The Street Gauge - Printable Version

Monday, May 25, 2009
Kevin R. Davis

Over the last few years interest in the police shotgun has waned as more and more agencies focus on the patrol rifle. Although I am a firm believer in the benefits of the 5.56 carbine for police work, far too many agencies are removing the shotgun from cruiser racks and replacing them with rifle caliber carbines instead of providing both options. This, in my opinion, is a mistake and takes away a devastating piece of weaponry that has served lawmen for over a hundred years.

Whether the shotgun was a double barrel 10-gauge blaster carried for stagecoach security by the man "riding shotgun," or a modern pump or semi-auto 12 gauge, many bad guys have been taken into custody dead or alive with shotguns. Although stupid violent men have met their maker via a properly applied load of buckshot, many more have thought better of the idea and submitted after looking down the tubes of police scatterguns.

Ballistic performance
Pistol and rifles punch holes in bad guys with the result that they stop some time later due to blood loss. On the other hand, a shotgun's buckshot rips, tears and breaks things in its path. With most police armed encounters being measured in feet, not yards, a center mass shot with the nine pellets of a 12 gauge 00-buck shot-shell is a serious wound indeed (bigger wound = more blood loss = quicker incapacitation time). A 00-buck wound inside 10 to 15 feet looks like a big rat hole.

The premier load for modern police shotguns is the 9-pellet, 00-buck load. As an example, Federal's Premium Tactical Law Enforcement double ought is a reduced recoil load with something they call a Flightcontrol wad. According to Federal, this results in the tightest shot pattern in the business. At 1,325 feet per second at the muzzle, this means awesome ballistic performance on target.

The package
Just because shotguns have been used by police for over a hundred years doesn't mean that we can't improve on the design, make modifications or add accessories that improve handling and performance. The 18-inch bead sighted shotgun that rode next to me while in uniform differed only slightly from the early pump shotgun carried in the trenches of WWI or the jungles of Southeast Asia. Manufacturers have caught on and shotguns fielded by our troops in Iraq and elsewhere show the signs of these improvements.

Worthy factory or after-market improvements include:

Ghost-ring sights These sights allow quicker shots on target and are far more accurate than bead or open rifled-slug sights.
White light on the forearm White lights have been incorporated in the forearm by Surefire and are available for most shotgun models.
Extended magazine tubes Most patrol pump guns have a four round capacity (five with one in the chamber) and can be increased to six or seven rounds in the tube with a simple aftermarket magazine extension.
Spare ammo carriers Whether it's a sidesaddle design mounted on the receiver or stock, or Speedfeed stock designs that allow four shot-shells to carried inside, spare ammo is a lifesaver.
Sling system Although a "three-point tactical sling" is not necessary, a good sling such as the Vicker's or Israeli style wherein the officer can go "on-sling" to free up their hands is vital. The military parade sling or hunting style is simply not sufficient.

Over the last couple of years I've had the chance to see some excellent add-ons that improve a shotgun-armed officer's performance. They include:

Small red dot collimator sights These red dots have decreased in size but have still proven themselves worthy of consideration. With a red-dot, you keep both eyes open as you place the dot (or other style illuminated reticle) on target. In this way, sighting is dot on target, versus front sight within the rear sight and aligned on target. Red dots are faster on target, period.
Adjustable butt-stocks As typified by the excellent Knoxx stock recoil-reducing stocks from Blackhawk , the adjustable stock allows smaller frame and female officers to shoot full-load 12 gauge shells without the brutal shock that full-length stocks inflicted (indeed, most shotguns would be suited better for everyone if an inch were removed from their length). The recoil-reducing system of the Knoxx does seem to produce less felt recoil.

I've had the great fortune to put rounds downrange with Wilson Combat Scatterguns Technologies 870 shotgun, a Nighthawk custom-modified Remington 870 and Vang Comp's 870, as well as new offerings from the fine folks at Mossberg. These are xcellent shotguns that in some cases allowed me to keep all nine .33 caliber 00-buck pellets in the target's head area out to 55 feet. The Vang Comp design was able to do so out to 25 yards!

Training
This is where vast improvements could be made in all police firearms training, but especially with the shotgun. Most agencies have their officers shoot little more than a familiarization course each year with the shotgun. Such lack of training does nothing to ensure proper handling, let alone improve performance in armed encounters. Loaded with 00-buck in the magazine tube and rifled slugs in the spare ammo carrier, a trained street officer is good to go out to 50 yards.

Training areas covered should include:

Presentations from low and in-door ready.
Facing movements, including: 90 to the left and right and 180 degrees from the target.
Quick movements off-line to the left and right while a round is chambered then fired.
Shooting while on the move including: going forward, to the rear, laterally and at angles to the target.
Transitions to the pistol.
Reloading the shotgun both emergency and pre-emptive loading.
Proper use of cover.
Select loading rifled slugs.
Slug shots out to 50 yards.

Realistic courses of fire that incorporate "scramblers" wherein the officer practices most if not all of the listed skills as they move throughout the range area engaging targets from a variety of positions at varying distances.

American society tends to embrace and replace with the newest technologies. In firearms this has lead to a great movement toward the 5.56 carbine, but the abandonment of the shotgun. While the patrol rifle offers many things to LE, the police shotgun still has its place and within most armed encounter ranges is awesome. We can improve our performance with the shotgun by making some of the listed modifications or buying shotguns that are more properly outfitted for man-against-man engagements than the smooth-bore fowling piece our uncle carries into the field. Most importantly, by properly training our officers we can maximize their performance with the scattergun which will increase use and improve hit potential on suspect(s).

The devastating ballistic potential that led lawmen of the Old West to grab their double barrel Greener 10-gauge shotguns while working the streets of Dodge City and other rowdy towns still works today on the mean streets of urban, suburban and rural America against present-day violent desperados.