The new pad looks good.

You need to make a shoulder pad from some sheet steel with neoprene foam on the back, Badtux. Even with the rubber butt pad, I took an old soccer shin guard with me to qualification. Deer slugs and buck shot come in 5 round boxes.

Q: If you are what you eat, why are zombies so stupid?
A: They manage to catch only the below-average people. And average ain’t so smart, average is more like S-M-RT (see YouTube for what I’m talking about, alas, putting the link triggered the spam plugin, sigh).

I don’t think you have any problems in that regard, Ellroon ;).

Meanwhile, regarding the shotgun and bruises, I have a box of 25 shotgun shells sitting on my dresser that needs to be fired off because they’ve hit their expire-by date. My shoulder aches thinking about it, because I’m always beat up after firing off a box. I can’t understand people who do that for fun…

If there is a total breakdown the people who can make their own bows and arrows, or have muzzle-loaders and can make black powder, are the people with the long term advantages.

These are tools and like all tools they have specific uses for specific situations. Some of these people would call in an airstrike to kill a rabbit.

I and my team had to qualify on a couple dozen or so projectile weapons in M/I. all of our inventory, and the most common we were likely to face in the field. Some were easy to learn, others took more work. Shotgun’s were the easiest. 🙂 We used the military variant of the Remington 870 (Mk 1) with an 8 round mag & bayonet mount. It wasn’t bad. 🙂

We even got to play with the Mk 19 AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher)! Nasty sucker! Firing a 40mm grenade at 40 rounds/min (sustained) up to 2.2 km max (though the sight was only ranged to 1.5 km). How would you like to see one of those in the hands of the typical NRA moron? The way things are going… It’s only a matter of time.

I also have my Mother’s 16 gauge Mossberg which would be a lot less brutal, but it has a standard birding barrel and is a bit ungainly in close quarters, but still nothing to mess with.

I got more bruises being trained how to hold the 12 gauge than actually firing it. Mine has the rubber cushion, not the steel butt plate, so it’s a bit kinder to you. I would still prefer to fire it at hip height with the butt against a door frame if I had to use it, but it would make a major mess if a fool pushed things to that point.

I learned to shoot with a Savage .22 pump, so I prefer pump long arms.

We had more than one officer with a .44 magnum ‘dimple’. That’s the wound on your forehead from the blade sight of the revolver caused by not locking your elbows when you fire the beast. Although I carried a .357 magnum, it was loaded with .38+P because that got the job done if you hit what you were aiming at which was more likely with the +P than the magnum load. If you needed something with more punch, you used the shotgun.

I just don’t “get” people who fire high-kick weapons for *fun*. A .22 plinking rifle, maybe. But that’s a different beastie altogether (albeit still capable of killing if you hit the right place with it). And handing a high-kick weapon to a kid with no warning about what to expect and no instruction about how to deal with it? Sigh…

I have a Remington 870 Bushmaster, which is the better looking civilian version of the standard police shotgun in New York. Rifle sights and a 20-inch barrel that is designed for deer slugs and buck shot in areas where rifles aren’t allowed.

The advantage of a shotgun as a defensive weapon is that you rarely have to fire it, just having it is enough. You work the slide on an 870 and most of the sane world decides to become peaceful, law-abiding citizens.

We go through 25 rounds of 12 gauge in requalification. You learn to hold that beast hard against your shoulder.

I watched the video and saw the ‘instructor’ change the selector. After the way the child reacted to the single action shot, he should have adjusted her grip, and then had his left hand above the UZI to catch it if switched to auto. I fired the larger military version and it still climbed like crazy.

If they want to fire automatic weapons, let them fire a belt-fed on a tripod with stops in place to control elevation and sweep. It’s a hell of a lot safer.