Best way to carry shotgun shells?

[Nightcrawler]

I'm talking for duty use, "tactical" use, or even 3-Gunning. Any instance where you'll potentially need a lot of rounds quickly.

So what's the best way to carry your shotgun shells? There are 12 round pouches that attach to a pistol belt via ALICE clips, but I don't know how well those'll work.

then there are those 50 round bandoliers you see, which seem like they'd put the ammo easily at hand.

But what else is there? Belt pouches? Bandoliers? A big "dump bag" style pouch full of shells?

Thanks.

 

[jthuang]

My vote:

1. Sidesaddle on the gun. Pro: IMHO fastest way to get ammo into the mag tube. Con: can get tangled up with your chest gear if you're in close quarters, but if you're not wearing a tac vest or chest rig, don't worry too much about this.

2. Belt pouch. Pro: carries the shells oriented the way you like them (brass up for me). Also holds more shells than sidesaddle. Con: slower than using a sidesaddle.

If you don't like the ALICE clip method (I don't), BHI and Eagle have 12 round pouches that attach to your belt via velcro retention. I have a BHI 12 round pouch that works very well.

I would avoid bandoliers, dump bags, the "bandolier on a shotgun sling" and having shells loose in your pocket.

Bandoliers are unwieldy. You cannot gain muscle memory from loading from points up and down your chest -- with a belt pouch, your hand is going to the same place every time for new shells so you develop your muscle memory faster. Bandoliers can also shift at inopportune times. And how do you get to the shells that are on your back?

Bandolier slings are even worse. You put a lot of weight on your sling, which is usually swinging around during movement. The balance of your gun is shot (no pun intended) and not only that, it's very hard to load from a sling bandolier.

Dump bags and loose shells are not good in tactical situations. You might as well throw stealth out the window. Shells rattling around in a bag or pocket are going to give away your position.

Here's what I'd do:

1. Sidesaddle with slugs only.
2. Belt pouch with buckshot only.

This method permits fast loading and allows you to do the "switch to slug" for long distances without having to fumble in your pouch trying to figure out which shell is a slug and which is a buck shell. Forget about color-coding the shells, if you're loading correctly you shouldn't be looking at the shells -- and color coding doesn't do you any good in low light situations.

Justin

 

[Smoke]

I prefer carriers on the butt stock of the gun myself. I couldn't find a mass produced one I liked so I built my own out of leather.

My second choice would be the side saddle.

I'd have to agree with jt on the other items.

 

[Correia]

Hard core 3 gun fanatic here. And from that background I think I can add to this. I usually win the shotgun stages in our local matches (good thing for the other competitors I suck with a pistol ) The key to winning shotgun matches is reloading speed. 16-20 shot stages are common.

Loose shells in a pouch or pocket suck. Fishing around for shells kills your time. Fumbling with them to get them pointed in the right direction is a killer.

I'm going to go against the grain here and recommend a bandoler. With one big caution, you MUST use the kind that attach to your belt. If you use the loose kind that just goes over a shoulder, the shells will never be in the same place twice.

This is what I do. My bandoleer holds 15 shells. (copied from the one by www.3gungear.com but made by my wife out of mil surp material and suspenders). I put 4, a space, 4, a space, and 4. I load 4 shells at a time. This way I can reach down, grab 4, have a tactile space so I don't try and grab too many. And then thumb them into the gun. I can load 4 in about 1.5 seconds on a good day.

If I'm shooting a stage that requires select slug, I use a nylon 5 shell holder on the butt stock to hold slugs. If more than 5 slugs are required I will wear a seperate 5 shot wrist cuff on my right hand. (that way when I reach up for a slug, the wrist cuff and the butt pouch are right by each other.

If you decide to go from your belt, your best bet is a shell caddy. These are little plastic things that hold the shells horizontally and allow you to grab as many as you want. I don't do shotgun shells on my belt because I usually already have so many pistol and rifle mags that I'm already weighed down. (plus my bandoleer helps hold my pants up! ) However many of the top competitors use the caddys. It is a very sure way to grab multiple shells.

 

[Nightcrawler]

I don't consider having to carry the ammo off of the gun a disadvantage, as that's exactly what you'd have to do with any other type of weapon anyway, be it rifle or handgun.

The trouble with using on-weapon shell carriers, as I see it, is that at most, you'll get 12 extra rounds (6 on a sidesaddle, 6 on a buttstock shell carrier). That's fine for most situations, but if you're in a match or are a trooper on patrol with the shotgun, you might need more than that.

The 12 round pouches won't be as fast as a sidesaddle, but nothing really is. Biggest problem I see with them is that if you forget to close them and go running off you can spill your shells all over the place.

The problem with having shells on your belt is that you might be using your belt for other things, such as a handgun, knife, flashlight, magazines, etc. (depending on the situation) and you might not have enough room.

3-Gun Gear's stuff is nice, but expensive, and won't work if you need to wear a jacket (at least, if the jacket goes at all below the waist).

And of course, the bandoliers will flop around when running, and the place you need to reach for your next shell will constantly move, which could give you trouble if you're in a timed match.

So, I don't know. Let's keep the ideas coming. The goal is to find the most effecient way to carry the largest number of shotgun rounds. For home defense, what you have in the gun will do, but this has nothing to do with HD.

 

[9mmMike]

What about a shirt or vest with the loops or holders sewn on?
This would keep them where you expect them to be and would really distribute the weight.
Mike

 

[jthuang]

The 12 round pouches won't be as fast as a sidesaddle, but nothing really is. Biggest problem I see with them is that if you forget to close them and go running off you can spill your shells all over the place.

