Rifle vs Shotgun

B

Bella

New member
The other day I heard someone say that too much rifle shooting can adversely affect shotgunning skills. Is there any truth to this?
 
In my experience, yes. If I have been shooting rifles all year I get in the habit of aiming at a (usually) non moving target. Then I have trouble keeping the shotgun swinging.

Best thing to do is shoot both!
 
Back when I was shooting competitive skeet, I was also into 1,000 yard rifle shooting, and some rifle hunting. I never got confused once. It's like driving versus walking. Now, throw in a cell phone and all bets are off.
 
In my case the shooting of trap and skeet in the summer screwed up my rifle shooting. When you shoot fast moving targets with a shotgun I slap the trigger. This carries over to the rifle discipline, and don't help at all.
+1 on the keep shooting them both, it works for me, keeps me in practice and focus is much easier. That is good advice.
 
Shoot both. I shot rifles yesterday and shotgun today. Usually animals like deer give you a few more seconds to aim and shoot at than say pheasants with a shotgun that give you maybe 3 seconds tops.
 
It is true. The answer, as has been said, is to diversify your training. Someone can be good, maybe even expert at all disciplines, but in general, a person who spends all year shooting clay can run into problems when fall comes around, he blows the dust off of his rifle, and goes out on his annual deer hunt. Same thing will happen when a fella who spends all of his time at the pistol range shooting bullseyes goes out for the opening of duck season..
 
I expect it to be no different than going from driving my stick shift Mazda MX-5 to driving my 29ft automatic transmission, Recreational Vehicle :p
 
practice

too much rifle shooting can adversely affect shotgunning skills.
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not terribly different than saying that if you practice too much football, it will effect your marathon running skills.
It is not that rifle shooting is inherently bad for a shotgunner. It is that these sports require practice and if you are practicing one a lot, then you are practicing the other less. Lack of practice may adversely affect your skills.
Pete
 
WHy does the Military use the M-16 carbine rather than a shotgun for house clearing like in the Middle East these days?
Shot count?
Penetration?
because everyone has rifles anyway?
To me shotguns mke more sense.
ZVP
 
WHy does the Military use the M-16 carbine rather than a shotgun for house clearing like in the Middle East these days?
Shot count?
Penetration?
because everyone has rifles anyway?
To me shotguns mke more sense.
ZVP
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A combination of factors which you mentioned.
Shot count - 12 Ga ammo is heavy, it's hard to carry a lot, and magazines hold less ammunition compared to rifles, obviously. Usually, considerably slower fire rate. Whether it's a pump action or an AA12, it's not really going to match up with the 900-1200 RPM cyclic rates that the rifles can do. The exception would be a Saiga12 or equivalent, but recoil on those things are insane especially compared to auto's with a system to reduce recoil like the AA12 (which only has a rate of fire of 300RPM).

Penetration - Shotguns have poor barrier and armor penetration compared to rifle cartridges.

To me shotguns mke more sense.
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Why? I never really thought shotguns made much sense for 'room clearing'. What's the advantage? Spread is only about the size of a golf ball, you're not really going to be acquiring your targets faster. Recoil tends to be greater, as well.
IMO shotguns are for small moving objects like birds, at relatively short ranges. But you also have to lead shotguns more on moving targets, due to the lower muzzle velocity compared to a rifle.


Which also brings us back to the main subject of the thread. The shot gunner in the military needs training with the shotgun, and a rifle if he's going to be using both at any point. If not properly trained, then skills will suffer with whichever weapon has the weaker training. This also means more time and money specially training these people.
 
My military experience with a shotgun consisted of a day on the ChuLai Rifle Range for familiarization training, but I think one reason for using an M-16 for house clearing may have been over looked. (Not that it is gemain here, but I was in one of the last units armed with the M-14.) Either the M-16 or a shotgun can be used at the extremely close ranges found in house clearing, but the M-16 can also be used if one suddenly finds themselves confronted with targets at ranges of 100 yards+. Isn't one member of a team primarily armed with a shotgun for use in breaching?
 
My 2c... I think there's no truth to it.

I shoot rifles about 80% of the time, pistols 15%, and shotgun about 5% (this is because I prefer shooting rifles).

Even with the lack of practice with shotguns, I still shot it just fine at last weekend's 3Gun match that I went to.

It also may come down to the person's shooting ability.
Another comparison would be that if someone who drives a truck most of the time doesn't mean they will suck at driving a sports car...
 
I've gone months not even picking up my shotgun and I rarely go a week with firing a rifle and a pistol. Usually around the middle of August (dove opens labor day weekend here), I'll clean my shotgun real well and go shoot trap for a couple hours 3 or 4 times. The first time is usually pretty rough. After that, I'm pretty well set.

I don't attribute to my deterioration of my shotgun skills to shooting a rifle at all but completely to lack of practice. To reiterate what's been said already, you have to practice all aspects to be good at anything
 
The other day I heard someone say that too much rifle shooting can adversely affect shotgunning skills. Is there any truth to this?
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I think it can, but not permanently and if you shoot shotguns regularly along with rifles or pistols it doesn't seem to happen - at least to me.

What I find is that if I shoot a lot of rifles and pistols and very little shotgun, I get out the habit of pointing the shotgun and start aiming it. I unconsiously stop the shotgun at the point-of-aim (clay) and pull the trigger - which, of course, results in a miss.

I then remind myself that I'm shooting a shotgun and need to follow through the target as I pull the trigger. By the second round of shooting, I'm back to pointing the shotgun and following through the clay.

If I shoot a shotgun regularly (at least once a week) the problem never occurs no matter how much pistol and rifle shooting I do. If not, and I layoff the shotgun, I have to retrain a bit on pointing and following through the clay.
 
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