Review: Rapid Defense Intro to Defensive Shotgun (SE Wisconsin)

Location: Schultz Resort Rod & Gun Club, Muskego, WI
Date: 4/14/24
Cost: $185 (paid out of my own pocket)
Rounds expended: 175 birdshot, 50 buckshot, 15 slug
Prerequisite: (none)
Weather: warm and sunny

Executive summary: another good example of solid local training, good introduction class, but could use a little more

Rapid Defense is a newer company in southeast Wisconsin, having only started up about four years ago. They offer training in a variety of firearms-related areas, as well as acting as an FFL for transfers. The past weekend, I took their "Introduction to Defensive Shotgun" one-day class.

Rapid Defense's business model is to try to accommodate people who can't make the cost or time commitments for an weekend-long class by providing single-day "buffet" style classes, where the object isn't to go too in-depth in any one area, but to provide a variety of topics at a certain skill level. As such, they have a "performance based" style, rather than a "standards based" style; where, rather than trying to reach a specific standard, their goal is to have each participant improve their skills by the end of the day. In addition, since they have less overhead than a national travelling trainer, they can keep the cost and the class sizes smaller.

Our instructor was Craig French, a semi-retired 28 year law enforcement officer. Semi-retired because he returned to work as only a firearms and UOF instructor, and his main emphasis is the shotgun.

As mentioned, our class was small; only seven including me. There was one active-duty LE officer, and the rest of us were "normal dudes." Guns present were four Remington 870's (including mine), one Mossberg 590, one Beretta 1301, and one "Turknelli" M4 clone.

The day started with a safety brief, which was in my mind just a little too brief. Having been through Craig Douglas's and John Murphy's safety briefs, I would have liked that level of preparedness, but I think the safety brief was adequate. I did appreciate that French designated a primary and secondary medical person, and a person to handle logistics on how to get in/out of the club. I also like that he put in more time on "finger off the trigger" to have us use a positive register and provided several individual reminders over the course of the class about this.

We spent a decent amount of time talking about the pro's and con's of shotguns (different types of ammo, legalities/appearance, capacity issues, etc.), as well as a comparison between pump and semi-auto shotguns. (Anyone who has paid attention to the good shotgun threads here will be familiar with all of these things.) We also had a discussion of what "extras" should be on a good defensive shotgun (light, sling, more ammo, stock selection). From there, we discussed ammo selection (buck vs. slug), fundamental shooting stance, and an intro to the "push-pull" technique (Aside: after hanging around here, I would like to have seen this emphasized much, much more.)

The next discussion block discussed the differences in the guns we were all carrying there. We talked about the different safeties (especially Rem 870 vs. Mossy 590) and the different starting positions he wanted us to use: low-ready, "eye-muzzle-target", and "indoor ready" (like a slightly off-to-the-side Sul). We also talked about storage modes, "Transport Mode" (full tube, empty chamber, safety on, slide open), and "Carry Mode" (round in the chamber, safety on, tube full). French is not a fan of "Cruiser Ready"; he would like the slide to not move if he has to grab it suddenly, and he wants the safety on. We also had instruction on how to purge ammo out of the guns without just racking the slide (or charging handle) over and over.

We started the shooting portion with patterning our guns with buckshot from 5, 10, 15, and 25 yards, with an emphasis on know what the longest shot you will have to make inside your house. The LEO and I brought multiple loads to test so French gave us some extra time to try them out, showing the class how the same load (the LEO and I had a some overlap in our loads), will pattern differently out of different guns. We also tried out slugs at 25 yards to check our sighting systems.

From here, we started technical practicalities: the combat load. We worked both the "over the top" and the "under the bottom" style combat loads. Then, to his credit, French put us on a timer to compare our combat loads to show us that even if one method felt better, it may not necessarily be faster. French also emphasized tactical reloading of the shotgun: the mantra we were told was to think of the shotgun as a game of "Hungry, Hungry Hippos" (which I found amusing, and memorable). As a fun event, we did a combat load for time contest, with the prize being a class patch. Even though this was my first time doing them, I surprised myself with a second-place. I asked French about the Fiddle/Violin reload, and he's not a fan.

The rest of the day (with a break for lunch) was all shooting drills, including:

One, Two, Three Shot Progressive Drill
(more) Combat Loads
(more) Tactical reloads
Slug Transitions - with another timed contest for a patch (I came in second, again, but to a different student)
Five Shot Hammer Drills
Multi Target Drills
Rolling Thunder

Some disappointments:
I had to keep telling myself that this was a one-day intro class, so French needed to teach to the lowest common denominator but I would have liked him to spend more time on the following:
•Push-pull. This was my first ever shotgun class, but I had at least mentally "trained" to do push-pull, and I would have liked to see French emphasize it more
•Sighting systems. French touched on the different sighting systems, but I would have liked him to work with us at least a bit on sighting better
•Running pump guns. I'm armchair quarterbacking a little, but I kept in mind what either @TCinVA , @Dagga Boy , or @LHS said, that you need to run a pump gun "like you're mad at it." That advice served me very well, but I saw at least two other students have multiple issue with their guns that, in my inexperienced opinion, came down to them short-stroking their guns. I think French could have addressed this with some instruction

Overall, I'd give this class a B+. Defensive shotgun classes aren't easy to find, and with our limited options, I'd still recommend this class to others. If I can, I'm thinking of doing the "Intermediate Defensive Shotgun" class that French is instructing in June.

~~~~~~
I am in no way affiliated with Rapid Defense. If you are located in southeast Wisconsin, and possibly northeast Illinois, I would recommend giving them a try.
https://www.rapiddefensewi.com/

OK, some lessons learned from the class.

My gun for the class was a police trade-in Remington 870 Police Magnum with a manufacturing date of 1989 (I think). I don't have a lot of experience with shotguns, but it sure felt like the action on this thing was really smooth. I only had two bobbles with the gun (and, of course, both times it was for a timed-test), and I'm 95% sure the bobbles were user error, so that's good.

The bad is that I think my barrel sucks. I didn't get a picture of my 5-yard patterns, but both Hornady Black 8-pellet reduced recoil and Fiocchi Defense Dynamics 9-pellet #1, the patterns were much bigger that I wanted (I know @RustyCrusty has gotten some great results from this Fiocchi load, but not me).

At 10-yards, I switched to Federal FliteControl 8-pellet 00 (LE13300). Not bad
Attachment 117524

At 15-yards, however, the FFC started opening up. The bottom spread is Hornady Black (with their VersaTite wad). This pattern was really important to me, as the longest indoor shot in my house is 13 yards.
Attachment 117525

At 25-yards with FFC... well, they're all on the target, but I'm not sure I would take that shot
Attachment 117526

@TCinVA and @LHS (or anyone else) can you comment? I don't have much basis for comparison. I was really, really disappointed by the Hornady and Fiocchi loads; I expected more out of them.


Bead sights absolutely suck. I need to put a dot on this gun, but the receiver isn't drilled/tapped for an optic, so I need to find a gunsmith.


LockTite is a thing. I discovered half-way through the class that I hadn't LockTite-d my flashlight. It flew off in embarrassing fashion.


A dump-pouch is a poor way to have your reloads, especially a low(-er) hanging one. I need to get myself some more Esstac cards (or something similar) or one of the 5.11 belt pouches I saw that is sized to hold a box of shotgun shells.