The Most Common Mistake Made By New Shotgunners
Video which shows the most common mistake made by new shotgunners
I decided to make a video to show you the most common mistake made by new Remington 870 (or different pump-action shotgun) owners. The most common mistake new shotgunners do is waiting 0.5-1 second before pumping a shotgun after the shot.
You may seen this a lot of times: shooter waits about a second after the shot and then pumps his/her shotgun. You need to practice pumping shotgun right after the shot using recoil. This way recoil becomes your friend.
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As simple as that is, I wish someone would have told me.
Thanks Vitaly
Thomas, I am happy you like it. I’ve seen that mistake so many times, so I decided to make this small video.
Okay, tried working on this today at the range. Botched it just about every time. I would get the shell to eject, but it seemed like I wasn’t always getting the next round to chamber. Had about a 15-20% success rate on this. I could get it done, but definitely need to send many more rounds downrange. Disclaimer – I have officially shot 100 rounds of 12 ga. now in my adult life. I’ve got a LONG way to go. ;) Nothing makes a better welder like time under the hood.
Picking up my S&W Sigma 9mm after the 870 today was like going to a toy cap gun. That was quite a shock at how immediate the difference was.
excellent tip, thank you for sharing. now to go and practice.
Thomas, you can do this drill at home using snap caps and it will be easier to do this with live rounds on the range.
P. Ted, I am happy that it was useful for you.
Thanks for your good words, guys, I will record more videos as soon as possible.
This is a great tip. I got the hang of it right away. Great blog. Thanks.
I’m happy it was helpful for you!
Great tip. I have just started getting used to slugs though for deer hunting. Should I still apply the same principle when shooting a deer?
Joe, yes, it is the same when shooting a deer, this enables you to shoot faster.
Your website is the perfect guide for beginners like me! Have you considered doing more video where you show common mistakes in handling Remington 870 or how you can improve your technique? This video proved to be extremely useful for me as I used to wait around a second before pumping.
I’ve done something similar with Mossberg and Remington pump shotguns: I have rearward pressure on the forend as I’m shooting, so as soon as the shot is fired I’m moving the forend to the rear to open the breech and extract and eject the fired cartridge case. Note: the alert reader will have already noticed that this technique doesn’t work with older designs like the Winchester 97 and 12 and early production Ithaca 37s that had the “slamfire” trigger group, because they don’t lock the forend in the forward position. But doing this with a modern pump shotgun will allow you to put lead downrange almost as fast as holding down the trigger on an old Ithaca 37 and slamming the slide forward and back.
Pump shotguns are not delicate, or at least they’re not supposed to be–delicate designs didn’t last on the market. Slam that forend back and forth HARD. Otherwise you risk short-stroking and causing a stoppage.