Home Defense Shotguns

hi my name is Donovan beard and this is Ryan Miller and we are with defensive firearms instruction and today I'd like to talk a little bit about shotguns and the home defense role and in a general use role so ya know so one of the big things about shotguns is it's one of the things that a lot of people have they kept the most people keep them by their bedside for home defense but it's also the thing that people typically train on the least so really the shotgun is the most versatile tool that we as gun owners have in our arsenal so we have a lot of different options with it we have different ammo choices like we'll talk about later but we really want to emphasize the versatility and the importance of your home defense shotgun so we're going to show you a couple different ways to set them up the way I've set mine up the way Donavan set is up and you know one of the big things about shotguns as far as on defense is they are extremely capable at close-range distances inside house distances I mean realistically inside a house I can't imagine engaging more than seven yards away you know if you have a really big house maybe a little bit further than that but I mean a shotgun is going to be extremely effective at that range so why don't you take us through your first shotgun that you're going to show us yeah definitely one of the first one that I'd like to talk about is my pistol grip only shotgun this is a Mossberg 500 this would be considered a non NFA shotgun because as a barrel length of less than 18 inches but it has an overall length of over it's what 26 mass yeah some around there now I set this up specifically for home defense but with shotguns you can be good at close distances but there is still some distance that you can get out of a shotgun and a lot of that's based on the type of ammunition that you're using with that one so what I ended up deciding to do is get the Knox recoil reduction pistol grip stock or excuse me the recoil reduction pistol grip only and the reason I did that is because there's a lot of felt recoil when you're shooting heavier loads I also ended up doing a rail on the top and I ended up doing a red dot with with the red dot painted going with the primary arms now as far as a shotgun at close range I probably wouldn't need to use the red dot at close ranges however in my personal experience with slugs I've been able to maintain pretty decent accuracy had 50 yards with this which you know definitely in a home defense type roll if I'm shooting over 50 yards you know obviously there's a serious problem the other thing that I did up doing is I went with a surefire light that was integrated into the front pump this was definitely a nice surefire light it toggles between 2 and 600 lumens it's got a constant on and off but it can also you know toggle on and off a little relatively easy and the last thing I ended up doing is having a sidesaddle now there's a lot of different types of size levels out there I ended up going with an sk d tactical sidesaddle that has a velcro attachment to the side and the nice thing about that is I've got not just the six rounds in the fire but I've actually got seven rounds on to the side you know typically if I'm going to grab my shotgun in you know kind of a bump in the night type scenario I'm only going to have what's on the shotgun and the nice thing is I can have an extra one of these sitting on my nightstand and if I really needed to I can have some extra rounds on there like I was saying this is my home defense role a shotgun you know pretty much lives right next to my bed it's a ton of fun to shoot it's actually you know relatively accurate and it definitely fits the role that I have for it so you want to go into your first one yeah sure absolutely so you're going to notice a lot of similarities between the shotguns here obviously there's very similar philosophies as far as the way we have these set up you know one of the things that Donovan showed was his light I think that a light is a must have on any home defense gun whether that be a handgun shotgun rifle you need a light some people say put you at a strategic disadvantage however in my opinion it's more important to make sure that I'm not shooting someone I love than to give away my position to a potential bad guy you know positively identify your targets yeah exactly so I'll start with my flashlight as you can see I have a in force wml these things are great I have on I have a couple of them and I use them to great effect I have it mounted here too by the way this is a Mossberg 590 a1 before I get too far ahead of myself it didn't come with a Magpul furniture I went ahead and put that on myself I really like the ergonomics of the Magpul furniture I like the more the sporting style stocks I don't like the pistol grip stocks myself personally so this one's really comfortable for me I went ahead put an A FG on the pump part of it that helps a lot with being able to have very positive racking or when I'm doing over-the-top loading it lets me throw that pump back very effectively I also have a sidesaddle mine is an original SOE sidesaddle but same idea you know you have the velcro patch where I can take this off and then slap on another one if this one's empty or if I you know need slugs I can grab my slug one if I want a combination of both I can grab that one but it