Dunno about other brands but BHI's 12 round pouch holds the shells VERY tightly. I leave the lid open as I don't have any retention concerns.

The problem with having shells on your belt is that you might be using your belt for other things, such as a handgun, knife, flashlight, magazines, etc. (depending on the situation) and you might not have enough room.

I have a 28" waist so I don't have much room on my belt to hang stuff. But the belt method of carrying shells doesn't prevent me from carrying what I need.

My typical 3 gun rig has room for handgun, handgun mags, 12 shell pouch and a OC pouch. Flashlight is clipped to my rear left pocket (Surefire E2e). Knife is a Spyderco Endura clipped to the pouch attached to my BHI Omega VI holster.

People with larger waists will have more room for stuff than me but I think it works.

 

[Andrew Wyatt]

i use a standard bandolier.

it works great, provided you 1. load it every other round. and 2. instead of moving your hand to get shells, move the bandolier.

after loading a couple rounds, i pull the front of the bandolier up, which exposes more rounds for loading.

 

[Nightcrawler]

I don't know that I'll buy anything from BLACKHAWK!. While I've owned a vest from them that was well-made, there are a couple things about the company I don't like. Their factory in Vietnam for one (c'mon, other gear companies make their stuff in the USA, and it's not like BLACKHAWK!'s prices are any lower for their being made overseas). Their advertisements, for another.

After September 11th, they introduced their "HELLSTORM!" gloves, capitalizing on the treacherous attack for an ad campaign. And everything they make is either HELLSTOM, HYDRASTORM, STIKE, TACTICAL, ALERT, or some other all caps acronym. Even their rigger's belt. It's not just a rigger's belt, it's a CQB rigger's belt. Somehow better than other rigger's belts for, um, battle, I guess.

And their ads. Oh my good Lord.

POW! KABLOOIE! WOOSH! BOOM! Plumes of flame, and everybody in night vision. I mean, come ON. That was cool when I was twelve, okay? They really need to just tone down the ads a bit.

A company that I have done business, and have been very happy with, is FMCO. Great service and quality gear, 100% American made to boot. Plus, they can custom make stuff for you. I'm going to have them make me up a holster for a 6" N-Frame, and speedloader pouches to go with it.

 

[Bruce626]

I agree, Sidesaddle is the fastest to load from (for me anyway) due to closeness.

Next fastest is the butt-mounted sidesaddle (same plastic material as receiver Sidesaddle, so it feels/works the same, unlike the elastic kind).

I have both mounted and find the extra weight manageable and it evens dampens felt recoil a bit.

I also have two of the 12-shell belt pouches with the inside elastic loops to hold the shells... I've never had any fall out when running with pouch open... but have had a crouch position push up the shells. Loading from here is not fast.

My ammo management strategy is to load from the fastest available source and, as time permits, re-supply the Sidesaddle from the belt pouches so that when things speed up again, I've got my Sidesaddle filled or partially filled again.

My stash of last resort is in cargo pockets... which due to lack of consistent shell orientation is really slow. I imagine the big open shell bags would suffer this same problem.

Never tried a bandolier nor carrier sling... read too many bad things about them on TFL.

I've never invested the time in learning/practicing loading while holding 4 shells in my hand... that sounds fast if you know what you're doing... but on my initial attempts I dropped more than I got into the mag. Klutzy I guess.

 

[jthuang]

Agreed on BHI, I got all my BHI stuff before I found out they opened a factory in Vietnam. I order Eagle from Lightfighter.com now. The only thing is that you gotta WAIT for Eagle gear. The wait is worth it to me but YMMV.

And yeah I think the BHI ads are stupid -- almost to the point of being offensively so.

Justin

 

[Correia]

Bruce, here is the secret.

Get a bunch of dummy shells. When you are just sitting around watching TV or something, practice loading your SG. Start with 2 shells. When you can do that 100%, go to 3, then 4. I can't do 5 as even my hands aren't big enough to do that.

To make it really fun, unscrew the end cap and pull out your spring. Now as you feed the shells through the gun they just pop out the end and fall on the ground. (I use a butterfly chair to catch them so I don't have to get out of my chair, how utterly TACTICAL! )

Now repeat this until your thumbs turn purple, then black, by the time your thumbs start to bleed you should have mastered it.

 

[Soap]

Correia-

Goodness! Four shells at once!? Man I better start practicing! Do you mind describing how you load so many at once in a new thread? Thanks!

Dan

 

[Blain]

So what's the best way to carry your shotgun shells? There are 12 round pouches that attach to a pistol belt via ALICE clips, but I don't know how well those'll work.

This is the BEST set up for shell carrying, this is what I use. I have 4 of these 12 round pouches on a pistol belt. 2 loaded with buck, two loaded with slugs. They stay loaded for SHTF. Awesome set up. Nice to be able to have 48 shells on the belt + 13 (6 from S.S.) from the gun.

 

[Gordon]

I used to do real well at the 3 gun Matches starting with the ones in Las Vegas at SOF 2. Back then the hot set up was Milt Sparks 6 pack belt slides and his butt cuff(which still is the best one) with a single 2 round 'speed pouch' on belt for topping off or emergency slugs. I tried the wrist cuff deal, and while they were fast in practice they didn't fare so well under match pressure. This thread started with "duty use" so I think this is the one place where the side saddle is superior; it's allways there! Inside for house clearing I go for the high speed / low drag no attached ammo gun. I grab the Lawrence bandoleer when I head outside(it's stored with HD gun). I ran between stages with this in the 80's and it didn't flop too much , not like velcro closed loose ammo bags on side ! There is a point about muscle memory going to ammo on bandoleer, and that is the reason top guys use belt slides I think. I would use belt slide shell holders if I was in play competition.