Poll on shotgun vs. handgun for home defense ?

[Firpo]

Have I been shooting ducks and quail wrong this entire time? None of those shotguns have rear sights.

Agreed, rear sights are for aiming while shotguns are for pointing.

 

[rickm]

The only ones i have "seen" never owned is rifled slug barrels

 

[HoLeChit]

Agreed, rear sights are for aiming while shotguns are for pointing.

Precisely.

 

[El Pablo]

Ok, I retract the oven spray. I think I'll now go with carb cleaner with the straw attached so it has more range, and is much easier to "shoot from the hip". If I had any, I'd keep it in the fridge so the cold stream would cause them to inhale rapidly there by ingesting more the the burny chemical goodness! I could also use it to remove pesky price stickers.... If I had any.

Chlorinated or non chlorinated?

 

[KurtM]

I see the old lore of "you just point a shotgun" is still thought of as good defensive technique. Most shotgun arbitrations occur at distances where the average shot pattern is 4" or less. I have seen some incredibly good missing at room distances from steely eyed shotgun pointers.

 

[El Pablo]

It's difficult to get over old habits or muscle-memory.
- Neither the Mossberg 'Shockwave' nor the Remington 'Tac-14' were designed to be fired from the shoulder like a typical shotgun. They are intended to be 'hip-fired' which is why they have a hand safety-strap on the front-end to help manage recoil, do not come with a rear sight, and are classed a 'Firearm' rather than a 'shotgun' which, by ATF definition, is designed to be shoulder-fired.
- In fact the ONLY thing that keeps these firearms from being classed as a SBS is because the overall length of 26.5" which is a factory specification (as opposed to self-modification - i.e. sawed-off) exceeds the maximum overall-length for an SBS (=< 26") as defined by the ATF (as well as many states).
- One major problem with this being a 'hip-fired' weapon was the difficulty in accurate targeting, so Mossberg addressed this with a model that now includes an integrated CrimsonTrace receiver mounted laser for better target acquisition.

So, you would pick something you have to strap on (shockwave) over a shotgun or hand gun?

A guy rocking a strap on would be terrifying.

 

[bigred1]

Agreed, rear sights are for aiming while shotguns are for pointing.

 

[KurtM]

I'm pretty sure that strap is NOT to help with recoil, but to keep your hand from slipping off the front of the pump and blowing of a finger or three! Remember it is a faux pas to start a gun fight by shooting yourself. That's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it works out for them!
Oh and chlorinated for the extra burn!!

 

[JEVapa]

This thread is kinda fun...so many things to respond to. I have to go take a knee and face out and drink H2O.

 

[Firpo]

I’m no Olympic shooter nor have I spent any time getting familiar with tacticool shotguns (though i have fired an M4 on a couple occasions). That said I have shot a crap-load of dove, quail, chucker, station 1 hard rights and station 8 high houses. In none of those situations would a rear sight have served any purpose. If it did every competitive shooter on the planet would have one. I have to think a softball (at best) sized bird flying 50mph is WAAAAAAAYYYYYY harder to hit than a 200 pound bad guy moving 6mph. Use some common sense. For hundreds of years people haven’t had an issue hitting what they “pointed” at without a rear sight and for some reason now all of a sudden a shotgun is worthless without one. Gemme a break.