Rolling Thunder

By Bob Owens

When I took the one-day Sentinel Concepts Practical Shotgun class at the Alliance Police Training facility this past Saturday, we spent the first part of our range time developing an appreciation for how our shotguns patterned with buckshot.

After patterning our shotguns, it was time to “do work.”

Shotguns are unparalleled at close range, and according to Steve Fisher, he’s not been able to find a single documented instance in the United States of a bad guy taking more than two center mass hits from a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot inside a home.

None.

The fight-stopping power of a shotgun does come at a price, however; the 18.5″ cylinder-bore guns preferred for this kind of work can be violent on both ends, and are constantly demanding more shells.

One of the first things Fisher had us learn was how to mitigate a shotgun’s recoil.

We all know—or have been—the person given the advice to pull the shotgun tightly into your shoulder to absorb recoil.

It was the way I was taught to shoot shotguns, and what I did growing up hunting whitetails with buckshot in …read more

Source:: Bearing Arms