Beware the “armchair experts” and look-at-me crowd pushing new solutions for problems that were solved long ago…especially when it comes to the defensive shotgun
by Paul G Markel
Thanks to the curse that is social media and the desire of so-called influencers to gain followers, clicks, or likes, one of the current trends is to take a previously settled subject or accepted belief and poke fun or otherwise disparage it.
Just recently, I came across a pubescent influencer who decided to make a video poking fun at those who would actually hold onto the vertical forward handgrip, sometimes called the “broom handle,” on the M4. The foregrip, or handgrip, was developed specifically for that purpose as a part of the original SOP-MOD kit put into regular service during the beginning of GWoT. One can only imagine the motivation behind such a piece of “content.”
Then there is the reason for this article. A friend shared a video made by a veteran, who should be old enough to know better, wherein he stated that a shotgun is a poor and/or a bad choice for home defense. One of the stated reasons was that a “missed shot” will mess up your home’s interior walls.
Yes, he said that.
Training or “FAM-fire?”
Part of the reason why military veterans harbor misconceptions and promote misunderstanding regarding the 12-gauge fighting shotgun is due to the deeply entrenched idea that firearm training is all about marksmanship. When faced with a multi-projectile tool, such as the shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot, the military is often befuddled as to how to properly “score” targets. Therefore, the majority of what could be used as productive training time instead becomes a familiarization exercise, more commonly called a “FAM-fire” in military verbiage.
The FAM-fire exercise for a shotgun is the most rudimentary or fundamental of undertakings. Troops are shown how to put ammunition in the gun, how to work the action to chamber a round, and then how to disengage the safety to fire. The target is typically an OD green waxed cardboard silhouette. The troops in question are staged at various distances and simply instructed to point and shoot.
I was present during one of the aforementioned FAM-fire exercises, where US Navy personnel were using Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotguns. If memory serves, the troops started at the 20-yard line, then moved to 15 yards and finally to 10 yards. At each yard line, they were told to take five shots. I specifically recall the Senior Instructor advising the men, “When you get to ten yards, don’t waste time shouldering the gun. Just shoot from the hip. At that distance you cannot miss.”
As mentioned, I was present at that time along with a couple of other Small Arms and Tactics Instructors who had been recruited to stand-up an essential combat skills course for troops prior to deployment to combat zones. When the shooters got to the 10-yard line, we outsider observers stood back and watched them launch rounds from their hips over, under, to the right, and to the left of the targets, missing with most or all the buckshot.
The Senior Instructor who gave them the ridiculous advice to not “waste time” shouldering their shotguns was a product of institutionalized stupidity. That type of nonsense gets passed down generation after generation in the military.
Two decades prior to the incident discussed above, when I was a young Private First Class and was required to carry a Vietnam-vintage Remington 870 shotgun, the so-called training I received was little better. We were taught how to load and operate the guns and then given a whole fifteen rounds of GI-issued 00 buckshot to FAM-fire. We, though, were instructed to “lean into the stock” and put our bodyweight behind each shot. A couple of years later, when the Corps adopted the Mossberg 590A1 12-gauge shotgun, we repeated the process, only this time we were given the generous allotment of 25 shotshells with which to familiarize ourselves.
Between the time I was in the Marine Corps and the time I became a military contractor teaching Small Arms and Tactics, I went through the police academy and was fortunate to undergo serious fighting shotgun training. Our academy shotgun training included birdshot, buckshot, and slugs.
During the police academy training, one of the most valuable lessons for us cadets was the patterning demonstration of 00 buckshot at various distances. We were taught the ballistic science of 00 buckshot and how, when fired from a typical 18.5-inch cylinder bore barrel, the average 00 buckshot load will spread about ½ to 1 inches per yard traveled. This does not take into account some modern tactical loads, particularly Federal Cartridge’s FLITECONTROL wads. [Check out this recent Shoot ON article to see a comparison test of the leading defensive 12-gauge buckshot loads.]
As you can see, the closer you are to your target, the tighter the shot pattern will be. For the typical engagement distance of around five yards, your pattern will be somewhere between 2.5 and 5 inches.
Yes, you can miss with a shotgun.
Having considered the aforementioned veteran’s statement about how missed shots will damage the interior of your house, one might conclude that this person was operating from the common shotgun mythology that a round of buckshot will “fill the hallway” and that somehow the shot pattern will be so large that buckshot will miss the human attacker and put holes in your drywall.
12-Gauge Shotgun Mythology
For as long as I have been alive and paying attention to the subject — some forty plus years now — all manner of shotgun mythology has been spewed by self-appointed experts. I can recall the “shotgun racking” myth. “Just rack the shotgun and the burglar will piss their pants.” So went the advice. Of course, one must believe that a cracked-out home invader will be cognizant enough to both hear that shotgun action being worked AND recognize the sound.
