I recently accompanied a certain Southern California municipal SWAT team on a shotgun training day. This particular unit just acquired new Benelli M1 Super 90 Entry guns. With a barrel length of 14", the guns handled extremely well in CQ environments. All M1's were fitted with 3 point slings, side saddles and Sure-Fire tac lights. Very sweet package.
The Federal 00 buckshot was full power and generated a lot of recoil in those little guns. Target aquistion was extremely quick with the rifle sights. Double taps at 7 yards was even quicker. The Benelli held an extremely tight group with the 12 pellet 00 buckshot load. At 25 yards, the gun I shot produced two fliers, with 10 staying center of mass. After 50 rounds of buck, we moved to slugs. At 50 yards the gun was low, shooting Winchester 1 oz rifled slug (1600fps?). Still good enough for center of mass shooting.
The most interesting part came with the practical application shooting. The instructor loaded up his M1 with buckshot and engaged a hostage target at 10 yards. He printed a 5 or 6 shot pattern on the hostage takers exposed head. The remaining pellets were off target. He stressed before you engage a hostage taker with your shotgun, you must be dead certain of the backdrop and the range from you and your target. This tactic was intended for a do or die situation in which the operator has no other option but to engage with his weapon at hand (in this case, it was the Benelli). It was pretty amazing to see someone engage a hostage taker with a shotgun. Before, if someone had said that they could end a hostage situation with a scattergun, I would have laughed. I really felt privileged to have been able to train with this team and to finally shoot a Benelli.
BTW, that little bastard kicks with slugs!
The Federal 00 buckshot was full power and generated a lot of recoil in those little guns. Target aquistion was extremely quick with the rifle sights. Double taps at 7 yards was even quicker. The Benelli held an extremely tight group with the 12 pellet 00 buckshot load. At 25 yards, the gun I shot produced two fliers, with 10 staying center of mass. After 50 rounds of buck, we moved to slugs. At 50 yards the gun was low, shooting Winchester 1 oz rifled slug (1600fps?). Still good enough for center of mass shooting.
The most interesting part came with the practical application shooting. The instructor loaded up his M1 with buckshot and engaged a hostage target at 10 yards. He printed a 5 or 6 shot pattern on the hostage takers exposed head. The remaining pellets were off target. He stressed before you engage a hostage taker with your shotgun, you must be dead certain of the backdrop and the range from you and your target. This tactic was intended for a do or die situation in which the operator has no other option but to engage with his weapon at hand (in this case, it was the Benelli). It was pretty amazing to see someone engage a hostage taker with a shotgun. Before, if someone had said that they could end a hostage situation with a scattergun, I would have laughed. I really felt privileged to have been able to train with this team and to finally shoot a Benelli.
BTW, that little bastard kicks with slugs!