gives me a lot of good options and then the last thing that I changed on it I don't know how well you'll be able to see this but I put a XS big dot front sight post on there because of the tritium insert on that it gives me a much better sight picture and allows me to actually see my front sight at night the way these come they have a blacked-out front sight so you can pretty much right off getting any accuracy at night now the nice thing about this shotgun is it's very hefty it's very heavy-duty I know it's going to be reliable as an 8-round tube the big downside to this especially when it comes to home defense is it's very long and the longer the firearm that you're using for home defense the harder it's going to be to maneuver in close ranges but you have a bad luck which is kind of cool right that's one pro the 598 ones being the military-style Mossberg you do have the bayonet lug so that does help kind of create some standoff there but there are ways of kind of making this a smaller package than it really is based on holding in unconventional ways but realistically this isn't necessarily the perfect choice just because it is so long now again you have a very heavy-duty build here you're not going to have to worry about any reliability issues but it's going to be very heavy and it's going to be very long so that's some of the downsides with this one which and I also have I like having a sling on my shotguns I know some people don't like having slings on their home defense guns they think it traps them up but me personally specially when a transition or something like that I like having some level of retention and also if I have a gun attached to me it's going to make it very hard for the other guy to use it to shoot me unless he takes it off me all the way that's that's my two cents on it but I do recognize that there are other points of view out there that have legitimate arguments one reason I went with Mossberg over like something like a Remington 870 Remington 870 SR great guns which are about to see here in a second just for me personally I like the location of the safety a lot more I like the location of the pump released a lot more and I don't like the little loading gate that pinches my thumb but that said they are very good guns and we're about to take a look at a very great example of a nice 870 so if you want to take us on - yeah definitely one of the thing I do want to bring up in the urge to the Mossberg 500 you know definitely I've been running Mossberg 500 really a long time it's really easy for new shooters taking a higher level of proficiency with a Mossberg 500 because it's very simple you know it's very straightforward but you know definitely one of the other really popular shotguns out there is going to be the Remington 870 so the next shock and that I have and you know as I've gone through quite a few Remington 870 s before I actually got to this one this is a Remington 870 that has been done up by scattergun technologies or you know Wilson combat the one thing I really gotta say about this specific shotgun is it's worth every single penny to get one from scattergun technologies or wilson combat and you know realistically when we were shooting this it had probably one of the smoothest actually I've ever felt on a shotgun but easily the other benefit with this shotgun it's got a really durable finish which I really definitely liked and also it's got that go straight nice size with eternium front so not always are we going to want to depend on batteries by having an optic and so having that goes for outside definitely is going to aid with accuracy especially with slugs you know having the versatility to go between all the rest of the different types of ammunition with an iron site configuration especially with a tourney in front is is phenomenal I definitely liked it when I was building this one one of the things I ended up doing you know yet again I want to have some continuity between all my shotguns so I've got the sk d you know sidesaddle that can attach to the shotgun me personally I've always liked pistol grip shotguns or shotguns with the pistol grip on it so I decided to go with a Mesa tactical stock system and we'll do it close-up of this here in a second I really like Mesa tacticals products it set it up really well I can use an AR stock in an AR pistol grip which I'm already used to using those already this one also has a recoil reduction a tube system which I really kind of like you know what I'm actually shoulder yet when I fire you can actually feel it moving in and it does dissipate the recoil and it assists me with follow-up shots you know getting those out just a little bit faster you know this is my full-size gun you know the one thing I'm probably going to end up doing to it is yet again getting the same surefire front end for this one as I have in my other gun this has been a great shotgun i've actually you know been able to very effectively engage targets at up to and including 50 yards and as far as a full sized shotgun it definitely fits the purpose and it definitely does exactly what I needed to do have a nice eyeline it is the smoothest action on a pump shotgun I've ever felt and I'm sure a lot of that comes from the scatter gun technology as part of it one of the downfalls that we do see on the shotguns the a7ii is and I know Miller is going to echo on this