People I have known with overseas, Third-world experience agree that a break-open, single-shot, 12-gauge shotgun the least expensive, most handy and versatile firearm that anyone can own. The subsistence farmer or outdoorsman doesn’t want a heavy "tactical" shotgun which "scares the natives." When out on the back forty on foot, doing chores you aren’t going to carry more than a few 12-gauge shells because it take only 9 rounds to weigh a pound! Fifty 12-ga. shells weigh about 5 pounds. This limits how much ammunition you can carry in your walking load.
Instead, you poke in your coat pockets what you need for the day and to get you back home. When living out in the bush several days trip from the nearest store, you will carefully make a box or two of ammo last for as long as possible. We are speaking here of a simple meat getter, predator eliminator and impromptu home defense gun. Low cost, safety, simplicity, ruggedness, durability, ease of carry, fast handling and versatility are the essential attributes. What other firearm can you get for about $100 used or less than $200 new which does so much?
The break-open shotgun “always works” and is simplicity itself. Anyone can figure it out. You can’t “short-shuck” one, as often happens to novice “pump gun” owners. It keeps going like the Energizer Bunny with minimal care, even in monsoon rain, desert sand, snow, ice, mud, dust or saltwater exposure and it takes apart to fit in your backpack.
Nothing much goes wrong or breaks on one unless you are stupid enough to dry-fire it with the action open and slam the action closed, breaking the firing pin.
A break-open single-shot 12-gauge with rebounding hammer and automatic ejector is the best choice because guns and ammo are the most effective, least expensive, and available everywhere, world-wide. A typical break-open single-shot gun weighs about 6 pounds. Its recoil can be intimidating, so buy low-base “field loads” and “low recoil” law enforcement slugs and buckshot to take the “sting” out of it.
If recoil sensitive, a 20-gauge gun is viable, but its lighter shot load has about 10 yards shorter effective range than a 12-gauge, roughly 35 yards vs. 45 using a full choke barrel on game. Figure five yards less using a modified choke and ten yards less if using a shortened or cylinder bore. Twenty-gauge guns and ammo are less common and more expensive. If you buy a 20-gauge get a 3-inch chamber, which can use either standard 2-3/4 inch field or heavier 3-inch Magnum loads. A 3-inch Magnum 20 gauge carries the same shot load as a standard 12-gauge 2-3/4 inch field load. Forget shotguns in other than 12-ga. or 20-gauge if cost or convenience is a factor because the ammo is harder to get and more expensive.
Some people like the .410-bore because of the lower weight and cube of its ammo, but a .410 has VERY limited range, no more than 25 yards. The .410 slug compares only to a .32-20 rifle in energy. Thin patterns make game hits iffy beyond 20 yards, and .410 ammo costs more than 12-ga. The 3-inch 5-pellet 00 buck is an effective defense load within 25 yards and is alot better than no shotgun at all.
If you shop carefully you can find single-barrel shotguns factory fitted with an extra rifle barrel chambered for common rifle or pistol cartridges such as the .30-30, .357 or .44 Magnum. Seek out one of these if you already have a handgun or rifle in one of those calibers...
While a shotgun is no substitute for a rifle, most can place a slug about as accurately as a non-expert can shoot a revolver from an improvised rest at the same distance. Reality is hitting a 6 inch target at 40 or 50 yards. Having rifle sights on your shotgun doesn’t improve accuracy, but only lets you “zero” the gun so that it will “hit where it points,” in case your plain bead-sighted barrel doesn’t.
The value of short barreled shotguns with rifle sights is vastly over-rated. Most rifle-sighted shotguns are improved cylinder choke or full open cylinder bore with barrels 20 to 22 inches long. While they are handier to carry taken apart in a backpack, patterns they produce are thin and their effective hunting range with birdshot or buckshot is reduced. If accurate slug shooting is important enough to you, that you are considering a rifled shotgun barrel with sights then should get a REAL rifle instead. Rifled shotgun barrels are practically useless with shot for game. Ask if it worth giving up 10 or more yards of game range, to get a handy length and cool looking sights whose benefit is mental masturbation?
