testtest

To Rack or Not to Rack...

Talyn

Talyn

SAINT
Founding Member
The Perpetual Shotgun Question

A discussion almost as frequently as the “Which gun should I buy?” discussion, is in response to that age-old statement, “I have a shotgun for home defense. All I have to do is rack it and the bad guy will go away.”

To Rack or Not to Rack

homeowner-with-shotgun.jpg
 
I work the action when getting ready to use. Just always been my habit to leave empty chamber.they want to come find me from the sound thats bad on them.

If I sm worried about another round will load one from the bandolier hanging with it.

If thry are in same room I am not going for the shotgun anyway I am going for the Assagi hanging near it, they are too close and it's about to get personal and bloody.
 
Last edited:
Gun safety is a key consideration. LE training protocol calls for the shotgun to be carried "cruiser safe" or "cruiser ready". In both conditions the chamber is empty, magazine fully loaded, and safety "on". The difference is, with cruiser safe the action is locked, and with cruiser ready, the action is not locked. Protocol also calls for a round to be chambered with safety "on" when it is deployed from the cruiser. Then you need to remember to unload the chamber when storing. I have seen a few ND's where thevgun was stored with a round chambered.

I was taught many years ago that the shotgun was my primary weapon at a crime in progress and carried it many times on high risk responses.

I can attest that racking an 870 at a crime in progress will get everyone's attention. I have always thought it tells everyone within earshot that you mean business. The deterrent effect of racking the gun will have on a someone breaking in is subjective. It's a personal choice of balance between gun safety and tactical readiness.
 
HayesGreener said:
Gun safety is a key consideration. LE training protocol calls for the shotgun to be carried "cruiser safe" or "cruiser ready". In both conditions the chamber is empty, magazine fully loaded, and safety "on". The difference is, with cruiser safe the action is locked, and with cruiser ready, the action is not locked. Protocol also calls for a round to be chambered with safety "on" when it is deployed from the cruiser. Then you need to remember to unload the chamber when storing. I have seen a few ND's where thevgun was stored with a round chambered.

I was taught many years ago that the shotgun was my primary weapon at a crime in progress and carried it many times on high risk responses.

I can attest that racking an 870 at a crime in progress will get everyone's attention. I have always thought it tells everyone within earshot that you mean business. The deterrent effect of racking the gun will have on a someone breaking in is subjective. It's a personal choice of balance between gun safety and tactical readiness.
Click to expand...
My only consideration with a 500 or an 870 would be the drop safe thing. With the shotgun fully loaded and the safety on I am fully confident the gun will not fire until I want it to.

As for the racking sound, I agree in a room full of people looking at you it could be a deterrent. That said, there was a situation where I, in an effort not to shoot a guy, racked my 500 ( losing a round in the process) and it didn't even make the guy flinch. At that point I was left with a few options. I could shoot him, I could run or I could drive the buttstock ( at the time a pistol grip) through his face. I chose option 3. It ripped a hole through his cheek you could see his teeth through and ended the confrontation. Thankfully. A week or so later me and the wife were in a local bar and ran into the guy's older brother who was an MMA fighter. Sitting calmly the guy informed me he was going to beat my ***. My immediate reaction was to jump over the table, stick my thumbs in his eyes and then start punching him in the balls. That ended any aggression on his part. Amazingly I was thrown out of the bar. My wife threw a heavy whiskey tumbler through the plate glass window on the way out. Then we stood outside taunting the guy and his friends to come on out, which they didn't. Ah, the bad old days.

I know it sounds bad, but this whole family is well known around here for being S bags. The guy I hit with the shotgun is currently in prison for beating an old lady to death during the commission of a home invasion and his older brother from the bar is a complete meth head and waste of life. Their younger sister was a friend of my wife's and was a really nice kid until she got hooked on dope and started selling her *** to support her habit. There is a middle brother, who clearly recognized the whole family, including the parents, were losers. He joined the Marine Corps and got the hell out of here. The wife sees him on FB sometimes. He's doing real well and has nothing to do with any of his family.


Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on like that.
 
I used to keep the ol 500 cocked and locked by the bedside. That is until I bumped it over one night in my sleep. Now, it's just a revolver in the nightstand.
I agree with what's been said so far, I ain't givin warning, I ain't givin my location and I sure as heck ain't gonna depend on fumblin around in a fog of sleep remembering whether or not I jacked a round. I'm gonna pick up what's prepared, identify the target and then start talking. People (not drugged up junkies) are much more respectful when facing a prepared adversary.
That whole, cycle a round to show you mean business, is for Hollywood. If my weapon is pointed at you, know, I mean to do you great bodily harm. How you react, determines how you leave.
If they taught the 4 rules of gun safety, instead of pretending guns don't exist, kids would understand from an early age, "I don't want to be on the muzzle end."
 
HayesGreener said:
Gun safety is a key consideration. LE training protocol calls for the shotgun to be carried "cruiser safe" or "cruiser ready". In both conditions the chamber is empty, magazine fully loaded, and safety "on". The difference is, with cruiser safe the action is locked, and with cruiser ready, the action is not locked. Protocol also calls for a round to be chambered with safety "on" when it is deployed from the cruiser. Then you need to remember to unload the chamber when storing. I have seen a few ND's where thevgun was stored with a round chambered.

I was taught many years ago that the shotgun was my primary weapon at a crime in progress and carried it many times on high risk responses.

I can attest that racking an 870 at a crime in progress will get everyone's attention. I have always thought it tells everyone within earshot that you mean business. The deterrent effect of racking the gun will have on a someone breaking in is subjective. It's a personal choice of balance between gun safety and tactical readiness.
Click to expand...
When I was 12 my older brother along with our mother attended a home firearm safety course. This was in 1968 so training was a lot different. We had Lt Dan Combs of OHP who used to do his quick draw gun safety program along with a FBI agent and the two local police chiefs. When the program got around to guns for home defense one of the instructors got his Winchester pump out of his patrol car brought it in and showed everyone it was unloaded. He went to the back of the room and turned out the lights. His next comment was imagine breaking into some ones house at night and hearing this, he racked the shotgun. Very effective for sure and made a lifelong impression on me. I love and am pretty efficient with a pump shotgun. But the only time you will hear a pump racked if you break into my home is if you somehow survive the first round or are second in line.
 
HayesGreener said:
The deterrent effect of racking the gun will have on a someone breaking in is subjective.
Click to expand...
Yep, and it probably only works well on folks who are not cognitively impaired and otherwise sane! It's the crazy people that worry me. The mentally deranged who don't have enough sense to know when come in out of the rain are the ones that don't know when it's time to run!
 
For me keeping a round in the chamber on a shotgun isn’t preferable (Gun safety first), tube fully loaded, safety on, breech open. I figure that since I have a good alarm system including glass break sensors, a nightlock brace + reinforcement lock + 3” screws in the hinges and striker plates along with exterior motion sensing cameras and a very good watch dog, the chances are high that I’ll be racked and at the ready long before any intruder gets in and comes near me or my wife.🤷‍♂️
 
In the interest of full disclosure I don't own a shotgun.

IMO it's just giving Murphy's law an opportunity to strike.

What happens if you go to rack the shotgun and in your haste you short stroke the gun and create a feed jam?
 
The Night Rider said:
In the interest of full disclosure I don't own a shotgun.

IMO it's just giving Murphy's law an opportunity to strike.

What happens if you go to rack the shotgun and in your haste you short stroke the gun and create a feed jam?
Click to expand...
There is a learning curve and they are not intuitive. Gotta train with it to be competent. Kinda like handguns.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top