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Advice?
Never pickup the shotgun without picking up your cellphone first. Either call 911 immediately or have your spouse do it while you're investigating. CYA.
Get yourself a cheap flashlight mount and a cheap double lithium-cell torch for it. Walmart or Target sell decent lights. Buy two. If you ever have use this weapon at all, it'll be at night. You need to be able to see more than you need to be able to shoot. One on the gun, one in reserve on your person.
Keep a backup flashlight, extra shells, and possibly a loaded sidearm in a "man purse" you can quickly throw over your shoulder regardless of what you are wearing. Anything shaped like an old claymore mine bags would work fine.
Generally speaking: Don't leave your bedroom without something on your feet. Common sense. Get the gun, get the cell phone, get some shoes on.
One of those silly elastic 5-shot ammo buttstock sleeves isn't a bad idea for alternate ammo types. If you run some duct tape along the exposed tips of the shells (crimp flower, not the brass part) when they're in the sleeve, it keeps them from coming out if you're running or whatever, but you can still yank them free pretty easily.
I like to put carry slings on my toys, but its really optional for a home defense piece. Depending on the stock (I'll assume fixed), you can easily put QD 1.25" swivels on it. If that doesn't work for ya, poking a hole in the bottom of the plastic stock and knotting a 550 cord loop inside it by removing the buttplate works rather nicely in a pinch.
Lead buckshot (usually 00 size) is your ammo of choice here. Slices, dices... yeah, it does it all. You can also load some rubber buckshot and bean bags, if you feel like a philosophical debate with the cops afterwards. You just might want to keep some sabot slugs in case you have to fight pesky Imperial Stormtroopers... or for some reason need to shoot at any long distance. Keep in mind that bead sights suck ass.
You can replace the bead with a fiber optic piece that glows with minimal light. They work pretty good, I have one on a Remington 870.
Some people keep a strip of electrical tape over the barrel to keep out debris that might become lodged from a HTH encounter or simply walking into some drywall accidentally while being scared shitless from a home invasion.
Keep the magazine tube loaded but leave the chambered empty. The security of the empty chamber with the safety on and the psychological effect that racking the slide has on any intruder is worth it.
Practice moving through your house in the dark with the piece shouldered (or at the ready). It'll give you the experience and confidence you need later.
Practice reloading the magazine tube while under stress. Hard to fake, but incorporate loading the shotgun in the dark after a hard cardio exercise.
Practice using your safety. It is there for a good reason. It might just save your life if your weapon is ever taken away from you during an invasion.
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Meh, I could write about this for days.
Last edited by Plan9; 09-03-2007 at 12:57 PM..
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