Why do people prefer pump actions over semi-auto?

You don't really think that the industry standard is manual in every sort of racecar, freight vehicle, and most military applications because it "just feels good," do you?
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No Anticonn, it wasn't meant to be an all-encompassing statement.:) That's why I wrote the word "(some)" in parenthesis. I was implying that "some people" just want to get in their car and have it get them to point B, some want to experience the all the aspects of driving. Not everybody fits into those two categories, and when I said "automatic that does the same thing just as well or better" I meant that it gets me to the grocery store just as well (with less work on my part). I wasn't giving an engineering analysis of which car transmissions or shotguns were better.

kozak6 summed up my thinking:
it's more a matter of personal preference than anything.

And with a pump, half the fun is the CHOOK-CHOOK .
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Lavid2002 said:
p.s I have a pump shotgun and I drive stickshift.... is there a conspiracy
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Actually it might be interesting to try to draw a correlation between the two preferences.:D
 
Wouldn't that depend on the usage? I see more O/U's in target shooting, more semi's in waterfowling, and more SxS and O/U in upland hunting - or are you limiting this to HD?
 
While the modern auto loader shotgun is far and away more reliable than most of the older guns with older design lacking refinement or older materials lacking the improved technology. However the main difference that makes an auto loader shot gun inherently less reliable than a semi-auto pistol is in the ammo. With pistol and even rifle ammo you automatically have a nose more suited to feeding reliably but you also have almost no variation in case length, material and design. For instance a cheap shell with thinner plastic in the hull could have flex and compressed spots that will increase friction while absorbing the needed energy for a reliable feed. The shot shell also varies greatly in verall unfired length. Then you also face the wide variety of metal base. A variety of lengths as well as different materials of varying thickness. Shot gun shells being plastic could easily have more variance in diameter do to the loading process alone.
Then last but certainly not least, the variance in powder charge and powder type is much wider in a shot gun shell that an ACP type pistol round.

I could be 100% wrong as I am not an owner of an auto loader shotgun, nor am I a re-loader measuring shells daily. I also am but an un-educated redneck spartan/utilitarian shooter.
Brent
 
My car was actually rated with better gas mileage with the automatic than with the manual transmission. Just throwing that out there. I think the technology has come a long way.

As for shotguns, I like them both. I was pretty firmly in the pump category, but now I am looking at either one for HD.
 
I'm a "lefty". I like to throw shells -after- my face is away from the port :D

Seriously though, I suspect it's just about price for the most part with a sprinkle of tradition thrown in.

(so why do I like a pump action rifle so much?)
 
I've used both an 870 and a 1100 for skeet; I'm better with the 870.

Pumps aren't finicky about ammo- you can run them with just about anything, be it heavy or light. Semiautos don't always cycle with the really light loads or with some kinds of ammo (my 1100 just never liked cycling Federal bulk pack sporting loads). As others have said, there's less to go wrong with pumps. I don't feel any slower on the doubles with the pump than I was with the semi; you have to get the first one a bit quicker, but any disadvantage to semis or double barrels is very minor.

I have nothing against semiautos; one day I may invest in a nice Beretta 391, but so long as I can get it done with my 870 Tactical (you should see the looks I get with that thing), I see no need to change.
 
I started out skeet with a pump because I felt that it forced me to be more careful about taking the shot (as opposed to spraying a bunch of shot out there). I don't know how true that might be, but eventually, I just got used to the pump, so I never bought a semi-auto.

Got a pump Winchester .22, too.
 
Pumps aren't finicky about ammo- you can run them with just about anything, be it heavy or light.
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They might not be finicky about heavy vs. light, but they CAN be finicky about ammunition and jam.....they can also have issues with extraction, as evidenced by the plethora of threads and the Remington cheap 870 version.....For a gun that has no issues with "slightly off" shell lengths or extraction or jamming, a SxS or O/U work very well, (and also the single shot versions).
 
For most people it is only because they can't afford a GOOD semi auto.

I used to be a big fan of pumps...until I could afford a Benelli.

It really doesn't matter too much to me as to what others prefer...some are extremely effective with pumps and can shoot very fast and precisely with them. But, a person who is well trained and armed with a semi auto will ALWAYS shoot faster and more precisely than a similarly trained person with a pump...sorry, it's just a fact.

The bottom line is economics...period.

(Go ahead and flame...I'm ready.)

BTW - I still have (and love) my 870...but it doesn't get as much action as my Benelli.
 
Semi's are for old men that shoot birds.

A true HD shotgun will always be a pump loaded with
00 buck.
 
It is a steeped in tradition sorta thing. and its like reverse snobbery. I bring my benelli to the range and some people are like cool, and the hard core pump guys give it that look, and when i offer some people to shoot it, some take it up eagerly, and some pass.

I started with a pump, and then got the semi. I never went back. Sometimes its so simple as muscle memory. The pump guy who used my semi tried to chamber a round after firing by pulling on the fixed forend.

and when i play with pumps, I always forget to pump a round, and just keep trying to pull the trigger.
 
Pumps are more popular because that is what everyone has been brainwashed into thinking is more reliable, and that a semi auto will jam during a HD encounter. :rolleyes:
Everyone seems to forget that under stress, people do short stroke a pump now and then.
Given that everyone's HD handguns and rifles are overwhelmingly autos, pull trigger, gun goes bang until empty, I am amazed how everyone poo poos the semi auto shotgun.
My 930 has been utterly reliable with everything I have fed it - full power buckshot and slugs, reduced recoil buckshot and slugs, and all sorts of trap loads. Never even hicupped.
Also, try shooting a pump while laying prone in a HD scenario....
 
and noone has even mentioned so far, that a pump, and sxs o/u kick way harder than semis. good semis have such a soft kick, you can shoot them all day and not bruise at all.
 
I do realize that arthritis can stop some folks from
racking one into the tube.
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Yes Sir! I got my first auto loader because after a day at the range with a pump my left elbow hurt like the dickens for 3 days afterward.
 
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