Ammo on the shotgun - 4? 6? More?

[TCinVA]

I have been using the Vang shell cards for years. They come in 6 shell versions so I normally have 6 on the gun.

Shotgun shells are heavy and engagements where shotguns are used tend to be brief affairs with few rounds fired. For typical use I don't see much of a need for more than 6. I'd be plenty happy with 4.

If you have a need for different types of ammo, adding a different type to a butt cuff in addition to the side saddle might make sense.

Slug selects tend to be difficult to find in the real world...but I think there's a question of chicken or egg there. In a lot of instances I'm sure that performing a slug select isn't practical in the rapidly changing environment that tends to define an exchange of gunfire. But in others when it is possible, I don't think it happens because shotgun manipulations seem to be poorly trained, poorly practiced, and poorly understood. Even at an instructor certification level, the slug select drill seems to be one that flummoxes more than just about anything else.

I don't find it particularly difficult or enormously time consuming...but I can also load, fire, and cycle an 870 with one hand. So doing a slug select seems easy by comparison.

If one wants to pursue proficiency with a defensive shotgun, slug select is a good skill to have. It's not one I bother wasting time on in intro or even intermediate level classes as there are other things that better serve the interest of the client, IMO.

[TCinVA]

I have given the matter some thought and am leaning toward 5 rounds of LE133 in the tube with an "empty slot" to select a slug combined with 6 round carrier on the gun with the concept of a 2 Brenneke slug/4 LE133 buckshot load. Does anyone have any other configurations that they use for the same purpose?

That setup sounds like a good setup for a police issue gun in a department that runs buckshot and slugs where an officer may be required to slug select to deploy the gun against a vehicle or a big animal that needs to be put down.
Or for someone who owns livestock/property and has a shotgun handy and may need to engage a critter at distance.

For typical home defense I wouldn't worry about slugs at all. I live in a pretty typical suburban environment and I just keep buckshot in my side saddle.

[LHS]

I run 6-round Vang sidesaddles on my guns, but that's a personal preference based on my hand being big enough to get a good grip on the receiver during manipulations with the sidesaddle on there, and my preference for emergency loading over the top from that front position when I can.

It all boils down to what you're comfortable with, and what weight/bulk you're willing to add onto the gun in order to gain additional ammo. Personally I don't like the 8rd sidesaddles, they just take up too much real estate and weight the gun down too much, but again, that's a personal preference and YMMV.

[1911Nut]

If you are carrying in a side saddle on the shotgun, brass up is less likely to fall out hiking over hill and dale, thrashing thru brush.

I leave a side saddle on the shotgun when the shotty is stored, and the side saddle goes into my back pocket or an AR15 holder on my belt when hiking. Slugs in the tube, slugs in the side saddle, and one high brass 6 shot in my pocket for whatever.

Lower 48, buck in the tube inside, slugs in the side saddle. It is hard for me to envision reloading (except admin loading) when I would prefer buck to slugs.

Tube capacity?

[Rick R]

I’m probably an outlier here, my Chateau defense 870 has a 21” barrel and +3 extension. It stays loaded with six buckshot in cruiser ready condition with a six round Esstac card on the gun. The card has two Winchester 1oz slugs base down in front in case the party requires precision, a 00 buckshot base up for port loading and three more 00 base down for mag tube top off.

I usually have two extra cards handy, one all slugs and the other all 00.

[Elwin]

Count me among those who didn’t think any harder than their OCD. Five buck in the tube and five in the shell card. Five round boxes of FC, five round other things. There’s a third card and a couple slugs in a small bag that I know I’ll never actually grab unless it’s for the medkit in it.

[camel]

Can I ask. What is your magazine capacity on a shotgun when you pick it up first and what can you solve with what is onboard. I think that is important. I dislike extended tubes for various reasons but I might be out of the norm. 5+1 with space seems to be a good compromise. Ammo on the outside becomes preference to situation that requires manipulation that takes a little practice.

So what I’m asking is how heavy is it before you start hanging stuff off it and looking for a manipulation of ammo. Someone once told me of its to heavy to carry you need to train more. But I don’t think that is true with something that can be as svelte as a shotgun with the payload on board at the appropriate range. You can hunt. Defend. And throw cool flamethrowers for YouTube and Twitter with the same weapon.so I comes down to how do you manipulate the ammo on board the stick without compromising your manipulation.

[L-2]

I usually have two side-saddle/cartridge carriers on my shotguns (870, 590A1, 11-87): one on the receiver; the other on the rear/right of the butt-stock. Both shell carriers are typically 5-rounders, although I've got a couple of shotguns with older Tacstar 4-round side-saddles, so that's either 9 or 10 rounds, with slugs in one carrier and 00-buck in the other. I think I went with two carriers after attending a Scott Reitz/Louie Awerbuck joint-class.

I've also trained by downloading the mag-tube by one round (department's method) for changing from one type of ammo to the other, usually 00-buck already in the tube, which was a department policy change/mandate made during my tenure there. Prior to that, some of us liked slugs pre-loaded in the tube, with the option to select 00-buck.

I'm not particularly "OCD" so whether the slugs are on the receiver or butt-stock would just depend on which shotgun I grab and I'll take a quick look to see what ammo is where. If both receiver and butt-stock are using the velcro ESSTAC-brand cards, I'd usually have the slugs on the receiver and buck-shot on the butt's carrier.

I have tried the full-mag-tube method, too, but since my department wanted all of us to down-load the mag-tube by one, I just stayed with that method still during my retirement. I don't know if I'd change from the down-load-by-one to the full mag-tube method if I ever get a Beretta or Benelli semi-auto due to the slightly differing manual of arms.

If I went with just one shell-carrier, then I'd just have the opposite type of ammo in the carrier vs. what's in the tube, hoping that 4 or 5 of each type of ammo would be enough; transition to handgun; fight my way back to the AR15; etc.

Other methods of extra/spare ammo is to have a shoulder-bag full of ammo; more carriers on one's tac-vest; a bandolier to throw over one's shoulder instead of a bag; choose a number of rounds and hope/plan for the best outcome.

[Jason M]

My variant is to slam the slide back and roll the gun starboard and dump the shell on the lifter into my hand or onto the ground. Then port load the slug.



In that case, I'd roll brass down front two shells as slugs in the saddle, back 3-4 are buck and also brass down. Remember the reason we roll brass down vs. brass up is how we're going to load the shells (tube vs. port). Brass up lends itself to the port load more than tube loading. Brass down you can easily do both with.

While I'm OCD, OCD takes a back seat to practical. For my single-shot 50-state legal road trip gun, I have 2-slugs in the fore-most spots on a 6-round butt cuff.

I agree about brass up vs brass down.

[Jason M]

If you are carrying in a side saddle on the shotgun, brass up is less likely to fall out hiking over hill and dale, thrashing thru brush.

I leave a side saddle on the shotgun when the shotty is stored, and the side saddle goes into my back pocket or an AR15 holder on my belt when hiking. Slugs in the tube, slugs in the side saddle, and one high brass 6 shot in my pocket for whatever.

Lower 48, buck in the tube inside, slugs in the side saddle. It is hard for me to envision reloading (except admin loading) when I would prefer buck to slugs.

I am thinking along those lines as well. The most versatile product for this seems to be the VCS velcro cards and plate.