RichardR

Odd to see a BP revolver being used in a shooting rampage, especially considering all of the other weapons & ammunition that the shooter seemed to have access too. I'm sure it would be coincidence (and not pre-planning) if some new piece of legislation was introduced to restrict BP guns the same as modern guns in the aftermath of this.

Scouting is key, find the areas where the herd of deer your intending on hunting beds down, what paths they take to/from the water & where they usually like to forage for food. Try not to spook them, stay down wind, don't take a leak, don't smoke or wear cologne, be very quiet, etc. Once you know their habits, you can pick a spot to hide in wait for them at.

Doh! Hit post too soon, reserving this spot for slugs, be back after a bit. 10.) Slugs. Slugs come in a variety of different configureations, the three main types are rifled slugs, bernanke slugs, saboted slugs. For smoothbore shotguns, use rifled shotguns & bernanke slugs but for rifledbore shotguns use saboted slugs (yea, doesn't make sense but that's how it is). Much like bird & buckshot, some shotguns will shoot some slugs better than they will others, so you will want to buy & shoot at least a couple different brands & types through your particular shotgun to see which one will preform better than others. That's about it .. a not-so quick, not-so little tutorial on shotshells, again congrats on your new shotgun Steve, I hope you enjoy shooting things with them at least half as much as I do.

7.) Paper, plastic or brass. Paper cartridges aren't used all that often anymore but there are still a few floating around, I don't recommend using them simply because they do not protect the powder very well from crushing or absorbing moisture. Plastic cases with brass rims are the most common, they do well protecting from both crushing & absorbing moisture, especially if they are factory sealed for use in LE or for hunting in foul weather, are inexpensive to buy & can be easily reloaded. Brass (full) cases are usually surplus, these are a bit less resistant for crushing, dinging, etc than the plastic ones because they don't "bounce back" so to speak, but any damage to them is easily noticed, discard any that are. 8.) Less lethal options. Rubber balls, bean-bags, rock-salt, heck they are even making 12g. taser rounds now, unfortunately the laws here in TN are not "less lethal friendly" so I'm afraid to say ... use your best judgement, but be prepared to be charged with something if you do use a less lethal shotgun option for home or self defense. 9.) Specialty rounds. Flechettes, dragon's breath, bolo-rounds, coins, washers, etc, I've experimented with all of these at one point or another over the years & none of them work anywhere near as well as traditional buckshot or slugs. The only varient worth even considering are the 12g. flair signaling rounds, the rest ... bleh.

Why? I don't see any harm in discussing the issue, the topic is more intersting & enjoyable IMHO than a lot of the other threads on the forum.

Well I look at capacity a bit differently than some folks I guess. As everyone already knows, shotguns are unique, firing multiple pellets/projectiles with every cartridge, a single cartridge of 12 g. 00 buck fired one-time at is ultimately hitting a target with between 8 to 18 .33 caliber pellets (depending on the load). Each pellet or projectile has the potential to cause trauma to the target, the more trauma the target suffers, the less of a threat that target becomes. Granted shotshell cartridges are larger & bulkier than more traditional types of cartridges so that fact ultimately limits the # of cartridges a shotgun can be loaded with, when compared to rifles or pistols, but the actual number of projectiles that can be introduced to a target is much greater. 8+1, 2 3/4" of 00 loaded into my Mossberg equals 81 .33" projectiles ... That is potentially eighty-one, thirty-three caliber "holes" in attacker(s), which is ultimately the goal of the weapon isn't it? to punch holes in stuff? Granted the arguement of the actual cartridge capacity, 30 vs 9 is easily in favor of the AR, but that is only if it's the cartridge itself that is being counted & not the # of projectiles being potentially absorbed by the target.

Unfortunately this is just a symptom of a much larger problem, one that the 4th was supposed to protect us from, it however doesn't seem to apply any more, even in the most egregious cases of widespread systematic abuse. We the People are no longer protected.

Welcome to TGO Jr! There are only a handful of us "west-siders" on the forums so glad to see you come aboard.

I'm very familiar with the area, but your talking about a wide swath of various terrain types that includes top-land, bottoms, swamps, hills, cliffs, vales, farm land, dense woods, lots of thick tangled underbrush in a lot of areas, etc. There are not a lot of houses &/or other people around those parts, I rarely if ever encounter anyone while I'm out on my adventures, but I'd still be wary using a full-blown rifle round, scouting out and picking a safe "kill zone" & not shooting at anything outside of that known to be safe kill zone would be my first piece of advice. How exactly are you planning on hunting? Have you hunted before? Have you hunted the area before? Have you scouted the area you are intending to hunt? Are you putting up a treestand? Have you baited or salted the area? Are you planning on stalking? Hunting on or across water? There is a good population of deer in the area, most of them are pretty small, there are a few decent "freezer worthy" sized deer but I've never seen a "trophy worthy" sized buck out here.

Thanks 4 the heads up.

HSGI Weesatch, I don't do photos decked in battle rattle though.

