One-handed operation

[DaveC]

This is an advanced, but important defensive drill for the Remington 870.

In a grim defensive scenario, one may well have one arm injured, crippled, or otherwise rendered useless.
As a rule, this would be an opportune time to switch to a defensive handgun and use it one handed.

But what if that is not possible?
Start this drill at home by removing all live ammunition from the room you'll carry out the initial drill in.
You should start slowly and deliberately using snap caps or other inert ammunition for "dry fire" practice.
Once these skills have been drilled, you can try it at a range using live ammunition and actually making shots on target. Most public ranges, of course, would NOT allow this sort of thing, so you might bring it up during a defensive shotgun class, and the trainer may want to include it.

The "easiest" method, is to bend your support arm and hold it against your body. Other's perform the drills with the support arm hanging loosely at the side.
1) find cover.
2) From behind cover, take a great big stride toward the target with one leg [the left leg for right-handed folks], rapidly assume a shooting position where you are sitting on your foot, and your knee is bent on the opposite leg with your foot planted firmly on the deck. With your good arm, brace the shotgun against your bent leg much as if it was a muzzle loading musket: butt on the ground, muzzle pointing straight up. Using your good arm, pump the action, ejecting the empty cartridge, and feeding a new one. Grasp the shotgun while indexing your finger outside the trigger guard, and smoothly bring the piece to your shoulder, aiming at the target. Aim and squeeze the trigger. "Fire." Repeat.

If the shotgun is completely out of ammunition, put the shotgun down on the deck, and literally kneel on the butt stock to keep it steady. Use your good arm to load cartridges into the tube mag, and then resume firing using the stance above.

Alternate method: When I was first introduced to this drill, we remained standing and pumped the slide action like in certain bad action films: gravity and momentum, shucking the action one-handed with the muzzle up, then tucking the stock under our arm while we moved our good hand back to the grip and trigger. It may be worthwhile to practice this method from behind cover, but frankly, I prefer the kneeling method. To re-load the shotgun from a standing position with one hand, place the shotgun between your knees with your knees and ankles squeezed together, with the tube magazine port facing up, and bend down at the waist to stuff shells into the magazine from your carrier with your good hand. Again, I prefer the kneeling method, but give this version a try or two as well.

Include transitions to a defensive pistol in addition to these "dire straits" methods... Good luck!

[stratotrev]

This is really good information Dave, great post. We frequently do different types of shotgun drills similar to this for different types of scenarios, clearing buildings, open areas, whatever the case may be. Every situation is generally unpredictable but this type of practice can ultimately be a great help with building technique and muscle memory in the instance you may lose the function in an arm, or for whatever case that may arise requiring such utilization of your shotgun. It can surely be a difficult task at hand if you have no experience or practice with it, and still even with practice will take a while to become comfortable with it.

I also personally feel you've added an extremely valuable tidbit of information at the end when you mentioned transition drills. Transistion drills are crucial for those situations when you have to quickly move to your sidearm, and again requires plenty of practice to gain that muscle memory to quickly, smoothly, and efficiently make that transition and continue putting rounds on target. We continually practice transition drills with our various types of weapons at work, and I personally practice holster draws and transition drills with my personal weapons at home. You never know when you may need these skills and in the end could mean the differnece between life and death.

[DaveC]

My third defensive shotgun class instructor was ex-LEO and ex-SWAT... or CRT or whatever it was called in his particular case. Once on a so-called "dynamic entry" he ran headlong into the suspects coming out while the squad was going in. He broke an arm and the show didn't stop because he was hurt... Realistic training is important.

[stratotrev]

My third defensive shotgun class instructor was ex-LEO and ex-SWAT... or CRT or whatever it was called in his particular case. Once on a so-called "dynamic entry" he ran headlong into the suspects coming out while the squad was going in. He broke an arm and the show didn't stop because he was hurt... Realistic training is important.

Absolutely. It's not too likely being on an Air Force Base that I'll ever need it but you never know. It never hurts to be trained well. I have however heard stories from some Marine Corps buddies about that very type of situation occurring while clearing houses in Fallujah, specifically breaching doors and performing clearing techniques one handed while wounded.