Preacherman
Member
I originally posted this story in the Staff Forum, but I've shared it with a couple of others, and the universal reaction seems to be that they want to see it in the Shotguns forum too! So, here goes... 
Recently, I fell in with some fellow LEO's who shoot together once a month at a local range. A few of them are very into the macho-rifle-thing, where anything smaller than a thirty-caliber round is for wimps, and REAL men shoot .45-70, .458 Win. Mag., etc. They were making fun of me because I am very vocal about not liking a bruised shoulder, etc.
Well... I bought a 10-gauge 3½" Magnum double-barrelled shotgun from a fellow member of THR. The price was good, and I badly wanted it for this purpose. I spent some time cleaning it up, taking off the recoil pad and fitting a standard steel butt-plate (fortunately, I had one just the right size in my box of gun bits and pieces). I also stocked up on 10ga. 3½" Magnum #4 buckshot (54 pellets to a round!!! ) and slugs.
I took the shotgun to the range for our next session, to be met by three of the most egregiously recoil-promoting idiots among our shooters. For the sake of professional anonymity, we'll call them Doofus, Dweet and Digby.
Doofus took the shotgun with a sneer of disdain, dropped in a couple of rounds of 3½" Magnum buckshot, and let fly (without bothering to mount the shotgun properly or hold the stock FIRMLY into the shoulder pocket!!!) at a pistol target 15 yards away. He didn't hit the target wth a single pellet, but the recoil smacked him three or four yards straight back, and his exclamation of pain and surprise was of a nature that I can't really reproduce on a family-oriented forum like this one...
His two buddies taunted him for his lack of ability to "soak it up", and Dweet took the shotgun (still with one load in it) and lined up. He took the trouble to mount it properly, and touched it off. He also recoiled a few feet, and muttered darkly about "it's nothing much" - but for the next hour, he was holding his shoulder and rubbing it periodically.
Digby was the most fun. Having seen his buddies get hurt by it, he was already nervous about the shotgun. He dropped in two fresh loads, but instead of mounting it to his shoulder, he decided to hold it at chest level, with the stock between his upper arm and torso. I could have told him that this was a BAD IDEA - but why spoil the lesson?
Anyway, he held the shotgun with his forefinger on the front trigger, and his middle finger on the rear trigger. This is the way I learned to use a double-trigger gun in Africa - but there, we learned (the hard way) that one uses the rearmost trigger first, then the foremost - otherwise, pulling the front trigger will almost always exert pressure on the middle finger, which will then fire the rear trigger almost simultaneously. Painful, that...
Digby touched off the front trigger, and the shotgun did a lovely 90° arc from horizontal to straight up. The pressure on his firing hand duly touched off the second barrel as the gun was approaching vertical, and drove it straight down into the ground, taking him with it. His comments were anatomically specific and graphic, but fortunately the gun wasn't damaged (some scratches on the steel butt-plate, but nothing else).
The three of them then decided that it would be only fair for me to demonstrate the proper use of this monster, and demanded that I fire it. I was prepared...
I'd put on a light jacket that morning (totally unnecessary, weather-wise, but I excused it on the grounds of concealing my pistol, which I normally carry IWB, but for this occasion had worn OWB). Under the jacket, I'd mounted a PAST recoil shield... I'd also taken the precaution of concealing a couple of standard 3" 10-gauge birdshot rounds in the box of 3½" Magnum #4 buckshot...
I duly ferreted around in the box and took out the 3" rounds, being careful to hold them so that their shorter length wasn't visible. I loaded them, and mounted the shotgun in Ayoob's Stressfire stance, which I've found very effective in controlling heavy-recoiling long guns. I touched off both rounds in succession, hitting the 15-yard target quite satisfactorily, and managing to control the recoil very well. I then turned to them, with an innocent-as-angels look on my face, and asked them "What's the problem, guys? I didn't have any trouble!"
Aaahh, the joys of one-upmanship!
Recently, I fell in with some fellow LEO's who shoot together once a month at a local range. A few of them are very into the macho-rifle-thing, where anything smaller than a thirty-caliber round is for wimps, and REAL men shoot .45-70, .458 Win. Mag., etc. They were making fun of me because I am very vocal about not liking a bruised shoulder, etc.
Well... I bought a 10-gauge 3½" Magnum double-barrelled shotgun from a fellow member of THR. The price was good, and I badly wanted it for this purpose. I spent some time cleaning it up, taking off the recoil pad and fitting a standard steel butt-plate (fortunately, I had one just the right size in my box of gun bits and pieces). I also stocked up on 10ga. 3½" Magnum #4 buckshot (54 pellets to a round!!!
) and slugs.I took the shotgun to the range for our next session, to be met by three of the most egregiously recoil-promoting idiots among our shooters. For the sake of professional anonymity, we'll call them Doofus, Dweet and Digby.
Doofus took the shotgun with a sneer of disdain, dropped in a couple of rounds of 3½" Magnum buckshot, and let fly (without bothering to mount the shotgun properly or hold the stock FIRMLY into the shoulder pocket!!!) at a pistol target 15 yards away. He didn't hit the target wth a single pellet, but the recoil smacked him three or four yards straight back, and his exclamation of pain and surprise was of a nature that I can't really reproduce on a family-oriented forum like this one...
His two buddies taunted him for his lack of ability to "soak it up", and Dweet took the shotgun (still with one load in it) and lined up. He took the trouble to mount it properly, and touched it off. He also recoiled a few feet, and muttered darkly about "it's nothing much" - but for the next hour, he was holding his shoulder and rubbing it periodically.
Digby was the most fun. Having seen his buddies get hurt by it, he was already nervous about the shotgun. He dropped in two fresh loads, but instead of mounting it to his shoulder, he decided to hold it at chest level, with the stock between his upper arm and torso. I could have told him that this was a BAD IDEA - but why spoil the lesson?
Anyway, he held the shotgun with his forefinger on the front trigger, and his middle finger on the rear trigger. This is the way I learned to use a double-trigger gun in Africa - but there, we learned (the hard way) that one uses the rearmost trigger first, then the foremost - otherwise, pulling the front trigger will almost always exert pressure on the middle finger, which will then fire the rear trigger almost simultaneously. Painful, that...
Digby touched off the front trigger, and the shotgun did a lovely 90° arc from horizontal to straight up. The pressure on his firing hand duly touched off the second barrel as the gun was approaching vertical, and drove it straight down into the ground, taking him with it. His comments were anatomically specific and graphic, but fortunately the gun wasn't damaged (some scratches on the steel butt-plate, but nothing else).
The three of them then decided that it would be only fair for me to demonstrate the proper use of this monster, and demanded that I fire it. I was prepared...
I'd put on a light jacket that morning (totally unnecessary, weather-wise, but I excused it on the grounds of concealing my pistol, which I normally carry IWB, but for this occasion had worn OWB). Under the jacket, I'd mounted a PAST recoil shield... I'd also taken the precaution of concealing a couple of standard 3" 10-gauge birdshot rounds in the box of 3½" Magnum #4 buckshot... I duly ferreted around in the box and took out the 3" rounds, being careful to hold them so that their shorter length wasn't visible. I loaded them, and mounted the shotgun in Ayoob's Stressfire stance, which I've found very effective in controlling heavy-recoiling long guns. I touched off both rounds in succession, hitting the 15-yard target quite satisfactorily, and managing to control the recoil very well. I then turned to them, with an innocent-as-angels look on my face, and asked them "What's the problem, guys? I didn't have any trouble!"
Aaahh, the joys of one-upmanship!
