The Shotgun Is The Most Neglected Weapon In Our Arsenal
Berryville, AR – -(AmmoLand.com)- Have you been to your local sporting goods or gunshop lately? Have you tried to find 5.56 or 9mm ammunition? Likely it was a frustrating experience.
My local WalMart who normally has a fairly well stocked sporting goods section now has bare shelf space where once was a wide variety of ammunition. Management confirms that the warehouses are empty and that what little does come in is allocated to several stores in the region so everyone gets a little.
If WalMart, the nations largest ammo retailer is in this fix what does that say for the small Mom and Pop gunshops? The frenzy that is driving this shortage is not likely to get better in the near future either.
The one thing that is available however, at least at present is shotshells. The shotgun is one of the most neglected weapons in our arsenal of defensive firearms.
We think of the Carbine and Pistol as being more fun or sexy to shoot and tend to leave the scattergun at home when range time comes around. With the price of rifle ammo skyrocketing many shooters are forced to cut way back on their consumption. I was used to shooting a couple hundred rounds of 5.56 a week and now only shoot around fifty in carefully selected drills designed to get the most out of my training.
Many trainers are seeing attendance drop and classes not filling due to the rising costs and availability of ammo.
Back to the shotgun….., at least for now we should take the opportunity to stock up on training ammo and dust off the shotguns and get back up to speed on this very versatile tool.
Think about it, the shotgun from the days of Leonardo DaVinci has fed our families, patrolled our streets, defended our homes, and fought our wars for hundreds of years virtually unchanged in concept of a multiple projectile weapon.
Given the wide variety of ammunition available, the typical defensive shotgun can do a fine job either protecting the homefront or putting food on the table. I feel that the best training ammo is birdshot either 7 ½ or 8 shot. This can also be used for small game so putting away a goodly supply will serve you well.
At this time it is still found at decent prices as all the manufactures have promotional ammo for sale in bulk. This could change at any time so if you are even remotely thinking of buying a shotgun for defensive use you should act now and stock up.
Another consideration is politically, the shotgun will probably be the last weapon to be regulated if another AWB should take effect. So take advantage of the chance to get the scattergun to the range.
Rob Haught:
Veteran Law Enforcement Officer
Firearms Trainer for civilian, law enforcement and military
IDPA National Champion
About:
At Wilson Combat we’re proud of our position as the acknowledged leader in customer satisfaction and quality products. We work hard to maintain the reputation we’ve built over almost thirty years, and continue to invest in the human resources, training, capital equipment, research and development to stay on top. We have added new leadership personnel in engineering, manufacturing management, materials, research, design, operations, and business development. One of our goals is to be a little better every single day, and we work hard to meet that goal.