Your home is your castle, where ideally you should have every advantage over any criminal who foolishly chooses to invade it. These advantages include first lines of defense, awareness, a pre-made plan of action and, of course, your defensive tools choice. In your home, you have the luxury of choosing the best gun for the job because you aren’t required to conceal it, carry it long distances or engage targets several football fields away. While the legendary Jeff Cooper called the rifle the “Queen of the Battlefield,” I believe a tactical shotgun is the King of the Castle. Here’s why.
Before I begin, please allow me one caveat: Due to the shotgun’s weight, its notable recoil and the practice required to master it, it is not recommended for novices or those who have neither the time nor desire to train with it; however, once the shotgun is mastered, there is no more-formidable choice for home defense.
Primarily because a shotgun shoots a spreading swarm of pellets rather than a single projectile, the shooter’s margin for error is increased, and this is very important in actual life-and-death situations where adrenaline is pumping and the lighting is usually poor. A shotgun’s pattern, or its “spread,” ranges from approximately 2 inches in diameter at 2 yards to 20 inches at 20 yards. This is not to imply that you can’t miss with a shotgun—you certainly can—but if your aim is off by a couple inches at seven yards, you’ll likely still register a debilitating hit, whereas you’d likely miss altogether in the case of a rifle or handgun. And for masters of the shotgun, stationary targets are not only easy, but in fact a shotgun makes them seem hard to miss.
There’s no predicting how an actual home invasion will happen and how an invader will behave, but, due to the fact that they don’t want to get caught or killed, criminals do not often stay in one place for very long. They often move. And there’s a reason why shotguns are the arm of choice for hunters pursuing birds that can fly more than 50 mph and rabbits that bound over logs. It’s because once a shotgun is mastered, an incredible thing happens: The hands, eyes and brain allow it to become an extension of the body, so that moving targets can be hit with little conscious thought. With enough training, the shotgun shoots where the shooter looks. An attacking intruder is much slower than a flushing quail, but even so, that attacker is often too fast for a rifleman or handgun shooter to hit consistently. This is not so with a practiced shooter behind a shotgun.
Mr. Mann says that “all guns” are intimidating, and he’s right. But that doesn’t mean that some aren’t more intimidating than others. Ask any trained professional—including Mr. Mann—what they’d rather be hit with if they had to pick their poison: A 9 mm handgun, a .223 Rem. or a round of 00 Buck from a 12-gauge. Academically, a 9 mm averages roughly 375 foot-pounds at the muzzle, whereas a .223 produces 1,300 foot-pounds. Now compare this to the 1,700 foot-pounds of an average 00 Buck load! The fact is, a 12-gauge at close range strikes fear down the spine of any sane person who knows anything about guns because, if a good shooter is wielding the shotgun, there is a smaller chance they’ll miss. What I’m saying is, a shotgun is a fight-stopper, and bad guys know it.
Certainly Mr. Mann makes a valid argument that handguns can be held with one hand. Most shotguns weigh more than seven pounds and must be fired and manipulated with both hands, thereby making it very difficult to talk on the phone, save the family cat or do your laundry at the same time. And that’s why I advocate installing a sling on your defensive shotgun—if you need your hands, you can sling the gun and still have it handy. While you’re at it, install a flashlight on your shotgun.
But I do not buy his “practice ammo is cheaper” argument, because the difference is about 15 cents per round if purchased in bulk, or roughly $10 more per 100 rounds of No. 8 shotshells vs. 9 mm FMJs. When a gallon of milk is $5, that doesn’t scare me.
I also like the fact that a shotgun can change stripes by simply loading it with various types of ammo. Certainly, it’s a short-range gun compared to a rifle, but it has better range than a handgun. Need to shoot a rabid skunk at 30 yards? Load a
No. 6. Want rounds that won’t penetrate into the next room? Load bird shot and sleep soundly. Want a round that will down a charging grizzly? Use a 385-grain slug load. The point is, a shotgun can be tailored for specific scenarios, depending on the defender’s needs.
The downside is that most traditional (tubular-style magazine) shotguns only hold 5 to 8 rounds and are very slow to reload. So, if you think you’ll be battling an army, a shotgun probably isn’t the best choice—although detachable magazine-fed shotguns, such as Mossberg’s 590M, are readily available. But the main downside to a shotgun is that few people are properly trained in their use. For riflemen who tend to hold and shoot a shotgun like a rifle—thereby negating the shotgun’s advantage of speed and instinctive shooting traits—they are better off with a more accurate, longer-range, easier-loading and lighter-recoiling carbine. But for those who master the shotgun, bad guys beware!
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