What tactical use is the shotgun slug?

anti big

a slug can really equal the odds. it would be my number one choice for shooting downa door, or firing at a car. one of my fav guns is a handmade single shot pistol that fires a 4.10 shotgun slug. it may be small but i promise you it would put a big whole in just about anything that gets hit.
 
You may think that this is a simple training issue, but I can tell you that this officer was high-speed low-drag.
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FWIW, high-speed low-drag does not mean one is good with all sorts of weapons. My experience is that very few people take the time and effort to properly learn to use the shotgun as a fighting tool, and that very few isntructors know how to train others with the shotgun.
 
Use of a slug

In Florida, Security can get a "Waiver" to have a 12 gauge, not a Rifle, myself I would sooner have my AUG, with a 30 round magazine in it.

Having said what I would like, back to what we have, an ex (not new) Police trade in, Mossberg 500. Smooth as glass, hi vis fiber optic front sight, this replaced the bead. Cheek it, press, 30 yd hits on soft drink bottle.

I use this to walk employees from their place of business to their POVs at closing time, in the dark, but very well lit parking lot on a main road.

Reduced velocity slugs are in the tube, 5 of them. Since the Mossberg and I have been taking this walk, no one loiters, they used too. Level 11 vest, and a Glock 19 as well.
 
Mr. Armstrong. I think that you are right. It is a good gun. The only point I was trying to make is that it is not a simplest weapon to use. I know there are pros to using the weapon but I will bring up some cons. When you are using slugs you are basically using a heavy recoil, short range, manually operated, low round capacity rifle. I just think that there are better weapon systems out there. All though I would take one into combat if it was the only long gun I had around.
 
Slugger

Well it has the knock down power for about anyone or anything you might run across. It's also great for taking out a deadbolt in a heavy door. Even at close range the buckshot stays in a pretty tight pattern, it wont disperse right away. Personally for home defense I would pick a nice revolver. I have a snub nose 357. Good house gun for close range, knockdown power, and only one hand to operate.
 
In 1988 during a shoot out with a subject one of our guys was armed with a 12 ga shooting 1 oz foster slugs. He hit the guy at about 30 ft from the side in the left upper arm nearly removing the arm. The slug then entered the chest taking out a rib. It then continued thru both lungs and clipping the top of the heart and removing the aorta, then taking out a rib as it exited the chest cavity. It then took out most of the bicept on the right upper arm. The slug was never recovered. DRT. When we opened the chest cavity it looked like everything above the diaphram had been run thru a blender.
Slugs work and work well.
 
You forgot the most important thing: A 12-ga. slug works the way no ordinary can opener does! It's perfect for ricing potatoes, peeling watermelons, juicing oranges, heck... just about any common culinary task!
 
Mr. Armstrong. I think that you are right. It is a good gun. The only point I was trying to make is that it is not a simplest weapon to use.
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No disagreement from me. That is the biggest problem, I feel, with the shotgun---too many people think it IS easy to use, while it is probably one of the hardest to use well. It pays you back by being a great weapon, but you have to learn how to work it right to get that success.
 
Tactical use of the shotgun!

Training is the key to any tactical senario. Most people and law enforcement professionals hate to shoot heavy shotguns. So they do not train with the weapon regularly. A proper shotgun slug, used by a trained person, will end any CQB situation. A rifle bullet will pass through the target at extremely close range and most times not cause the desired effect. The shotgun slug, moving slower and with greater mass, is perfect.
It's no different than hunting any dangerous game. An aimed shot from a trained person, with the proper equipment, will usually end the threat. A charging brown bear or a crazy bad guy. Only the untrained person, thinks a shotgun slug is for Hollywood movies.
 
Training is not required to shoot a slug proficiently, just practice.
I'd put my money on a deer hunter's shot placement over a LEO with a few weeks training anyday.

kenny b
 
Mr. Armstrong. I think that you are right. It is a good gun. The only point I was trying to make is that it is not a simplest weapon to use.
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I never thought of a pump shotgun as being difficult to use. The whole process is quite simple. It can be screwed up, but that isn't a function of the complexity of the mechanism. It is a function of the shooter not completing a very simple task.

With that said, the use of slugs has nothing to do with the complexity of the platform.
 
The shotgun is not difficult to use. It is difficult to use it well enough to get the most out of it. Few people pattern the guns, learn to use different loads, how to utilize the zone effects, etc.
 
What's there to know:

1. You just have to rack it to scare away the BG
2. You can't miss
3. It will knock down the BG if you do shoot like the hammer of Thor (preferred analogy for gun lists).

Oh, wait - never mind!

I have had this told me by very smart gun folks. :D

BTW, for something else I was working on, I read a description of a police officer short stroking his pump under extreme stress. If an instrument has the possiblility of needing a physical manipulation that is subject to such stress effects - one might argue that it is difficult to use given standard human factors analyses.
 
BTW, for something else I was working on, I read a description of a police officer short stroking his pump under extreme stress. If an instrument has the possiblility of needing a physical manipulation that is subject to such stress effects - one might argue that it is difficult to use given standard human factors analyses.
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Short-stroking seems to be fairly common, Glenn. Every course I've attended or given it has reared its ugly head. That's one of the reasons I preferred my Beretta 1201 for serious social shotgunning.
 
DA is correct. Short stroking is very easy to do under stress, slow down and read that again. UNDER STRESS, not shooting static targets at 10 yards. I have short stroked more than one time under the lesser stress of pin shooting, and have seen even the best pump gunners I know do it atleast one time or more.

It can and will happen no matter how good or fast you think you are.
 
We found that when the shooter is standing on their hind 2 legs that short stroking rarely occurs. However, when the LEO goes into a position that is behind cover, crouched, squatted, or angled in a non-normal position that the incidents of short stroking goes up. Even if the person is very experienced with the shotgun and had been in numerous prior shooting situations that obstacles experienced when in "off" positions can greatly increase the potential for short stroking.
 
Do your shooters ever stand on their front two legs? Is this something out of "Those Amazing Dobermans"?
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An old phrase, probably before your time. Means as opposed to kneeling, prone, etc.
 
David Armstrong:
Short-stroking seems to be fairly common, Glenn. Every course I've attended or given it has reared its ugly head. That's one of the reasons I preferred my Beretta 1201 for serious social shotgunning.
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While this thread started off talking about slugs I like the turn it has taken. Many hard core shotgunners think the only shotgun you can trust your life with is the pump (insert brand). They all have fairly decent reasons for thier position. If you consider the Full Line of munitions availible for the shotgun: breaching, less-lethal, reduced recoil and launcher pumps do rule. Their versitility also makes them a top chioce for "tuners and gear heads"
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If you are looking for a purely defensive shotgun for the average shooter or LEO/Mil the semi-auto shotgun has a lot of advantages. My first shotgun was a Remington 870. I purchased it after 6 years in the Army. I thought it it was great, but would on ocasion find myself wondering why my shotgun wouldn't fire. Why? Because I was so used to the manual of arms of the M-16. pull trigger, repeat. I soon picked up a 11-87 and found my groove.

Semi's are easier to train in todays semi auto world. Pumping is one less thing to try and do under stress or in positions such has prone were pumping can be a real pain. I well maintained semi shotgun with proper ammo will serve 95% of all defensive shooters needs.

Only when you get into some of the extreams that the military and some police encounter or special munitions being employed do you HAVE to HAVE a pump.
 
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