Anyway Steve congrats on your new scattergun! Now you'll want to find some shells to feed it, when it comes to 00 buckshot there is a few things to consider. 1.) How it patterns out of your particular shotgun. There are several factors that play into this equasion that I will touch briefly on as I go, but ultimately each shotgun will prefer (for whatever reason) one brand over another. 2.) Shell size & payload. The three most common shell sizes are 2 3/4", 3" & 3.5" typically I almost always use 2 3/4" shells, the only time I ever use any of the "magnums" is if I am turkey or goose hunting & I need the extra payload and extended range. 2 3/4" is more than potent enough for most everything else, even for home defense &/or social work, without as harsh of recoil as the magnum shells & a bit quicker to get the shotgun back on target for any potential followup shots that may or may not be required. 3.) Pellet size. Tons of information already on the internet for which # size to use for hunting various critters, so I'm going to limit my comments to the most common home defense choices, #4 buckshot to #1 buckshot enjoys a small following of loyalists, they tout it's multi-pelleted approach to perferate as many organs as possible, while limiting potential of through & through penetration (meaning that a solid COM hit, the pellets are less likely to exit out the backside). Personally I'm a big fan of 00 precisely because of the potential for a very nasty exit wound, figuring that the more initial trauma & blood loss caused to a home invader/intruder/attacker the better, even if it means more mopping blood up off of the floors afterwards. 4.) Plated or unplated pellets. Unplated pellets will start to squish and deform almost as soon as the shotgun is fired, as poor of aerodynamics as a sphere has, a deformed sphere is even worse, plated pellets will pattern better & for longer than unplated ones will. 5.) Buffered vs unbuffered pellets. Again unbuffered pellets will deform more than buffered ones will, buffered pellets pattern better & at longer distances than unbuffered ones will. 6.) Wads. All wads are not created equal, in fact the "cup & crush type" wad will help keep the pellets from deforming & help with patterning, especially the further out you are from the target. I am particularly fond of Federal's flightcontrol wads. 7.) Out of time, will revisit this later if there is interest.

I assumed the reason for the costume was because he was trying to protect his identity, while still being able to post a video of himself on the internets. No idea of what was actually going through his mind though, heck for all I know he was thinking "I'm so highspeed ... ain't no one as highspeed as me!" The whole time ...

Yup hysteria after Hollywood started putting switchblades in the hands of "street thugs" who went around robbing/killing folks in movies with them. Had they not made the scarey "click" sound when the blade was deployed Hollywood wouldn't have used them in their movies, but hey now that it's an assault knife why would any law-abiding citizen need anything sooo scarey like a folding knife that can be opened with only one hand! That is just crazy talk!

Agreed, I've also canoed through the glades, lots to see, wildlife literally everywhere, just hose down with bug-spray first, keep your camera & binoculars handy.

Meh, everyone is a beginner at one point or another. Besides I liked his little tacti-cool outfit, made him look very macho, a little warm this time of the year but would be great for cold weather shooting. Macho macho man! He's got to be a mah'cho-man! Just kidding dude, you looked absolutely *fabulous!* or was that mysterious? Meh, can't remember now which one I was thinking of now ...

Not too shabby for your first time out, a couple of hints/tips/tricks.. Try leaning your weight a bit forward, tucking in a bit tighter on the weapon & racking the action back/forth a bit harder & quicker. When you load/reload practice doing it w/3 shells in your hand, strip them off 3 at a time, make sure rims are all on same side (palm) of your hand, slank them in one at a time, one right after the other..that will help speed your loading/reloading up. .

Very tragic, I hate reading or hearing stories like this. "Daddy what is this?" right before the gun went off bothered me a little, by the age of 4 all of my kids were familiar with what firearms were, how dangerous that they are if mishandled & instantly knew never to touch one without asking for permission first. IMHO every single child who is old enough to know/understand what "dangerous" means should be taught about firearm safety, even if the parents are not gun-owners & have no plans of ever owning a gun. And no I'm not blaming the parents, not at all, I am just upset that stuff like this happens seemingly all to often, when some of these incidents could be potentially avoided by properly educating young people instead of fear-mongering them into being curious about something which is what always happens when something, anything becomes .... "taboo".

Sounds like a blast man! Take & post some pictures when you get the chance!

Pppffffttttt! Robert this is serious business, this is the internets! We don't take kindly to "your kind" (AR-lovers) around "these parts" (shotgun threads) so iffin you go rile'ing up folks with all your fancy forward assist talk, you just might just even get a load of buckshot put in your britches!

We're going to give it a try this weekend, hopefully I can coax the neighbor cat over in time (joke, that was just a joke!).

"Just following orders" was a common excuse often repeated at the Nuremberg trials & it will be used over & over again, of that I'm sure.

Agreed. Plus I have found that the sound of a pump action being cycled, makes everyone in a 3 mile radius literally poop in their pants with fear, they are just that awesome. Seriously though, 00 buck is just nasty stuff, keep in mind that during WW1 the Germans tried to get it outlawed on the battlefield. It's use in the close quarter combat / trench warfare was so effective & the wounds it caused were so terrible that these same folks who had no qualms about Allied mustard gas or howitzers or .30-06 rounds or tanks or machine guns or grenades or mines or ...etc, etc being used on them .. were absolutely terrified of being ripped open by 00 buckshot. Heh, now I don't ever want to be "shot" by anything, even a spitball, but the absolute LAST thing that I'd ever want to be shot with is 00 buck, especially up close, now I'm not a WW1 vet, but I have used it quite effectively over the years to take hogs & whitetails, butchering them afterwards told me all I needed to know about the sort of trauma that it inflicts on flesh & bone *shudder*.

You should see the condition of my 1860 Colt Navy, she still shoots great though. It started out looking brandnew when I built her from a CVA kit in the late 1980's, kept her looking like brandnew up until about 10 years ago when I decided to distress it out & make it look a bit more period (reenactor buddy talked me into it). So I stripped all of the bluing, acid washed the shiny brass, quick rusted the steel, stripped off all of the finish & beat up the wood a bit. I hated doing it because it was such an pretty looking reproduction piece, it just didn't look very authentic, I think she actually looks better now, not quite as purty but a lot of folks mistake her for an original instead of a reproduction now. So yea I wouldn't hesitate to shoot it iffin the action was working & it still locked up good & wasn't rusted so much that it is "out of spec" so to speak, some surface pitting isn't going to hurt it at all.

OH NOES! 10 reasons why shotguns are the ultimate survival tool ...