SHTF Drop your AK and Pick up a Shotgun

AShooting Journal ^ | 10/27/2015 | M Miller

[SampleMan]

It was never intended to protect a family after a natural disaster and is ill suited to that purpose.

Almost stopped reading right there. Shotguns are great, but I like to ability to kill things up close and at a distance. In fact, the worse things get, the more likely I will be to engage at greater ranges.

A shotgun is a great home defense weapon and can be impressed into service beyond that, but the moment that I transition to an open area outside of a building, I prefer a rifle/carbine, most any rifle/carbine, to a shotgun.

[Fightin Whitey]

It was designed to be operated by illiterate teenage conscripts

Applies to both your rifle and your gun.

[NorthMountain]

[fwdude]

The best self-defense weapon you can have is a working brain. Any gun you can possess is probably already possessed by the turds, so that is not a leg up in itself.

Fortunately, a working brain cannot be readily purchased at a gun show with ill-gotten gain. That is one advantage that we CAN have over the scumbag “black lives matter” anarchists.

[humblegunner]

Mine was born as a Yugoslavian illiterate conscript AK
but when it got to Ellis Island somebody tattooed some
American numbers on it.

Poor old thing.

[OldSmaj]

Why can't I have both?

The shotgun for blowing 'em out of my house and the AK for blowing 'em out of my driveway?

Works for me, except for the AK part.

Already got the shotgun...really don't like an AK...think I'll stay with my Mini-14.

Every AK I've seen/handled was a stamped-metal POS.

Probably very effective for a jihadi running thru the desert, cleaning it only when he stops for a quick camel humping, but it's not for me, other than as an oddity, or a throwaway after a one-time use.

Yeah, yeah, I know...there are those that will absolutely swear that an AK is the end all, be all of every long weapon ever designed and built, but it's nothing more than a cheap piece of crudely constructed trash, intended to be just that.

Yeah, I'm an AK snob.

But would you really want to bet your life with the Russian-designed POS?

Not me.

[humblegunner]

Them days are long gone, pardner! ;-)

Unfortunately. Or not.

I was pretty much of a butthole in my teens.

[USMCPOP]

"Applies to both your rifle and your gun. "

It all comes down to proper training.

[McGruff]

I have a technical question for the experts. I have a 1970s era Remington pump shotgun with a full choke barrel. I was thinking about sawing it off shorter for close quarters use if needed. Would you recommend that or will it blow up on me. Only plan on using it once or twice. Gave up hunting along time ago.

[from occupied ga]

If the answer comes down to supportability and simplicity, you need a shotgun

Another opinion stated as fact, but without any real evidence to back it up. My preference is for an UZI, or if I had the money an MP-5K (Stated also without any facts to back up my opinion)

[Sparticus]

Pump action shotguns like the 870 are great until you’ve short stroked it in the heat of the moment and have a heck of a jam to clear.

[humblegunner]

Just don’t get mixed up between fighting and fun...

[chris37]

Just buy a tactical shotgun with a factory 18” barrel.

I’ve got an 18” 870 with a recoil reducing synth stock and pistol grip that is really nice.

Well, er, I mean I used to have one before that boating trip gotdangit!

You know that that goes!

[Leaning Right]

As a public service, Slow Joe even recorded a short music video on using a shotgun for home defense.

Buy a Shotgun

(very good parody)

[MileHi]

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/242364/remington-barrel-remington-870-12-gauge-3-18-1-2-fixed-improved-cylinder-bead-sight-parkerized

[Fightin Whitey]

I would go to a good gunstore that takes trade-ins and gives a fair price.

Trade in your full-length 870 and I don’t think you would have to give much to boot.

That way you have a brand-new defense shotgun with no barrel worries and someone else can put your full-length model to good use.

[Leaning Right]

pumping an 870 in a dark room is one of the most frightening sounds on earth

Yep. I was reading an article written by a career burglar. He said he wasn't much concerned over dogs or alarms. But hearing the sound of a pump shotgun, that was something else again.

[Mr. K]

Most .410 shotguns will ALSO shoot 45 cal bullets too (i think)

I know mine does

(or it did before the tragic boating accident)

check out a Circuit Judge.

When the SHTF it can be used any number of ways

[Paladin2]

AR-12

[niteowl77]

Normally, I'd recommend taking the old field barrel off, greasing it up, putting it away and buying an 18" cylinder- or improved cylinder-choked 870 replacement barrel. But if your hunting days are over, you can certainly cut that long tube down to the legal minimum, but you'll have no choke whatsoever and often times that results in a "donut" pattern that isn't the alley-cleaner people think it ought to be. There are a lot of good 'smiths out there who will - for a reasonable amount - shorten that barrel and then thread it for removeable choke tubes, which allows you to "tune in" the amount of choke that works best for your HD load of choice.

Mr. niteowl77