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Thread: Shotgun Skills class recap: 5-12-18, Culpeper Va.

  1. #1
    Murder Machine, Harmless Fuzzball TCinVA's Avatar
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    Feb 2011
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    Virginia

    Shotgun Skills class recap: 5-12-18, Culpeper Va.

    On May 12 I presented the second Shotgun Skills class scheduled with FPF Training this year.

    The purpose of the course is simple: To take someone who is competent with a shotgun and give them the skills and some of the necessary repetitions to make them truly proficient with the shotgun.

    In the February class we dealt with freezing rain in temperatures just above freezing. In this edition we had precisely the opposite problem: the sun was high in the sky and the temperatures hit triple digits on the range on what was the hottest day of the year so far. Humidity was extremely high as well. This meant we had to slow the pace I intended for the class down a bit so as not to completely bake the students. I'm fairly used to being on the range in that sort of circumstance and by the end of the day even I was feeling the effects of the heat, the sun, and dehydration.

    Shotgun Skills is a more heavily shooting intensive class. We start with live fire immediately after a fairly in depth safety brief and a quick rundown on hardware and technique. A significant focus is explaining the concept of "stretching" the shotgun or "push/pull" and giving the students the opportunity to play with just that concept first with single shots, then in multi-shot drills and ultimately culminating with firing off the shoulder if they choose to do so. When the technique is properly executed, a student can fire a 12 gauge loaded with defensive buckshot holding the stock away from their shoulder and it won't touch them in recoil. This makes it possible to fire a lot more shells in a single day without students getting beat up by their guns.

    In defensive use of a shotgun we are engaging a violent criminal at much closer distance and with a much different munition than seen in typical sporting use. Typical buckshot loads fire patterns of only a few inches at the kinds of distances we are realistically shooting at with a shotgun. Even birdshot fired through a cylinder bore barrel shoots a much smaller pattern than people expect at 10 yards. To this end, we spend a lot of time on getting folks to aim their shots. The reduced size silhouette targets and plates we use emphasized the need to aim the gun and work the trigger properly to score an effective hit.

    Students found out very quickly that it's possible to entirely miss a steel target at 12 yards with a full pattern of birdshot.

    After running students through the fundamentals (ready positions, mounting the gun properly, stance) and experiments with push/pull, and making sure everyone could actually capably run their gun effectively, we covered manipulations. Emergency loads, tac loads, and thanks to some equipment issues we even dealt with some malfunction clearing.

    Students then worked on multi-target drills incorporating ammunition management, emergency reloading, and transitions between targets. Before beginning this section I like to do a little demonstration of the relative speed you can achieve with a pump vs. a semi-auto. In this class I put a student who had demonstrated an ability to run his Beretta 1301 very fast against me armed with my Remington 870 pump shotgun. The drill was simple: from a low ready put a shot on two steel silhouette targets spaced about 2 yards apart. We both fired our second shot at almost the same instant. In realistic shooting tasks like engaging multiple targets quickly, the pump is not at any sort of speed disadvantage in the hands of someone who knows how to work the action properly.

    After working on multiple targets for a bit on the timer, we transitioned to competitive steel drills. Students were pitted against one another in man-on-man competitions on a plate rack and dueling tree. One of my goals in Shotgun Skills is to put students under some of the stress factors that will exist should they need to use the weapon for their defense. Having students square off on a plate rack or a dueling tree and requiring them to perform manipulations during the strings of fire ratchets up the stress levels to as close as we can safely get to a real fight.

    I used a working lunch break in the class to discuss the subject of shotgun slugs and selecting the right slug for your intended purpose. I had the students fire simple 5 shot groups with their primary slug and to my surprise nearly everyone's slugs shot to almost the same point of aim as their buckshot. We also took some time for folks to experiment with other slugs that interested them from other students. Note that all work with slugs was done exclusively on paper targets for safety.

    While the paper was still up, we spent some time covering methods of making the shotgun shorter for maneuver in tight spaces:

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    Here students are working on the over-the-shoulder method which, when combined with push/pull, can be used very effectively at extremely close ranges. Note that the shooting on this section was also done exclusively on paper...the steel targets sit between paper targets and were not used here.

