changed.
I’ll bet you’d consider a semi auto 12 gauge as a weapon for heretics.
Buckshot can be very nasty. When it hits in a tight close pattern, and not a single pellet. Tight close patterns are easier to miss with. This is why you can need more than two shots.
Double guns are indeed elegant. They are also limited.
Don’t waste the cash on a SxS as a coach gun, unless you want the aesthetic. A bare bone basic Mossberg with 18″ barrel and 5 round mag tube is a far cheaper and far more effective weapon. It’s like three(!) SxS in one for capacity, but half to a third the price.
Don’t get me wrong. I would rather much like to acquire another SxS or three.
But they will, if and when acquired, not be tactical or defensive guns, but hunting and sporting. Cheap tactical pump and auto scatterguns are superior in every way for that purpose, except style points.
I was very very happy indeed with my Winchester over-and-under, used exclusively to shoot clays (skeet to the American colonists). Rugged and handsome (just like me — I wish).
Glad you liked that video! I have to admit that “coach gun” has some strong nostalgic appeal for sure, and you’re right, a couple rounds of buckshot should solve almost any in-home problem, at least with just one perp. If your .45 is handy, that will be handy for mopping up any other uninvited guests. I love this quote from Clint Smith …
“Pistols put holes in people. Rifles put holes through people. Shotguns at the right range with the right load will physically remove a chunk of shit from your opponent and throw that shit on the floor.”
I was always a nightstand pistol guy. I’ve had Home Defense shotguns for years, but never took a course in combat shotgun, and never really played around with them. In my old age, I feel like I’m picking up some wisdom I wish I had picked up earlier in life. At least for interior defense, I don’t think anything is more effective than the shotgun. The whole argument about pistol calber, bullet weight/type, velocity, and “one shot stopping” power of handgun rounds goes away with a shotgun. As long as you are not using birdshot (stupid), and as long as your guest is not wearing ceramic armor plates, a single shot from The Gauge is pretty much guaranteed to get him to change his mind about whatever he had in mind when he entered your property.
I don’t care if he’s high on PCP. I don’t care if he’s schizophrenic or otherwise insane. I don’t care if he thinks he’s on a mission from God. A well placed round of 00-buck is going to stop him immediately 99% of the time. The other 1%, the shot probably was not well placed.
I now have two simple defensive shotguns, a pump and a gas piston semi-auto. I don’t have ghost ring sights, red dots, or other bullshit on them. They fit me, and I have an XS Big Dot up front epoxied over the brass bead, a couple of reliability modifications I thought were advisable in the gas gun, and a simple sling. That’s it. I’ll get a light mount soon, though for a small weapon light.
But now The Gauge sits by my nightstand. And I’m actively looking for a combat shotgun course within a reasonable driving distance. I still love my pistols and my rifles. But I am developing a whole new love for the combat shotgun.
Let’s face it, the odds of us needing to shoot defensively are still vanishingly small. But whatever the odds are they are an order of magnitude greater than they were a decade ago. Shit, than they were 3 years ago! I used to carry occastionally, then often, now ALWAYS. Even going out for gas I have at least a snubby in my pocket.
And I have The Gauge in the house. Like Kim, I like traditional things. And the shotgun, once universally considered one of the best combat weapons for QCB extant, has fallen out of favor. I’m glad to see it is coming back into its own, especially with young shooters. Chris Baker of Lucky Gunner has some excellent videos on the combat shotgun, you could do waste your weekend time on worse than watching a few of those.
Pardon me, I need to get back to putting an enlarged aluminum safety and new magazine follower in my Mossberg 500 with security barrel. Enjoy your weekend!
JC
Nice CZ side by side.
But, as I peruse their site, nary a 97b model to be seen? For shame, CZ. Glad I have one.
The home defense shotgun is a 870 Wingmaster that had a shot out barrel trimmed down to 18.5″. The wood furniture has ben replace with a polymer birdshead grip and slide. It will hold 7 of the S&B low recoil shorty metric OO shells in the tube. I would have put a new barrel on the Wingmaster if it had a 3″ chamber but it is a 2& 3/4″. It made more sense to make it into a home defense gun.
RE: Weatherby Billboard
Remember, Weatherby made his name making big-game hunting guns for Hollywood celebrities.
In that town, an old fave saying is “If you got it, flaunt it”; and another was,
“I don’t care what they say about me in the papers as long as they spell my name right.”
Old habits die hard!
I picked up a Mossberg 500 police department trade in that had come from our state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. it came with ghost ring sights a side saddle and I think it has a picatinny rail near the muzzle. All this for the low sum of $200 The accessories retail for close to $200. I’m sure it is more than adequate for my home defense needs. Plus being a model 500, there are tons of aftermarket parts to make it more tactical or put different barrels on it for deer hunting or bird hunting. In retrospect I sould have bought several more of them.
JQ