one is where a lot of the controls are located you know I've been a Mossberg shooter for a very long time so I've always been used to having the safety you know kind of on top of the receiver right here it's really nice especially if you are in a ready position to be able to look down and see red you know meaning the weapon is not on safe will not see any color whereas this one actually has the safety right behind the trigger so it's a little bit more difficult to actually see the other thing that was interesting that took a little while for me to get used to it was the gate right here or this little elevator thing there are quite a few different little tricks with the a 70s however with the Mossberg 500 is pretty straightforward because you don't have that you have direct access to the magazine tube you know I I personally like learning both systems and if I had to choose one over the other I think I probably end up with Mossberg 500 however you know the Remington 870 is definitely a classics been around for a long time law enforcement has been using it for a while and this specific firearm is definitely awesome and you know I I'm still really happy that I got it yeah and if you're trying to decide between Remington 870 and Mossberg 500 the answer is yes either one is going to be just fine held by both yeah but as long as you're training on it whether you have loading gate or not that's not going to be an issue the safety location that's not going to be an issue as long as you're competent on it and training on it no matter which one you get it's going to do very well for you now as far as my alternative shotgun this is kind of go in a completely different direction however it's going to fix a lot of the downsides of that 590 a 1 so this is my kel-tec KSG these shotguns are pretty cool I think most people think of them as more gimmicky than actual practical actually practical however with this you kind of run into the same deal with his pgo or pistol grip on the shotgun where it's a non NFA item it's over 26 overall inches you still have an 18 and a half inch barrel but what's really nice is you have dual magazine tubes which give you a overall capacity of 14 rounds with two and three-quarter inch shells if you get like a little like self-defense Aguila shorty guys mags you can get like 22 of them so while I don't really have a good place to put a sidesaddle without jeopardising being able to shoot this ambidextrous you have a lot of rounds before you have to start worrying about reloading now so one of the nice things about this versus the 590 it's very very short so it's going to be very easy to use in an urban armen inside your house anything like that the nice thing also is it's much lighter and even if it was the same weight as the 590 the weights going to be all in closer to you the further you get that weight out in front of you the heavier it's going to feel so you can keep this in your shoulder much longer I will say this is probably a little bit more punishing as far as the recoil goes it's definitely going to be more aggressive but it's definitely manageable especially if you get used to it and then I really like that it comes with the integrated sight rail up here so you can actually put an optic up here I have just the Magpul and buss sights on here right now but I would like to get a optic for at some point and then I still have to figure out a good way to mount the light to it because again I don't want a home defense gun that doesn't have a light but once I get this thing squared away this will probably become my primary home defense shotgun and then the 590 will be more of my North Korea invasion shotgun so you know something else I definitely will say about the the Cal Tech that I thought was actually really interesting when we got a chance to play around with it at the range with those two different tubes you really can have a lot of versatility of switching back and forth between the different tubes and I think you know it's really awesome to be able to have one tube with maybe number four or double odd and then one with slug and be able to say okay well I got a longer shot let's take it over cycle one out and then get that longer shot and then be able to cycle that to double out or number four which you know huge benefit you know the package is really nice there's a lot of versatility with it and you know it's a really short package and even with the pistol grip shotgun I'm still going to be holding it you know out just like this whereas with a firearm that it's almost the same length you've got it tucked in to your shoulder we're just going to minimize you know how how far out that motion is sticking yeah and it's going to decrease the lag time in between shots going to love for fast follow shots I will say though if you do want to get into the kel-tec KSG there is a significant learning curve versus any other shotgun out there loading is very very different cycling one of the biggest issues people run into when they want to shoot my KSG is a short stroke it constantly you have to be very aggressive with it so there is a learning curve so if you plan on getting a KSG or if you have a KSP from defense put a lot of rounds through it even if it's just birdshot get to the range use it be familiar with it make sure that you can run it effectively because again it is very different