Accessories for your patrol shotgun - (Magazine Article of Interest)

[ichy_trigger]

Originally Posted by 03RangerXLT

I was using a Tac Star. A couple impacts into barricades and the ground. It looks to be slavagable though. The thing is, I needed to get my shotgun back into service pretty fast, and put the regular ejector screw back in with some lock-tite, and I can't get it out without stripping the head of the screw. So now I can't put the side saddle or anything else back on until I figure out how to bust that thing loose.

If your mechanicaly inclined and have a drill, dill the head of the screw and use an easy out. Locktite releases at around 500 degrees F so you may want to heat it up a bit with a butane pencil torch. Be careful not to torch the finish though, just a little heat from a flame will get you 500 degrees.

[invssgt]

Originally Posted by 03RangerXLT

I just finished the shotgun certification course with my agency yesterday. I ended up ditching my heat shield (because it got loose and rattled), side saddle (because it was cheap and broke), and flashlight mount (cause I didn't have a flashlight). I wish I had that heat shield when we were doing drills requiring us to transition to our handgun. I wish I had the side saddle when we were doing "select slug" drills. And I wish i had soem cleaner way of mounting a light on my shotgun (its a M590A1 so the Surefire light kit wont work).....

Having been a cop for close to 25 years and a FTO for the better part of that- I can tell you I have seen people pulling 'goodies' off their guns at numerous qualifications, when those 'improvements' interfered with function or handling of the weapon. This is a wise choice.

IMO the best on-board ammo carriers for shotguns are speed-feed stocks, followed by the simple butt-cuffs that mount on the stock. If I were building an all-out fighting shotgun for myself, I'd find a way to mount both; with buck in the speed-feed and slugs in the butt-cuff.

There is nothing wrong with shell carriers you wear on the body, if they are readily available at the moment you will need the gun. I often found myself grabbing a shotgun out of the rack and running to the fight with a few loose slugs dropped into a uniform (or windbreaker) coat pocket. A 6-round nylon pouch wiith a kydex belt clip would be a nice accessory to have, if it were well thought out and well made.

Lights are 'your choice'. I personally don't like lights on guns, because if you've when got the light on somebody you've got the gun on them too; and I have conditioned myself to keep the muzzle off-target until the decision to shoot has been made. That decision can be aborted; the last fail-safe is the press on the trigger. But I don't point guns at people who aren't bought and paid for.

Some years back I was responding on a 3:00 AM 'intercept armed robbery car' call. The intersection was pretty well lit by streetlights. I ended up blocking a highway exit ramp about 75 yards from another officer who had set up blocking one lane on the approach. The robbery car was screaming down the highway, just as we arrived. The other officer bailed out with his shotgun and I took cover behind a guardrail. The car slowed & I saw the officer shoulder shoulder his shotgun, step back quick and then fire two shots as the car accelerated past. He was maybe 50 feet from it. I could see the flashes from his muzzle from 75 yards away, and it occured to me that if he was missing the car, his bucksot must be hitting the approach ramp near my location. I thanked God for heavy steel guardrails as we jumped in our cars and got in the chase.

Robber-boys rolled their getaway car about 5 miles down the road, killing 1 of 2 occupants. I figured Mike had hit the driver, who then lost consciousness while trying to flee at high speed. I was wrong; they had pinched a sidewall on a curb & blown a front tire. Not a pellet had hit the car or either occupant.

Among the stuff we picked up near the wreckage was a sawed off 10-22 that they had used in the robbery. I later learned that they as passed Mike, the passenger had pointed the gun out the window at him; which was why he stepped back as he fired- and his return fire was ineffective. His concentration was gone and he missed the whole car-twice-at 50 feet. Lights, rifle sights or a 30-power scope wouldn't have mattered. He was lost in the OODA loop, trying to run and fight at the same time- and doing a piss poor job of both.

I probably don't need to tell you that we teased him unmercifully, taped clay birds to his locker, and wrote 'Dead-Eye Dick' in the dust on the side of his POV. Naaah...cops wouldn't do that to a brother officer, now would they? I can tell you that corrective measures were made in his training program.

On another occasion, a Trooper friend would up facing a crazy 3rd-world transplant (Thank you, institutions of higher learnng for importing these dumb bastards by the boatload!) who had taken his estranged GF hostage, highjacked a cab, and led cops on a 100 mph, 60 mile chase down the interstate. Trooper G was there when the engine failed on the stolen cab, and as he exited his cruiser he was charged in a ziz-zag manner by crazy, firing a handgun as he came. It was dark; Trooper G had no time to position the lights to his advantage, but he shouldered his shotgun and caught a glint of the bead on his man as he fired.. He said the first round from his issue, bead-sighted 870 halted crazy's forward motion at about 15 paces, and the muzzle flash showed him that his bead was where it needed to be as he pupmed in and fired the second round. That plus another round of OO, fired almost simultaneously by another officer, sent crazy's little 145 pound ass over backwards in the median. All three rounds were good hits, and that boy's chest looked like the top of a salt-shaker. Crazy's ex-GF was rather pleased with the results as well.

At buckshot ranges, you can hit anything or anybody you want, real fast, with a bead-sighted shotgun. You can, time after time, plant a slug in the middle of a B27 at 50 yards with that same gun. Fast. If you were taking slow, aimed shots at somebody's head at the longer distance, then rifle sights (if properly regulated for issue slugs) would be an advantage. But not until. Besides, I already have my duty handgun precisely zeroed for my duty load at that distance- for just that shot.

The fact is that fights are won by cool heads and honed skills- not equipment. Jeff Cooper summarized it best- "Better a Class A shooter with a Class C weapon, than the other way around." The basic shotgun is already a Class A weapon- work on learning it intimately at the various ranges and with the various ammo that fits the task at hand.

It'll get you home if you do your part.

[cobra]

Originally Posted by niteranger68

Am I close?

where you get that breaching front end?

[ichy_trigger]

At buckshot ranges, you can hit anything or anybody you want, real fast, with a bead-sighted shotgun. You can, time after time, plant a slug in the middle of a B27 at 50 yards with that same gun

Here in Ohio where they allow shotgun only deer hunting, you will find many of us hunters that can and do hit deer with bead sights out to 100 yards. I took a small buck on the run at 75 paces this past year. Like you said, train properly and you can do it. Sights make it easier and let you make those hits with less practice.

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by 03RangerXLT

I was using a Tac Star. A couple impacts into barricades and the ground. It looks to be slavagable though. The thing is, I needed to get my shotgun back into service pretty fast, and put the regular ejector screw back in with some lock-tite, and I can't get it out without stripping the head of the screw. So now I can't put the side saddle or anything else back on until I figure out how to bust that thing loose.

Try using a soldering iron on the head of the screw as this is much safer to you and the gun, and much more controllable. You'll probably need about a 150w iron to do the trick, but this does work very well. I have an old pencil point one that I modified the tip on. It fits most screw heads and helps transfer the heat into the screw.

If it's already stripped, you'll need an easy-out.
Best of luck!

[03RangerXLT]

thanks for teh tip! i have one somewhere around here. I'll try that!