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| Educational
Zone #61 - Thunder Ranch, Defensive Shotgun
Class - Page 1 |
| When
Thunder Ranch was located in Texas, I attended
Defensive Handgun I, Defensive Handgun II,
and Urban Rifle classes there over the years.
I was hoping to be able to attend a Defensive
Shotgun class, but they moved to Oregon
before I could schedule the class. I was
surely disappointed.
Some might ask, "Why take a shotgun
class?" Good question. I am certified
by the NRA as a Shotgun Instructor, and
have been hunting birds with a shotgun for
all my life. What could there be to learn? |
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I can tell you from experience that I also
thought I knew a lot about pistols and rifles,
until I attended those classes at TR. I
found out that there was a ton of stuff
that I didn't know. I figured that same
was probably true about shotguns. I was
right. 
I was very happy to see that Clint and Heidi
were coming back to Texas to put on some
training in early 2008. I signed up for
the Defensive Shotgun course and counted
days. The course was held at Texas CQB,
in Grandview Texas, just south of Fort Worth.
It was a three day course, Monday through
Wednesday.
Let's look at the shotguns. |
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I decided to borrow a Remington
1100 TAC-4 shotgun from my buddy brianksain.
I would also bring a couple of my shotguns,
a Mossberg Maverick and a Remington 1100
Special Field. All are 12 gauge.
Why three shotguns? I wanted to try a high
capacity semi-auto, and a pump, to learn
how each system worked best. The Special
Field was my back-up.
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We
were told to bring 400 rounds of birdshot,
150 rounds of #4 or 00 Buckshot, and 25
slugs.
Here is the pile of ammo,
That's a lot of shells to shoot up in three
days. I'm glad I have a PAST Recoil Shield.
Clint doesn't recommend birdshot for defense,
but it is a good and cheap load for practice.
I had a lot of low-brass birdshot left over
from dove hunting and decided to use that.
I also knew that I ought to test it before
I brought it to a class. |
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I
went to the range and tried some Winchester
Heavy Game loads in the Remington TAC-4
to be sure that they worked, as this shotgun
is set-up for heavy loads.
I was surprised to find that the Winchester
low-brass loads would not cycle the action.
I then tried some Remington SureShot Heavy
Dove loads, and they worked just fine.
It is interesting that both loads were the
same load, i.e., 12 gauge, 2 3/4 inch, 3
1/4 dram eq, 1 1/8 oz, #8 shot.
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the Winchester load would not cycle the
action, where the Remington load would.
However, the Winchester load worked fine
in the pump and the Special Field.
The moral of that story is: Always test
your equipment and ammunition before going
to a training course.
We arrived at the CQB headquarters on Monday
morning, bright and early. The facilities
at CQB turned out to be very nice. They
were excellent ranges and the whole place
was very clean and well-organized.
We started out in the classroom with a 3
1/2 hour lecture by Clint Smith. He covered
all aspects of fighting with a shotgun and,
as usual, his opinions were well thought
out and well explained.
He recognizes that the shotgun is an extremely
effective defensive weapon in well-trained
hands within its limitations.
These limitations are:
1. It is most effective with the proper
ammunition.
2. It is most effective from zero to 30
yards. As Clint reminded us several times,
"At close range, it will remove meat
and bone."
3. It can be effective out to 75-100 yards
with slugs.
4. It has limited ammunition capacity. This
increases the need for "manipulation",
and is, in Clint's opinion, its major problem.
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After
the lecture, we met on the range for the
rest of the 3-day course.
As we left the classroom, Clint said, in
his usual tactful way, "If any of you
have recoil shields and leave them in the
trunk, you are stupid."
I ain't stupid, and I wore mine. 
Most of our shooting was at steel silhouettes,
but we also shot some paper for patterning
and for hostage drills.
Here's the steel. |
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We
shot from 3 yards (on paper only, so we
wouldn't have pellets bouncing back) all
the way out to 75 yards (with slugs).
Most of the fighting was from 7 to 20 yards.
Lots and lots of shooting and moving and
manipulation (reloading). |
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