Looks like the P3000 will be coming back to primetime TV. Ammotogo.com has graciously, and without petitioning, volunteered to help fund some of the ammunition to push the P3000 over the 2,000 round mark. If you need caught up, the original post about the modifications made to the gun is available here. If you haven’t been following along, the first update at 1,000 rounds went to USAcarry.com. The gun is chugging along nicely, and is no longer all Stoeger parts. We have branched out into the aftermarket, and the gun is getting close to beast mode. Most of the aftermarket parts on the gun are f ..read more

In the past I was a hardcore always port load over the top of the gun kind of guy. It seemed to work the best for me at the time. Then my technique was challenged. This video of Tim Chandler shooting a shotgun El Pres is what really challenged me to take another more critical look at my approach to the gun. Mounted vs. Dismounted Reloads The first thing I noted about Tim’s reload is that the gun stays mounted in the shoulder through the reload process. Watching old videos of my own port loads, I always dismounted the gun for the reload. I recall, when I was first being taught how to run a shot ..read more

Here we are again, the start of a new year, a new list. This is not an all inclusive list. These are the guys that I feel comfortable recommending to people. As time goes on and more people add more classes, I will try to add them to this list. Even if you think you have a good handle on the shotgun, it is always a good idea to support those guys out there teaching it, to pressure test new gear, and to get the occasional refresher. I hope to get more time in shotgun classes this year than last year. Maybe I will see you at one of these Rangemaster Defensive Shotgun IDC, Jan 27-29 2023, Nashvi ..read more

Of all the Turkish shotguns out there, Stoeger is about the only current manufacturer I would take a chance on. They have the parts support and aftermarket to make it potentially worthwhile. If something breaks, the parts are there to fix it. If something needs improved, the aftermarket is there with a solution. Plus, with Beretta as a parent company, the hope is that maybe the Stoegers are just a notch or two above everything else coming from Turkey. As far as defensive pump action shotguns go, the natural choice is the P3000 Freedom Series Supreme. An 18.5” P3000 with a longer than normal ma ..read more

If you go shopping for shotgun ammunition at your local gun shop, you will soon figure out that most shotgun ammunition comes in 25 round boxes unless it is buckshot or slugs. With that in mind, I came up with a standard 25 round practice session that I can use for the shotgun to help maintain skill. You think 25 rounds really isn’t all that much, but for a shotgun, you can get a lot of value out of 25 rounds. (Note: Apparently Rob Haught, the Yoda of shotguns, has a similar practice routine that he gives out at his classes) First drill is 1 round from the ready position of your choice with ..read more

Shotgun classes are few and far between around my part of the world. Occasionally the big name guys will get within a day’s drive, but as far a class an hour or two down the road, that just doesn’t happen much. Up until now, my occasional foray into open enrollment instruction was all that was offered locally. Now there is a new player, and hopefully that will mean more training that is accessible to the local shotgunning community. Maybe it will even start to build some local interest in shotguns as defensive tools. A year or so ago when I attended the Rangemaster Defensive Shotgun IDC I met ..read more

I haven’t made any secret of my preferred approach to a shotgun side saddle being a Vang shell card and some industrial strength velcro slapped on the side of the receiver. (See HERE for a how-to). The one kinda sorta issue with this approach is that Vang shell cards are one size fits all. They are only available as 6 round cards. Sometimes, a shorter card is needed. I saw it mentioned on P-F if anyone had shortened a Vang card. I watched the thread for a bit, not real useful action. I decided that since I had just started using a Q-DC, I should fill the void with some experimenting. I could s ..read more

For a while now the go to recommendation for defensive buckshot has been some form of Federal’s 00 Flite Control loads. The king of the hill being the low recoil 8 pellet version (LE13300). It was pretty easy. Need your gun to shoot consistent, tighter patterns out to 25 or 30 yards? Just use 8 pellet Flite Control. Piece of cake. Now though, that recommendation probably isn’t as safe as it used to be. I first heard of this particular load having issues from the Sensible Self Defense blog. He noted having issues with some 8 pellet Flite Control in the fall of last year. I took cursory note of ..read more

Somewhere around 2012, Federal introduced a #1 buckshot option in their Tactical product line. It used Federal’s game changing Flite Control wad to deliver acceptably tight patterns out to 20-25 yards with what is often considered the “optimal” pellet size for defensive use of the shotgun. LE132 1B is loaded with 15 copper plated pellets. Uses the typical Federal buffer material, and as far as I can tell a Flite Control wad that is the same as all the other Flite Control wads. The thing about 1-buck is that on paper, it should be the optimal shot size for personal defense use. It maximizes the ..read more

I pattern a lot of buckshot loads. One of the problems with patterning is that it consumes a lot of targets. Being able to compare one load to the next also means always having the same type of target on hand. Or at least a target with the same size scoring area as the other targets used for patterning. I decided too many IDPA targets had taken early retirement, and I needed to figure out a more economical solution for a pattern target. I came up with a 5” circle inside an 8” circle, on a standard piece of printing paper (8.5”x11”). For a while now I have felt a pattern much larger than a shee ..read more