even though you have 14 plus one get good at reloads because you know it I know most home defense encounters you're probably not going to shoot more than 14 rounds but I like to be ready for the worst case scenario I don't like to be optimistic hence why I have a home shotgun so um but anyway I know probably you're asking - we have an SBR up here well what about a rifle for home defense generally speaking I think rifles are a little less advisable if you live in an urban environment just because you're going to deal with the issue of like over penetration so even though I have this SBR here it's a very short package I can maneuver this inside of a house very very effectively even with the lower velocity out of a short barrel I'm still dealing with the over penetration effect of 556 which takes us onto the ammunition discussion so you want to talk about the ideal downloads from the phone so you know one of the things we always look at is especially if we're going to be using a shotgun or firearm in home defense it is not unreasonable thing that we may have people above us below us into the sides of us especially if you're living in an apartment complex over penetration is a huge issue generally speaking there are three main types of rounds that I'm going to use for my home defense shock and and what I have loaded in my shotgun really depends on the environment that I'm actually in one of my favorite home defense laws is actually number four buck you know number four buck you know typically at a two to three quarter inch shell you've got about what 16 different pellets and we run around there which is really nice you've got a lot of really good distance with it it can be effective up to an including 25 you know yards the pellets are a little bit smaller than double lot but you know you're still going to have a decent spread the next one that I really kind of like using is double-aught buck you know obviously if I'm at a house and I don't have to worry about people being above me below me or to the size of me to some extent SS definitely to be nice it gets a really nice brevet you also gain a lot more distance and then the last one that I really kind of like is using slugs now slugs primary function of a slug is getting that distance you know we really look at slugs as being you know 25 yards 50 yards you know we've even gone out to the range and use slugs playing around with steel plates at a hundred yards with some relative nice accuracy as far as the setup that I typically run on my shotguns for home defense is generally the shotgun that's right next to my bed the tube is going to be full with number four and what I'll do is I will put one round in the chamber and then I will pull the pump back just slightly and so I can visually see that I've got a round in the chamber and then I'll have my safety on so that way all I have to do when I grabbed my shotgun is pull it forward just the rest of the way and then I've got my safety on so I can kick it off when I have positively identified the target now from there what I will do on my side saddle is I will have anywhere from three to four rounds of développé buck facing upwards and then I will have three to four slugs facing the opposite way so if I am going to go for an overhand technique overhand I'm going to keep it forward so it's easy for me to get the slugs in if I need to transition over to a double lot I can do an underhand method and then I've got number four inside the gun I've been doing that for a really long time you know typically what I also do is I will have a spare sidesaddle sitting on my nightstand with slugs on it just on the off chance that whatever have on the gun isn't going to stop now I've been doing that for quite a few years Ryan what's your setup my setup is pretty much identical again and to kind of go expound on what Donovan was saying I think we both agree with leaving our shotguns fully loaded there's the myth out there that just racking the pump on the shotgun is going to be enough to scare someone away so people say well I don't have one in the chamber so you can rack that pump and then the person is going to know oh my gosh they have a shotgun and they're going to run away don't don't believe that there's no actual realistic evidence that that's going to work because you got to think about the mindset of the person into your home obviously if they're breaking into your home their judgment skills are already lacking a lot of times they're either on drugs or they're looking to sell your stuff to get more drugs so their decision-making skills and their judgment skills and their coherence just isn't there so all you're doing is identifying exactly where you are and that you have a weapon so that they can properly prepare themselves for you with a weapon so in my opinion the only time they should here the wrecking of the shotgun is after my first round goes off I don't you have anything to add to that you know we always look back at something called target indicators you know obviously if you have a lot in your shotgun you know that could potentially be a target indicator however my benefit is I want to be able to positively identify my target before I make a conscious decision to discharge my firearm if my firearm is already loaded it increases my capacity which is one thing and then you know it it puts me in a position where