Eighty-year-old Craig Cope credits his childhood hunting experience for the quick-thinking and stellar shotgunning skills that saved his California liquor store and possibly his life from a group of would-be armed robbers, and he has become internet ...
Shotgun
Rifles 101: How To Adjust and Zero Iron Sights
Although optics are all the rage now, many still like the simplicity and dependability of good old iron sights. They make a great backup as well. However, if the front and rear sights are not properly aligned your shot placement and overall ...
The .410 Bore: Incredibly, Improbably Popular
The .410 remains incredibly, improbably popular. A lot of people use .410s for a lot of things, most of which the little gun is completely unsuited for. The skinny .410 hull doesn’t hold much shot to begin with, and it often shoots terrible patterns. ...
16 Gauge: What The Cool Kids Are Shooting
After decades of decline and neglect, the 16-gauge is getting a lot of attention right now; it’s the in gauge. I recently told a friend who is a double-gun expert that I was trying to talk myself into a 16, but I couldn’t find a reason. Stuck in a ...
Is the 20-Gauge the New 12-Gauge?
You hear it all the time these days from waterfowlers and turkey hunters: “I don’t need a 12-gauge anymore.” “I’ve switched to a 20. It’s all anyone needs,” they’ll tell you. They are almost right. With the introduction of TSS turkey loads, improved ...
Why Hunters Pattern Their Shotguns: Dialing-In Your Turkey Killer
Many hunters go their entire lives taking the just let ‘er eat approach to shotgunning. And they never truly know where their shot is flying. These are the hunters who routinely whiff on gobblers that go scuttling off to roost another night. Then ...
Modern Turkey Loads: Worth The Money, Maybe
Turkey hunting can be described in one of two ways: awesome or brutal. Sometimes you get a tom to commit, and the deal goes down just like you planned. No matter how great your hide or calls are, birds will come in and get hung up in thick ...
Is There Still a Reason for the 10-Gauge Shotgun to Exist?
Everyone should get a 10-gauge shotgun before they’re gone. Well, not everyone. Let me qualify that a little bit. The following people should grab a 10-gauge: Waterfowl hunters should get one if they want to go after geese and swans at ...
The ‘Freakin’ 12-Gauge’: The Only Gauge You Really Need
Don: “Hey, Napoleon. What did you do last summer again?” Napoleon Dynamite: “I told you! I spent it with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines!” Don: “What kind of gun did you use?” Napoleon: “A freakin’ 12-gauge! What do you ...
The Most Expensive Shotguns of All Time
The concept of a shotgun is fairly simple by firearm design standards. At its most basic, a shotgun is a hammer, trigger, chamber, a smoothbore barrel or two, and a stock. It's kind of amazing to think that a contraption consisting of little more ...
What’s Behind the Supposed ‘Magic’ of the 28-Gauge
Within the limitations of its light payload, the 28-gauge shotshell drops small game birds and crushes clay targets with authority and minimal recoil. You can shoot the 28-gauge out of dainty, scaled-down guns that are a pleasure to carry. Grouse, ...
Shotgun Shells: The Most Important Developments of the Past 10 Years
You would immediately recognize shotgun shells from the 1860s as shotgun shells. They would have brass cases, but you could put one in your modern shotgun and fire it, as long as you didn’t mind cleaning the corrosive black powder and primer residue ...
Peters Paper Shotshells are Back! Remington Reintroduces the Legend
The legend returns! Remington has re-introduced the Peters Paper line of shotshells. As part of Remington’s revitalization under Vista Outdoors, the legendary line of shotgun shells is making its return. What Makes these Shells ...
Too Efficient at Maiming and Killing? Here Are the Top 5 Combat Shotguns
Americans began fielding shotguns on the battlefield during the final stretch of World War I and with great effect. German soldiers, who had regularly utilized chlorine gas on their enemies, found the wounds left by the weapons to be egregious and ...
Why Germany Wanted to Ban America’s Trench Shotgun During WWI
By the end of World War I, the Winchester model 1897 pump-action shotgun had gained a nasty reputation across no man’s land on the Western Front. Despite the emergence of numerous novel weapons technologies, including mechanized armor, ...
The Mossberg 500 Shotgun: Best Movie Moments
When someone says the phrase "American-made, working-class shotgun," only a few models spring to mind in this day and age. One is a shotgun that hunters, law enforcement, and regular people looking to defend themselves and their homes have trusted ...
Where Have All the Side-By-Side Shotguns Gone?
Side-by-side shotguns, whether cut-down coach guns behind a bar or bespoke doubles on a driven shoot, once dominated break-action/double gun designs. Why did side-by-sides come first before over/unders? My guess is that it was easier to make ...
The Remington 870 Shotgun: 5 Most Badass Movie Moments
The Remington Model 870 shotgun, usually just called the Remington 870, is one of the most popular pump-action shotguns in history. Since it hit the market in 1950, more than 11 million 870s have rolled off the line, but that progress took a long ...
Upland Hunting Starter Kit: The Gun, Boots, Vest, and Skills You Need
Upland hunting requires learning two skills: walking and shooting. You should already know how to walk. Then you give yourself over to the nose of a dog. That’s all there is to it. Get the gun and boots right, add a blaze orange vest to carry ammo ...
Learn the Shotgun Sports Like Olympic Trap, Skeet, and Sporting Clays
So you bought a shotgun and took it hunting. Hunting turns out to be a lot of fun, but it would be even more fun if you didn’t suck at shooting. Or maybe you’re streaming Olympic trap or skeet, can’t get enough, want to learn how to shoot, and don’t ...
The Best Shotgun Moments in Western Movies
Shotguns were the first small arms. The fairly ancient blunderbuss was a smoothbore, muzzleloading firearm that fired little pieces of pretty much anything — rocks, nails, arrows, bits of iron, and, yes, shot. Muskets mostly morphed into rifles as ...
