5 Attachment(s)
How to Port Load your Shotgun
OK,,, This comes under the heading of "What I do with my shotguns." as opposed to "What I did to them." The whole idea after you get the gun set up is to use it for something. In my case, that is going to classes, Participating in Local 3 Gun Matches, and God forbid, Home Defense or an Active Shooter Response.
It has come to my attention that most people don't understand the importance of Port Loading a Shotgun, or how to do it properly.
Tactical Shotguns are Ammo Hungry Beasts. Port Loading is the way you keep the Hungry Beast fed when in a dynamic situation. All should agree that it is counterproductive, if not downright stupid, to stand in the open while reloading your magazine and being shot at? It simply takes too long to accomplish and you are super exposed and probably won't make it home.
However it is possible to keep rounds going down range in a relatively quick manner by Single Loading or Ejection Port Loading the gun. After Learning the steps and practicing to eliminate as much wasted motion as possible it is possible to get a shot off every 1-2 seconds for as long as you have ammo readily available. Usually off a Side Saddle or Shell Holder on your belt or vest.
So in order to do this you first must learn how to grasp the individual Shells.
You do it like this,,, clasping the shell on its ends with your Index and Pinky Fingers with your other two fingers behind the shell. This hold on the rounds facilitates either loading into the magazine or into the Ejection Port. Just get in the habit of doing it this way.
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I prefer the Velcro Side Saddle for holding my Extra Rounds on the gun, as they are the quickest way to access rounds and when they get empty you simply rip them off the gun and slap another one on. To pull rounds out of the side saddle you grasp the front shell with your Thumb and Ring finger and pull down and then transition to the hold described above.
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Next you will tip the gun slightly to the right to better access the Ejection Port. Note: you are feeding the gun from the underside not over the top.
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Then push the round into the port,,, the reason why you load from underneath is because it stages your hand in position for running the slide.
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Then push forward on the Slide or hit the Bolt Release on a SA gun. and you are ready to fire. Note: All of this was done with the gun on your shoulder held up by your strong side hand/arm. This will take a little practice and development of some muscle memory. By keeping the gun at eye level you eliminate precious seconds from your follow up presentation.
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The last thing in the process is ejecting the spent round as quickly as possible. This is done by what is known as "Riding the Recoil."
On a Slide Action Shotgun the only thing keeping the gun "in battery" is the Bolt Release. When the gun is in battery the bolt is locked to the barrel shroud and when the gun is fired this prevents the bolt from flying open. However this all happens in Milliseconds. As soon as the hammer drops the bolt release is disengaged and the slide is free to open the bolt. That split second after the gun fires is where you "should have" been running the slide and ejecting the spent round!
With a loaded magazine you would rack the slide to eject the spent round and then immediately close it to be ready to fire. With an Empty Magazine you only Rack the slide back and leave the bolt open and then go thru your Port Loading Sequence. As you are closing the bolt you are also coming on target and pulling the Trigger as soon as the Front Sight comes to bare on your next target. This all happens in less than a second or so. It does take some practice, actually lots of practice,,, but it is doable and if I can do it at 72 you can too!
With a Semi Auto Gun all the round handling is the same and the only difference is hitting the bolt release after you stuff the round in the Ejection Port. Obviously the gun takes care of ejecting the spent rounds. The one exception to Ejection Port loading is the Browning Auto 5 with the "Speed Feed" feature. On that gun you push the round into the empty magazine and it automatically puts it into the chamber,,, Right NOW!,,, and the gun is ready to fire. This is faster than Port Loading the gun, and it is by far the fastest gun to Single Load !
So I hope this little tutorial will help some of you learn something new that is useful.
Randy
What I do with my Shotguns
One of the things I do with my Shotguns is go to Training Classes at Front Sight. This is where I learn the vast majority of my Gun Handling, and Shooting Skills
So I went to Front Sight for some training last week. On Thursday we did a "Tactical Awareness Class." It is a new classroom type class and it is still getting tweaked a bit as to content. It concentrated mostly on Avoidance of a Fight and Defensive things to harden your home and lots of Mindset tips. All in all, a good class and I learned lots of new things I had never thought of.
Friday and Saturday were on the Shotgun Range in a Skill Builder Class designed to prep you for a test. My whole purpose for this trip was to DG with a pump gun. ( DG=Distinguished Graduate or 90% shooter) I had already DG'd with a Semi Auto and the Pump Gun is a little more challenging. I shot well at first and both my short M500's ran perfectly, I didn't acclimate well this time over, and the Desert had me for lunch. And so I sucked and didn't achieve my goal.
