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"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done."
Ronald Reagan




Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Retired Geek - Combat Shotguns

I have a Winchester model 1300 Defender 12 gauge with a pistol grip that is my weapon of choice for home defense (holds eight 2¾ shells). NOTE: sadly they are no longer manufactured.

The first shell is #6 Birdshot, second shell is #3 buckshot, the rest of the shells are #00 Buckshot.

There have been many heated discussions on Gun Websites, about whether or not the Remington model 870 and later Models of the Mossberg 500 series or my Winchester model 1300 Defender is the best choice.

Some even advocate 20 gauge over 12 gauge.

There are also disagreements about pistol grips versus regular stocks and which are the best shells to use for defense. Pistol grip shotguns are easier to maneuver in tight home conditions.

When I chose the Winchester model 1300 Defender 12 gauge in the late nineties (1997 I think) an independent gun consumer lab had found that the Winchester model 1300 had the fastest cycle time for any pump shotgun and every other short barrel home defense shotgun could be jammed by attempting to load more shells that the rated capacity EXCEPT the model 1300 Winchester - BTW they ran 10,000 loads through each shotgun tested and none of them failed from usage.

No one could ever be wrong for choosing the Remington Model 870 they are superb shotguns, but I chose the Winchester for the aforementioned reasons.

At close range even birdshot is devastating but will not penetrate walls that might injure family members or neighbors.

I forget the exact statistics, but I think one #3 Buckshot shell is the same as being hit with 17 22 caliber bullets at once, one #00 buckshot shell is the same as being hit with 11 9mm bullets at the same time.

One misconception is that shotguns do not have to be aimed as carefully as a handgun and to a limited degree that has some validity, but at a range of 5 - 15 feet where most home defense altercations take place the pattern of the shotgun is very small.


Pt 1 "Combat Shotgun Shootout:" Remington 870

Pt 2 "Combat Shotgun Shootout:" Remington 870

Pt 3 "Combat Shotgun Shootout:" Mossberg 590

Pt 4 "Combat Shotgun Shootout:" Mossberg 590A1

Fast Cold Steel: The Winchester 1300
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