Why Pump Action Shotgun Is Not The Best Self-Defense Weapon?

Because I am stupid...

I personally don't like to use pump-action shotgun as my self-defense weapon for the following reasons:

1. It's slow to shoot.

No matter how much you practice, it is slow to shoot because you have to work the pump. In our bird hunting trips, friends with pump-action shotguns often have trouble delivering follow-up shots because they have to work the pump. Those of us, who carry semis, have no such headache.

2. You have to work the pump.
a. When you rake the pump slide and your shotgun generates this chung ching sound. I know this sounds cool in the movies, but the reality is much harsher than what you want to believe. When some bad guy hears this sound, he would do one of the three things: run if he still has any common sense, wait until you fire at him if he's so stoned out or fire at the sound if he is desperate and has a gun. When I in a gun fight, I like all the possible odds to be at my favor. I DO NOT want to give him the chance to know my position by the stupid chung ching.

b. Cool, you load your shotgun beforehand and only flip off the safety to ready your weapon. Great move! Now, after the first shot and the threat is still there, what do you must do? Right, work the pump again instead of instantaneous follow-up shots!

c. For untrained users, (how many of us are really well trained?) working the pump action often moves the gun away from the intended target. Very often the operator tends to under-pump it which either jams the gun or loses a chance to fire.

d. working the pump is a two hand operation.

3. low ammo capacity. Hardly can any form of shotgun take more than 10 rounds except for the A12 with 50rd magazine - how heavy is that? After 10 rounds, if the fight still not over, it's probably the time to bail, but life is not that simple. If you have loved ones to protect, running is not an option. Don't even think about killing swarming zombies with a shotgun. That's stupid not because there's no zombie, but because it's a stupid weapon choice tactically.

4. lack of precision. A shotgun loaded with 00 Buckshot will spread roughly 1 inch per yard. A typical room distance is somewhere 15-30 feet, 10 yard max. At 10 yard or even 5, if the bad guy is holding your wife/daughter hostage, how can you deliver the killing shot at his 10 inch head protruded slightly from your woman's head?

5. heavy recoil. Most women would flinch under the kick of a 12ga shotgun - you can hardly expect them to use it properly without enough training. Pump action produces more kick than semi.

6. impossible to reload. Go try to load it and you will see. Almost everybody can reload an magazine fed AR15 under 1 second. How fast can you reload your shotgun?

7. No, it's not point and shoot. For those of you who think you can just point the shotgun and shoot, well, you can but you will also likely miss the target. Shotguns just like rifles, they need to be operated properly: two hands to hold the gun and shoulder the weapon properly, then AIM and shoot!

My favorite self-defense weapon is my ninja sword, no, actually it is my AR15 just like most law enforcement officers. I can easily attach 2 magazines with 30 rounds each. It has recoil so low that a petty woman can shoot with ease. Precision is no problem as i can hit a 3 inch target at 100 yards; within room distance, i can do that in a fraction of a second.

However, if I shoot some intruder with an AR15, some newspaper would have produced news like "Homeowner mows down local drunk with assault rifle!!!" On the contrary, if I shoot the same intruder with a good old American shotgun, I would probably get a pat on the back and an "attaboy!"

My current setup is a Mossberg 930 semi-automatic shotgun loaded with 8 00 Buckshots in combination with two pistols. After all 8 shots, I do plan to run while using the pistols to cover my retreat.

Analysis of Dawn of the Dead - by Armchair Commando

Dawn of the Dead

My Kimber Story

I used to be a die-hard 1911 lover. Loved the style, loved the design and loved how it felt in my hands.

My first gun ever was a brand new Colt 1991A1 Commander Stainless and I loved it, well mostly because I did not know better. The gun was a jammo-maniac, but I thought that was normal from some old/obsolete reading I did. My enthusiasm died quickly because I spent so much time doing malfunction drills at range.

Much later in life, I bought a Beretta 92FS out of many considerations, one of which was that i wanted to try a different platform. I had so much fun shooting that pistol! Yes, it's big and bulky, but I was shocked by its out-of-box accuracy AND there's not a single failure. In fact, it has never failed even once ever!

What a joy!!!