    I believe in using some sort of objective standard so students have an idea of their performance, so to that end I ran the students through the Rangemaster shotgun qualifier. It's a good law-enforcement style qualification that runs from 5 to 25 yards, all timed, and it incorporates all the major skills necessary for true proficiency with the shotgun. All students easily passed the qualification, most of them truly acing it. (There were multiple 100% scores)

    When the qualification was done we spent some time covering the basics of approaching corners and cover/concealment with the shotgun, including a fair bit of time explaining the benefits of gaining "depth" on cover or an obstacle so that you can see the other guy before he sees you.

    I concluded the day by asking the class what they wanted to do more of, and they selected more competitive steel drills so I ran them on the steel plate rack on the timer.

    Equipment:

    There were three semi-automatic shotguns in class...all Beretta 1301 shotguns. One student's gun was slow to go back into battery when he used the bolt release but the gun still cycled reliably. He reports to me that it's no longer doing that after a good cleaning. (Note: I'm a factory certified 1301 armorer and I didn't see anything obvious causing the problem when I inspected his gun)

    We had three pump guns in the class as well, all Remington 870 shotguns. One had been worked over by Robar and refinished with NP3. I couldn't resist some trigger time on that and after experiencing the quality of their work first hand I highly recommend it.

    One 870 experienced some ejection issues. I took a look at the gun and concluded that ejection issues are to be expected when the gun has no ejector. It appeared that when he had the gun refinished someone had intended to replace the ejector and had simply forgotten to do so. Frankly I thought it was impressive how successfully the gun had worked up until that point.

    The remaining 870 had a Mossberg barrel (Mossberg makes barrels for the 870) with a typical Mossberg bead on it. The student using this gun struggled with shooting high throughout the course, especially when we moved to shooting on the plate rack and dueling tree. I've said this before but it bears repeating: It's possible to do some quality work with a bead sight if you have a lot of experience using one, but I routinely find that people struggle to use a bead as accurately as we'd like to see once we start placing them under some stress. I greatly prefer rifle style sights on my shotgun and this gentleman's struggles underlined why I make that recommendation on a defensive shotgun.

    Students:

    This class was relatively small (mother's day weekend) and varied in terms of student background. We had a mix of different backgrounds and motivations for attendance.

    Observations:

    I had intended for this class to shoot as many as 400 shells, but the heat forced me to slow the pace a little bit more than I thought would be necessary when planning the class. That being said, I believe most of the students fired just about every shell they brought to class.

    Ordinarily that kind of round count in a shotgun class scares people because they think they will get beat up...but with the right technique that doesn't happen. I checked in with students throughout the day and they all reported that shorter stocks, a good stance, and the push/pull technique were combining to make the shooting very comfortable.

    I saw a shooter induced stoppage I've never seen before. A shooter with a 1301 failed to push a shell past the shell stop when he was attempting to load the magazine of the gun...but he also loaded that shell backwards. This produced two shells on the lifter with the bases of each shell touching. This was a royal pain in the derriere to clear.

    All in all despite the heat, the sun, and teaching with a sprained left foot it was a fun class to present and everyone demonstrated true proficiency by the end of the day. Learning occurred and everyone stayed safe.
    3/15/2016

  2. #2
    Ehat a great write up. Makes me want to get a shotgun to take the class [emoji16]

    Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

  3. #3
    Site Supporter
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    Aug 2014
    Location
    Northern Virginia
    It was a great class. I was the guy with the Remberg 870. As stated, I struggled with putting my shots where I wanted them once we got past 7yds or so. I never had a problem in lower pressure range trips, so to have it happen in class repeatedly was disheartening. But I still learned a lot about gun handling, manipulations, speed, and even gun set up (rifle sights, stock length, grip tape on forend, rifle sights). I ordered a rifle-sighted barrel from Brownells the next morning (and have it on the gun already, just waiting for a range trip to break it in).

    Regarding recoil control, I just knew my shoulder was going to be black and blue or at least yellowed the next day, but I never developed any color whatsoever, nor was I the slightest bit sore. The push/pull method really works and quickly became second nature.

    It's definitely worth taking at least once.

    Chris

  4. #4
    Dot Driver Kyle Reese's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Central Virginia
    Great class, Tim! I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and anyone looking for top flight instruction on how to in a gauge should study under TC.



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