This class only had 9 people in it and my Bro in Law didn't make the second day as his hands were cramping badly by Lunch on the first day. There was only 2 pump guns in the class, Me and Bro. The rest were Berretta's, Benelli's, and two M930's.
This training emphasizes gun handling and with a Shotgun there is more "manipulation" than with either Rifles or Pistols. Ammo is often loaded one at a time as in the Port Loading Exercise Description above. There are Iterations where you are required to Shoot Multiple Targets under time pressure, do multiple Port Loads under time pressure, do Ammo Changes (Select Slug) and take longer slug shots, and then Clearing Malfunctions at the end of the test. Realistically the entire class could revolve around Port Loading and Shooting Multiples, and Select Slug Shots at 50 and 35 yards as these are the places where there is the most pressure to perform. Anyone can hit one target from 15 or 20 yards in 1.5 seconds.
The test goes like this. First you shoot 3 Select Slug shots from 50 yards. For this you have the gun loaded with buckshot and at the beep you load one slug into the magazine, rack the action, and then take the shot at the target with a Slug. The targets are painted black so you can see if you hit it or not. You do this 3 times at 50 and then 35 yards. This is done as a group with everyone shooting at once. I missed one of the 50 yard Shots, so I'm down -5 already. I can only go down 8 more points and I lost the DG!
Then you move forward to the 20 yard line and take one shot each from the Low Ready, High Ready and Field Ready, then move forward to the 15 yard line. Now this is done individually, with the instructor standing right behind you on both the 20 and 15 yard lines. Got all these shots..
Next you shoot the Multiples. This consists of Shooting two targets from the ready in 1.6 seconds, then 3 target in 2.1 seconds, and then 4 in a Row in 2.6 seconds. This is where the Semi Autos have a serious advantage over the Pump Guns. I can get all 4 in around 2.0 seconds with my A5, I can get 3 in a row just about every time with the Pump Gun, but 4 in a row with the pump gun is really pushing it. I was close but missed out by about .2 on the time, and they said I had two partial hits which only count as misses. IE: I lost a bunch of points on that one shot iteration. I was late and missed 2 targets.
Next was the Port Loading Drill. On this one you start with a loaded gun, and at the beep you fire, and then port load one round, and then fire again, and then port load again, and finish with a loaded gun. You get 4.2 seconds to do all this, and you do it twice. I bobbled one run thru and was late and another 5 points went down the drain.
Last is the Clearing of Malfunctions. You do each one twice.
You get 1.2 seconds to do a Type 1 Clearance which is firing on and empty chamber or dead round. You just rack and roll the gun and that's it. No Problem . Next is the Type 2 or Stove Pipe, where you have one hanging out of the Ejection Port. This one is done the same way as the Type 1 except you move out of the line of fire while clearing it in 1.4 seconds.
Type 3 is the Failure to Extract or Double Feed. On this one you have a spent round in the chamber that didn't get pulled out and then the gun stuffs another round in behind it. No time limit on this one, you just have to do it right. With the Pump Gun you just rack the slide to lose the double fed round then close hard to grab the spent case, and eject it, and then close to feed in the next good round. NO problem I got all these.
Then you do a Tactical Reload which is nothing more that feeding a round into the magazine in 3.5 seconds. No Problem with this one.
Then Last is an Emergency Reload. On this one you pull the trigger get a click, then rack and get another click, and then port load a round in 3.7 seconds. I bobbled the shell on one and lost some more points.
In the end I finished with a -37 which is just barely in the Graduate 70% zone -38 or less.. Last time did it with a Pump Gun I shot -14 which was one over DG which is -13 or less (Class #3). I shot -11 with my A5 and got DG on Class #4. That was also a few years ago and time is beginning to be a factor.
So all in all I sucked! I should have Dry Practiced all of this many times before I went. If I had I probably would have DG'd this time as the things I need to Dry Practice most are the Port Loads and Multiple Targets. I never seem to Dry Practice Malfunctions either and maybe I should?.
Oh well now I have an excuse to go back for another class. It's all good! And no matter how bad I feel or how good or bad I shoot I always have a real good time!
So that's what I did with my Shotguns last week.
Randy