The Beretta 92FS showed me how a fine firearm should perform. Since then, I acquired many other handguns but none of them was 1911 style, and none of them ever malfunctioned.

Fast forward to 2005 when Hurricane Rita was looming around Texas coast. It was the first time I loaded all my guns at home getting ready for evacuation. To my horror, I had no concealed handgun license (CHL), and Texas laws back then prohibited car-carry. As a law-abiding citizen, I had to lock all my guns in their cases and put them in my trunk. It was truly a fun time driving in 100+ degree weather at 1 mile per hour traffic jam with people's temper getting even hotter. Needless to say, I promptly joined CHL class after that and now wanted a carry weapon.

I did a lot of research on what to carry. I was not so keen on carrying a loaded gun without any external safety - my own personal preference/comfort level. I was also a slim built person who weighed 170 lbs; therefore size of the gun was my main consideration.

I finally narrowed them down to:

Beretta 92FS - too thick
HK USP - I boycott HK, another story, and they are too thick
Kimber Ultra CDP II

The Kimber Ultra CDP II was a fab and was a sleazy looking pistol, designed specifically for concealed carry with its slim size and melt design (no edges.)

I was very leery about getting a 1911 style pistol. I spent quite a bit of time reading and researching this particular gun, and the general consensus seemed to be:

1. don't expect it to be problem free out-of-box
2. run through 500 rounds of full metal jacket bullets to break in before it becomes reliable
3. may need to be sent back to the manufacturer a few times
4. some did report that theirs worked since day one

Unfortunately, mine didn't.

The gun was pretty, and there was a lot of attention to details!!! Before I took on a range trip, I hand-cycled about 500 times using full metal jacket ammo - wouldn't do this again because I actually used live ammo. Bad idea on safety!

My first trip was a disaster. The gun kept on jamming!!! Mostly stovepipe. After about 50 shots, I quit shooting, called Kimber the next day and sent them some pictures too. Kimber service was great and they told me to send the gun back. Because I couldn't take time off work to wait for Kimber's free UPS pick-up, they promised to give me 2 Tac-mags to cover my shipping cost.

My second trip was not so great either. Upon advice from some forum member, I bought a few "premium" magazines to see if they worked better. Well, not really. After a few tries, I found that Kimber magazines worked the best because they really tilted the bullets up to feed into the barrel and their springs were stronger. I made a few more trips to the range, and somehow, the Kimber started to spitting ejected brass back to me. One time it hit my head so hard that I started to bleed profusely. After that, I started to fire a shot and dodge the brass right after. This quickly tripled the fun at the range: practicing clearing malfunctions, dodging brass and wondering if next round would fire or not!


(Note the feed ramp became shiny due to the bullets hitting on it. Actually, the bullets shaved metal off the feed ramp. To me this is a design problem. The feed ramp should have proper curvature but it didn't.)

Again, I called Kimber and again it went and came back.

After the second trip back to the factory, it started to behave much better. I now stuck to Kimber Tac-mags exclusively and malfunctions became very little. It still had occasional FTF and failure to chamber a round, meaning the slide returned but there's no round inside the chamber even though the mag was full. By then, I had put more than 1000 rounds of FMJ through it but hadn't really shot enough Hollow Points.

I just came back from another range trip (Jan 2009). This time I fired about 100 rd of lead round nose handloads with my Kimber. I had 1 failure due to the slide stopper was pushed slightly up for some reason - I didn't think that was my thumbs hitting it but it's very likely a cause.

I must say that I knew what I might get into when I bought the gun and the experience was not pleasant. For a $1000 gun, it should have worked right out of the box but it did not. For the amount of money and effort (original purchase, break-in ammo cost, trips back to the factory, and taking time off work to wait for UPS pickup&delivery), it was totally not worth it. On the other hand, Kimber does stand behind their products and I must give them credit for that!!!

Yes, I still carry and shoot my Kimber Ultra CDP II.

Update on August 2, 2009

I just came back from a pistol training class where we fired about 100 rounds in various conditions and scenarios. There were 11 people in the class with HK USP, Beretta 92F, Glock, S&W etc.; almost everybody's gun, including the instructor's, malfunctioned in one way or another except for my Kimber.

I guess it finally starts to run well from now on.