For most people a 26 inch Modified or 28 inch full choke is best on game and hits well enough with slugs within 50 yards for practical hunting use. If you can do the job with a plain vanilla simple gun you have, learn to love its Long Tom barrel and the virtues of instinctive point shooting. Expert shotgun gunners wield a shotgun on moving game as if sweeping a paintbrush.
The “non-expert” single shot user makes his one shot count by shooting his shotgun at game the same as if it were a rifle. Typical table game is sitting turkeys or squirrels up in tall trees. Ground sluicing birds when hunting in an actual survival situation is OK (as is taking game out of season). But don’t try that during a practice exercise and tell the Game officer you were "surviving" and did not want to waste the left over’s, so you brought them home after you rescued yourself. That translates to Go to Jail, Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass GO, Do Not Collect $200!
Simplify your shotgun ammo. For initial training and practice buy a case of “dove and quail,” or “trap” loads of No. 8 shot. For general hunting, predator control, big game and home defense buy 100 rounds each of “duck & pheasant loads” loaded with No. 6 shot, and either No. 1 (best choice) or 00 buckshot (OK) and 1-oz. rifled slugs. The “low-recoil” (reduced velocity) buckshot and slug loads made for law enforcement use are less punishing to shoot in a light gun. They give up little in effectiveness and some guns pattern better with them than they do with “high base” loads, so it is worthwhile to seek them out if you can find them.
Learn to hold onto your gun tightly, cut loose and get over it. The force of gravity is perpetual and that of recoil is brief, so enjoy the virtues of your simple and handy gun.
Recommended basic load for the 20 gauge parallels the 12-gauge. Buy a case of 2-3/4 inch 7/8 oz. No. 8 shot “dove and quail loads” for training and practice, then 100 rounds of 1 oz. No. 6 shot “duck & pheasant loads” for general hunting and 100 rounds each of buckshot and slugs for predator control and home defense. The 3-inch Magnum, 18 pellet No. 2 buckshot has better penetration than the 20 pellet No. 3 buck loaded in the 2-3/4 inch shell, so get these if you get a 20-gauge gun with 3-inch chamber.
You may need a personal weapon while traveling places which prohibit civilians from possessing a handgun or center-fire rifle. If self-defense potential is more important to you than putting meat in the pot, then you want a gun which can be accessibly carried, concealed if necessary, which handles easily and can be quickly grabbed, instinctively pointed and fired instantly. Only a short barrel gun fits these requirements.
A colleague and I once had to equip a married couple whose assignment normally wouldn’t have required them to be armed, but their situation changed, and we had one afternoon before they left CONUS to do a quicky familiarization. We got two H&R Toppers and made a quick trip to Ace Hardware for a tubing cutter, mill file and pipe deburring tool. They didn’t make the short “Tracker” or “Survivor” models then. A few minutes with hardware store tools turned the 28-inch full choke barrels into 18-inch cylinder bores with a slight muzzle constriction induced by the tubing cutter. They patterned 12 pellet “short Magnum” 00 or 16 pellet high base, or 20-pellet "short magnum" No. 1 buckshot wonderfully out to 30 yards.
These legal-length sawed-offs stowed in their Fiat 124 between seat and door post and proved successful in thwarting a kidnap attempt, whereas another less fortunate embassy employee was killed a few weeks after our charges returned safely home.
Any single-shot gun is a “shoot and scoot” weapon used only to provide an opportunity for escape. If you use a shotgun in combat you must realize that any opponent who knows that you are armed with a shotgun will change the battlefield conditions to his advantage. In an extended gun fight an adversary will undermine your use of the shotgun by staying outside its limited range and just plink away at you. He will get behind substantial cover capable of stopping buckshot, and expose little of himself, being difficult to hit with a slug beyond pistol range. He will rush you while you are reloading or extend the time of battle until you run out of ammunition. If reduced to using a single-barrel shotgun, you must quickly end the fight at close range, exploiting your shotgun’s strengths, by surprising the bad guy who didn’t expect you to be armed, while you escape the killing field before an opponent can take advantage of your weapon’s limitations.
With practice you can learn to reload and fire more rapidly than most people would expect, especially if you carry spare ammo on an elastic carrier on the butt.
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Originally Posted by Outpost75