Other insanity has taken the form of ammunition schizophrenia, where the “expert” in question advises to load a variety of shotgun ammunition from birdshot to buckshot and slugs and even “rock salt” (yes, I have heard that in person) to a blank shotgun round in the magazine tube. The birdshot assumption is that the target will be squared up in front of you, at very close range. Sure, that might happen, but what if it doesn’t? What if there is some type of barrier material partially obstructing the killer or killers inside of your home? What if you must take a shot at 7, 8, or 10 yards?
Of course, let us not forget the most common mythology. “You cannot miss with a shotgun.” This nonsensical blather leads otherwise good people to believe that they can just point a shotgun in the general direction of the threat and touch off a round. It is, as they imagine, some kind of buckshot grenade with the intruder being torn to shreds by the nine (or 8) .33-caliber pellets.
The Downside
Then we have the supposed downsides, or the reasons why “experts” say not to use a shotgun for home defense (besides damaging your drywall). As recently as this year, I read an article in one of the few remaining paper gun magazines where the author advised to use a handgun for home defense because you can “turn on lights” and “open doors” while holding a handgun but cannot do so while holding a shotgun. I’m not sure what type of training the author had, save how to use Microsoft Word. Nonetheless, in my forty years employing a shotgun, I have been able to take my support hand off the forearm and perform the required tasks.
We have also heard that shotguns are “too powerful” and will “over penetrate” inside of your home. Folks, I hate to break it to you, but a .22LR fired from a pistol is going to zip right through interior drywall without slowing down. Unless you are planning to use a pellet gun for home defense, every firearm you might fire will pass through interior walls. If we are talking about overpenetration of the human attacker, that is a completely different story. Should the 00 buckshot make it through a human torso, the velocity of the pellets on the other side will be minimal at best.
Additionally, we have heard the story that shotgun recoil is “uncontrollable” and (yes, I heard this) will “break your shoulder.” Unless you have a degenerative bone condition or are a child, a 12-gauge shotgun is not going to break your shoulder. As for felt recoil, yes, shotguns do offer more of such than pistols, but the recoil comes AFTER the shot, not before. There is this crazy thing called TRAINING that can actually help you learn to control a shotgun and work with the felt recoil.
Remington 870
For this review, I pulled out a classic fighting shotgun: a Remington 870 Police Magnum patrol shotgun. I can only imagine the number of felonious bad guys put to rest by this tool prior to the advent of the “patrol rifle” during GWoT. For well over one hundred years, American law enforcement officers ended deadly force confrontations using an 870 loaded with 00 buckshot or, in rarer occasions, slugs.
We have come a long way since I was carrying the old-school Winchester 00 buckshot with the red shells. During the last twenty years or so, numerous “tactical” loads for the 12-gauge have been produced by various makers. Federal Cartridge is one of the most notable manufacturers.
For this review, I used the Federal Premium Law Enforcement Precision Buckshot ammo that uses their patented FLITECONTROL wad. This load is a reduced-recoil load (1145 fps) with eight .33-caliber copper-plated round pellets. I fired this load at 5, 10, and 15 yards. All three holes in the cardboard measured ⅞ inch across for all distances. This two-dimensional measurement might lead some to denigrate the load. “What good is buckshot that doesn’t spread out?” they say. To which I would reply, “You are not thinking three-dimensionally.” Human attackers are not made of cardboard. The moment that the aforementioned load meets the meaty resistance of the felonious attacker, said resistance will cause the pellets to spread out on eight separate wound paths.
Even if all the shot stayed together after impact, which it won’t, we are talking about a one-inch wound channel! A single piece of 00 buckshot will weigh around 54 grains (53.8). Multiply that by eight or nine and you have either a fraction shy of one ounce or just a bit over an ounce. An ounce of lead traveling at 1145 feet per second is going to get the attention of the cracked-out home invader.
The next load I tried was even newer: the Federal Force X2 00 buckshot. This specialty load uses .33-caliber buckshot pellets that are copper-plated but are scored or split so as to fly in one solid piece yet break in half when they meet resistance. The Force X2 buckshot does not have a FLITECONTROL wad, and I found the spread to be 3 1/4 inches at five yards and 6 1/8 inches at ten yards. Such a spread jives with the average 1/2- to 1-inch per yard traveled.
Serious Business
Deadly force, such as defending your home against one or multiple (which is all too prevalent) violent intruder(s) is extremely serious business. This topic should be considered with grave attention. When it comes to protecting the lives of your family, you should not be relying upon gun shop gossip, rumor, or hyperbole. Additionally, your family’s lives should be valuable enough for you to take your education and training seriously. Do not base your home defense plan on mythology and misunderstanding.
Is the 12-gauge shotgun the perfect home defense tool? Maybe yes, maybe no. Regardless, for over two hundred years, Americans have been using shotguns to defend their homes, ergo their families. For the current crop of Instagram models to come along and state that shotguns are somehow no good for home defense or are “bad choices” would seem to be the height of shortsighted arrogance. We implore you to make choices based on facts and experience, not social media trends.