literally my only conscious movement is disengaging the safety after I've positively identified my target so you know having a round in the chamber me personally I think that's a really good condition to have your shot in and you know I've been doing that for years I don't really like the myth being able to you know just pump your shotgun to scare somebody because let's face it it probably is not going to have the desired effect that you want it to on that person Murphy's Law combat says whatever can go wrong will go wrong and if something Bad's going to happen guess what chances are it's going to happen to you so you know plan accordingly yeah yeah absolutely now one other thing I want to mention when it comes to using a firearm inside the home in general I don't know if you've ever discharged around without hearing protection even outdoors but it can be pretty deafening for extended periods of time if you do that indoors it's going to be exponentially worse so one thing I personally do and one thing I were recommended by some other people is having electronic hearing protection available and so a lot of people will take their electronic hearing protection these are some peltor impact sports these are great they're relatively inexpensive people like to leave them in the range bag in my opinion these are great to have so what I do is I put this around the pump on my shotgun so that as soon as I grab my shotgun i have my ear protection so what this is going to allow me to do is not only have better hearing almost like superhuman hearing inside my home because obviously going to be hyper focused anyway if you think someone's in your home so it's going to give you better hearing better ability to identify where people might be or what they're doing but also when you crack off around inside your house you're not going to be completely useless for the next hour to all your ears or completely ringing so I highly recommend having some sort of hearing protection by your bed or on your home defense gun that's me personally and again I know there are other people who recommend that I think it's a great use for it when it's not you know being actively used on the range personally you know one of the other benefits on that you know there are a lot of different types of hearing protection out there you know we have those little phone you know earplugs that you can squish up stick in your ears the downfall in using those suckering protector that type hearing protection and home defense role that takes time and you know the other thing if you kind of the older lawnmower you know style you know hearing protection you minimize your hearing so having the benefit of electronic current protection right next to you is going to give you the greatest probability of success because you're protecting your ears you're protecting your hearing but also you're giving yourself the opportunity to maintain a situational awareness on what's going around you know after you hiccup that first round on close-quarters type situation it's going to be loud and you're only going to hear rings so having some level of hearing protection definitely an important thing you notice something too something to think about yeah so any other closing thoughts you know other than that you know we definitely hit on the fact that you want to train with your shotgun now one of the things I caught myself doing this on a regular basis is just taking a shotgun out and run a couple rounds through it you know every now and again you know I want to say we get our shotguns out probably at least no less than once a quarter just as a good familiar ization you know take some take some training - yeah you know I think that's a really good segue into the fact that you know if you are in the Pacific Northwest you know our company defensive firearms instruction has a phenomenal shotgun course you know we run that at least a couple of times a year and it's really good to get out there and stretch the legs and see what your shotgun is capable of doing yeah absolutely and again I can't agree more even if you're don't live in the northwest go somewhere where you can get some training if you want come through us that's great and I highly recommend doing that obviously but get get training get familiarize with your firearm also you know we talked about shotguns today we're probably going to do videos on setting up rifles for home defense as well because there are applications for that we might do a video on handguns for home defense but if there are specific videos that you want to see us do or there's information that you know we didn't cover that you might want to see a video on please let us know feel free to throw those in the comments below if you want to know a little bit more about our company feel free to check us out on the web at defensive firearms instruction dot o-r-g we'll put a link to that below but we'd love to see you in class

Channel: Defensive Firearms Instruction

Views: 1,923,074

Rating: 4.7682772 out of 5

Keywords: Home Defense, shotgun, long gun, 12ga, 12 gauge, Firearm (Sports Equipment), ideas, tips, best, set up, tactical, Self-defense (Martial Art Category), Shooting Sport (Sport), Defensive Firearms Instruction, DFI, Donovan Beard, Ryan Miller, Range

Id: 1hlykGQ7nM0

Length: 24min 38sec (1478 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2015