Gun Digest Guide to Modern Shotgunning

459 Pages·2014·64.43 MB·English

by  Brezny

MODERN
SHOTGUNNING
L.P. BREZNY
INTRODUCTION
The modern shotgun is a small wonder, when observed from mine, a
ballistician’s point of view. While being random in terms of projectile control
(or lack of it), the shotgun’s functioning system retains some very predictable
elements that make it one of the very best and most flexible gunning tools in use
today by hunters and target shooters, as well as in military and law enforcement
applications.
How flexible is the shotgun, how lethal? In its time, the shotgun has often
been used by war-time armies, as was the case in Germany, during WWII, for
instance; those who knew they were to come up against them on the battlefield
wanted them declared illegal for combat! As law enforcement tools, there are no
better weapons to be considered, when a team or even a single officer is
confronted with multiple targets in urban settings and at close range; merely the
sound of a pump gun’s action in the dead of night, slamming home a chambered
round, strikes fear into the heart of any intruder with at least half a brain in
working order. Of course, for the sportsman, when the targets are rising game
birds, descending waterfowl, or incoming deer or coyotes, the shotgun can also
answer the call, providing the correct ammunition is applied for such purposes in
the field.
There was once a question asked of Alaskan bush pilots, regarding exactly
what gun they would consider as a survival tool to be carried in their aircraft, if
only a single choice could be had. The answer was, overwhelmingly, a 12-gauge
shotgun. Why? Because the shotgun is flexible in terms of bringing down
everything from bears to rabbits, as well as it is dependable, in that its action,
even in a repeating pump gun, always seems to work. Haul along a mixed-fruit
salad of slugs, buckshot, or fine birdshot and you’re in business, when it comes
time to keeping the Dutch oven full of meat. Indeed, when one of the survival-
themed television shows aired awhile back and the participants were issued
guns, the single gun that worked out the best, in terms of just keeping these
people supplied with some form of protein, was a simple .410-bore shotgun. (At
the time, I wondered why a .410, but knowing a few television writer types and
also knowing their understanding of the real gun world, that whole issue
becomes still another story. I’m sure you can imagine as well as I can.)

All this brings me to purpose to this book, but first let me clarify what it won’t
be about. What this book will not be about is a reconstruction of the shotgun’s
history. Nor will it be a basic evaluation of shotguns as the tools of the upland,
waterfowl hunter, or clay bird shooter. While elements regarding upland,
waterfowl, and other related target shooting subjects will indeed surface within
the text, the primary purpose of this material is really to give the reader some
insight to the massively extensive and flexible adaptations associated with a
modern scattergun.
The world of shotguns, and mainly the study of smoothbore ballistics, started
for me almost 50 years ago, back in the heart of the Midwestern United States.
In those days, hunting land access was easy, game was plentiful, and lead shot
ruled the land. For the roughly first 15 years or so I hunted and shot there, I
never chambered a single factory load in my shotgun that I could remember; you
don’t know smoothbore ammunition or scatterguns until you have built your
own ammunition from scratch. That’s the start of a full-blown learning curve
and, in my case, the start of a drive toward a long and eventful career of both
making shotguns work better and pushing the loads that supply them fly harder
and further then any previous time in American smoothbore history.
Being at the very onset of the non-toxic revolution, and with a decade already
behind me in high-performance lead shot load research, I was right in the
driver’s seat, when my writing and field work began to turn to reporting on load
performance. Tacking on my research time involving the development of totally
new types of specialized non-toxic ammunition for long-range waterfowl and
varmint applications, and you could say that I was positioned at a point in
firearms history that proved to establish my long and eventful travel down the
road of smoothbore ballistics learning and advancement.
During the past 35 years, I have been involved in the testing, development,
and field application of new shotshell load designs; believe me when I tell you
that ordnance development, as in highly upgraded ammunition, has pressed
forward at an almost unbelievable pace. I’ve also regularly participated in actual,
forward at an almost unbelievable pace. I’ve also regularly participated in actual,
real-time testing of completely new shotguns being released for public sale by
the firearms makers. So, much of the writing in this book will expose you to
those real-world field-testing examples, because that’s what’s truly pushing the
modern shotgun technology today. Related shooting gear associated with the
modern smoothbore firearm will also be included, as required.
Over the course of this book, I’ve made sure you will be introduced to hard
data ballistics that will show you how different load designs function and what
you can expect of them when they meet their target, doing away with the
minimal (and not very useful at that) shotshell box-top information. Why? That
box-top info is produced by measurement systems at the shotgun’s muzzle—and
nothing to my knowledge ever gets shot at, in terms of published ballistics, quite
that close to the muzzle of a shotgun. You have distance between the muzzle and
whatever it is you’re aiming at, and it’s that distance, in a few to many dozens of
yards, that matters far more than what’s going on directly in front of the bead.
If there is an element of subject elimination within the text here, it is in the
areas of clay target shooting and studies in lead shot ballistics. I admit that clay
shooting is not my area of expertise, but that’s not the reason you won’t find
much information on it. The reason you won’t find much info on those two
subjects is that, for the most part, lead shot is, without question, on the way out!
That includes lead shot as we currently see it being used for clay target games
and field sport shooting. As for the sporting guns themselves, what’s new with
them—backboring, extended chokes, stock weights, barrel weights, adjustable
stocks, and the like—are tried and true features and, so, aren’t really new at all.
Finally, it’s of particular note that specialized shotguns for the military,
sporting games (3-Gun, for instance), and police have evolved to enter the realm
of mainstream field application. The use of silencers (noise suppressors) on
shotguns, for instance, is very new. This includes my own design developments
in this area, which have centered on the current-production .724 Orion 12-gauge
silencer system, as well as the established Metro Gun System, both of which are
designed to produce very quiet shotgun shooting. The information you will
obtain here covering shotgun silencers will be some of the first on this subject—
and accurate to the letter. Overall, and taking interesting developments such as
these and others and viewing them as a reflection of what truly defines today’s
modern shotguns, what I can assure every reader is that, if you review this work
in detail, you will come away a better informed shotgunner, no matter your
choice of use for these ever-popular firearms. And doesn’t that make all the
difference? Enjoy.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
From Tanks to Model 870s, They’re All Just Pieces of Pipe
CHAPTER 2
The Shotgun’s Foundations
CHAPTER 3
Pump, Doubles, Singles, and Semi’s – Which Type’s Best for You?
CHAPTER 4
Shotgun Lifespan – Just How Long Will Yours Last?
CHAPTER 5
That Thing That Goes Bang!
CHAPTER 6
Non-Toxic Shotshells – Making Waves and Breaking New Ground
CHAPTER 7
After the Barrel – Shot Dispersion
CHAPTER 8
Shot String Dynamics
CHAPTER 9
Shotgun Chokes – The Key to Patterning Proficiency
CHAPTER 10
10-Gauge vs. 12-Gauge Magnum – Is There A Clear Winner?