It’s 4:30 AM. You wake to the sound of glass breaking – were you dreaming, was it real. Sitting up in bed you listen while trying to gather your composure, you can hear someone riffing through the living room.
You reach for your shotgun and cell phone and take up a defensive position facing the bedroom door. You dial 911.
Hello, 911 what is your emergency?
Someone is in my house you exclaim in a whispered but frantic voice. They’re coming through the bedroom door, you drop the phone to the floor – stop I have a gun, you shout at the intruder as he enters the room.
You squeeze the trigger releasing a load of buckshot that rips through his chest – he falls backward clinching his chest and collapses to the floor.
Oh my God, I think he’s dead – send someone now, you shout at the 911 operator. Send someone now…
Over the years survival gurus such as Mel Tappan (1933–1980) have written countless words detailing the virtues of battle rifles for survival.
You need pin point accuracy beyond 500 meters, a 20-30 round magazine capacity and .30 caliber power they say.
I agree, you need to include as much utility into your arsenal as possible, but chances are good you will be in a situation similar to the example above, rather than shooting looters at 600 meters.
I’m a staunch advocate of the tactical shotgun for home defense. The shotgun is incredibly effective at ranges of 35 yards or less with shot shells and up to 100 or a little more with slugs.
If you need to stop an attack quickly few weapons can do it with greater effectiveness than a shotgun.
But as with any tool you need to know how to use the shotgun properly. That is where Paladin’s newest instructional DVD “High-Risk Environment Training II Volume 2: Security Shotgun” fits the bill.
While the other instructional DVD’s produced by the folks at Kelly McCann’s Crucible training facility in Fredricksburg, Virginia are narrated and instructed by Kelly McCann personally, this one was overseen by one of his staff instructors – John Buchanan with McCann giving only a brief introduction at the beginning.
The first hour of the video covers action types, sighting systems, lights, lasers, patterning, shot size, gauge, stock length, forearms, slings, safety, etc. If you’re new to firearms you will find this introductory lesson useful and well presented but most of you, I think, will find this information rather redundant.
The second hour (total run time of this DVD is 120 minutes) gets into more advanced instruction, concepts and techniques such as stance, recoil management, shooting pump and semiautomatic shotguns, shot-to-shot follow-up, carry options, reloading under stress, transitioning to a handgun, tactical use in the home etc. Everything is well done and easy to understand.
Something that I had not seen in other videos, that was included here was penetration tests on interior and exterior walls and doors using live ammo, including birdshot, buckshot and slugs. The results were interesting and no doubt will be surprising to some of you.
Bottom line: if you are looking for instruction on cornering, room clearing, snap shooting, tactical movement, or other advanced techniques and principles you will be disappointed.
However “High-Risk Environment Training II Volume 2: Security Shotgun” covers pretty much everything you really need to know to effectively defend your home against intrusion and is an excellent starting point for those looking for basic information in the use of the shotgun, which was the intent.
{ 6 comments }
Thanks for the review! I just finished watching Tom Given’s Defensive Shotgun video last weekend, and I was amazed by how little I actually knew about the defensive shotgun. I’m planning to take a defensive shotgun class with Tom Givens and Louis Awerbuck in 2011. Hopefully watching a video like the one you listed (or Tom’s) and taking some hands on training will show me how to properly operate a defensive shotgun if SHTF (I pray I never have to kill someone though). There is a lot more to defensive shotgun that I realized!
We’ll be running a tactical shotgun clinic in about two weeks, based in part on the Magpul Dynamic shotgun course, which is another excellent DVD. We run several formal tactical NRA classes each year and one informal tactical course per month, year round ’cause the bad guys don’t just come out in the good weather. For a look at the upcoming example clinic , see http://ppcplusrggc.blogspot.com/
If you’re located in the central Ohio area, this might be a viable and inexpensive training option.
Sounds like a good idea. I like the idea of a training dvd. I like it beacus you can train on your schedule and you don`t have to travel anywhere.How much is the course? Steve
Our upcoming course is free to club members and invited guests and is a live tactical course for the advanced shooter. The NRA courses vary in cost, but are always reasonably priced since they are club sponsored and the instructors volunteer their time. The Magpul Dynamics DVD set is available from Magpul (http://store.magpul.com/product/DYN005/76) for $40.00. I BTW am not associated with Magpul except as a very satisfied customer.
I’ve thought a lot about rifles for defense lately. They hold a lot more bullets than shotguns and have a higher rate of fire. Shotguns are solid choices as long as people understand them and not just the hype. The issue of penetration is largely even between shotguns and rifles because of the size of shot needed to penetrate enough to stop people (a whole nother discussion but it certainly starts with ‘buck’ not ‘bird’) will of course penetrate walls. Also you do need to aim shotguns as at close range the shot doesn’t spread much.
Both are good choices if you know what you are getting into and train around the specific strengths and weaknesses.
Probably the biggest weaknesses of shotguns is the magazine capacity (typically anywhere from 3+1 to 8+1), and the fact that generally it’s a fixed magazine, meaning that you have to keep the gun topped off, one shell at a time, while still keeping a tactical eye on the situation. With a carbine you can let it run dry & slap in another 20 rounds.
Actually took a defensive shotgun class today. I understood most of the tactical basics going in (had the knowledge) but found out that I have a lot of dry practice to do before I’m at all competent (don’t have the skill)
Comments on this entry are closed.