Stock?
I want a full stock on my shotguns unless I absolutely can’t have the length. I’m not giving up the main anchor point without getting something truly necessary in return. If you go to a shotgun class, which I 100% recommend, you will be struggling with a stockless shotgun. If it’s a struggle there, I don’t see how it wouldn’t be a struggle at home.
However, you will find you probably want the stock to be relatively short on a shotgun. That is hard for some to wrap their head around because it sounds counterintuitive. It’s kind of hard to explain but I’ll try.
People tend to take a sort of rifle stance with a shotgun, with their body at least partially turned/bladed toward the target. You (usually) want to be more squared-up to the target. More recoil control is just one reason. When you are turned that way, you turn your strong side shoulder toward the target, and by a fair amount. Doing that… You just pushed the shotgun farther away from you and it gets clumsy and maybe even hard to mount. Shorten the stock a little, and it’s back where it’s more manageable.
The typical correction after doing that with a standard stock is the butt plate gets pushed farther out until it’s more on the bicep. We don’t even know we do this until we see the bruise the next day. If you push it any direction, it should go inward, not outward. Again, more control that way.
The youth stocks they put on shotguns now are usually about right.
If there is a question, err towards too short than too long.
There is also the possibility of others in your house ever needing that shotgun. Anyone can use a shotgun whose stock is too short. It doesn’t work the other way.
Not to mention if your wear body armor, cool-guy chest ammo carriers, etc, adding to the pull length.
12 or 20 gauge?
The 20 tempts me now and then, but the12 gauge has a LOT more options. Shot size, power level, tight patterning wads, spreader wads, mini shells, etc. Not the least consideration is the cheap 100-packs of practice shells are a lot easier to find for 12 gauge.
The favorite shell of most who have tried them is the Federal with Flite Control wad. Patterns are crazy tight. Hornady has one that is similar. There is a variety of these in 12, but Federal only announced a 20 gauge version this year. I have not heard if anyone has actually seen them yet.
I tried the 20 gauge for lighter recoil approach once, and what I found was most 20 gauge guns were enough lighter that it evened out at the butt plate. Maybe that has changed. A good class to learn the techniques to manage the recoil did me a lot more good.
Sights- plain bead or actual sights?
You will be told that the bead is better because it’s faster. It probably is if you’re a bird hunter or clays shooter and use one a lot, and I mean a lot. If you aren’t a dedicated shotgunner, you probably mostly use guns with sights on them.
So what are you used to seeing when the butt plate hits your shoulder?
People will say they tried sights like a ghost ring rear and couldn’t get used to it. Ask how long they tried. The honest answer is usually not very long. Like most things, you do have to give it a chance.
“But you don’t need to aim a shotgun” is what you’ll hear. If we’re talking about inside a house, which usually means inside a room, how much do you think the shot pattern spreads? Just about nothing.
Hang some paper up, back off three yards and shoot it with a shotgun. Any shell. Any choke. Within a house, you are basically shooting a big rifle loaded with a fragmenting bullet.
Can you miss inside a house? Yeah, you can.
Action type?
Here it is.
The can of worms.
Most prefer a pump or semiauto of course. If I was honest, a double will probably handle anything any of us would encounter at home, but counting on the minimum is not always the best plan either.
The pump has the reputation of being more reliable because it depends on user power for operation. It probably is more reliable if the user is reliable. That’s why I hesitate to simply tell people to just get a pump: I don’t know how reliable the user is.
Painful truth:
I’ve seen both action types fail for mechanical reasons, but I’ve seen more pumps fail due to the user than all the semiautos I’ve seen fail at all.
Second painful truth:
The semiauto problem usually gets fixed. The pump problem usually gets excused.
The semiauto problems are almost always ammo. Some may not work with those 100-rd store boxes of ammo. Most don’t care, but some do. What I’ve seen with that ammo is, since the “brass” part is usually steel nowadays, as it expands when fired it stays expanded instead of springing back as much as brass. Then it’s grabbed the chamber walls. Almost every time I see a semiauto having trouble, that’s why. If not, it’s a lack of lube, but that is its own sad story.
There are two cures if it’s the ammo sticking: 1) Get the chamber polished. 2) Change ammo. Whichever route is taken, once it’s done, everything is fine.
The good news is, almost all semiautos work just fine with the good stuff, which is what you should be using at home anyway.
I’m not saying one action is better than the other. I’m saying both can and do have things that happen. One is corrected by putting in the work, and one is corrected by ammo.
I’m a believer in letting the gun do as much work as possible. The less I have to keep straight when my world is going straight to hell the better.
Huh. Well. Other than that, I have no opinions on shotguns.
