Saturday, May 21, 2016

Check Your Shotgun’s Zero

I was brought up quail hunting, where I was taught to never aim a shotgun. As it turns out, there are plenty of times when a shotgun should be aimed—one of them is in the home, where ranges are measured in feet and patterns are measured in inches. However, shotguns are still predominantly designed for wingshooters, and that’s the reason most factory shotguns come with a non-adjustable front bead. The bead is meant only as a reference while focusing on a distant target, and most shotguns come without rear sights at all.. This doesn’t mean your front-bead-only shotgun won’t work well for home defense—it will—but it also doesn’t mean you can assume point-of-aim (POA)/point-of-impact (POI) alignment is dead-on. You should check it before depending on it to save your life.

6 comments:

Unclezip said...

I tell the Baroness to put the butt of the coach gun (12 gauge, side by side) up against the wall, point down the hall, and pull both triggers as soon as a face shows. At least a few of those 30 balls will find a soft target. Then you pull out the auto and exercise the trigger.

Sedition said...

The only firearm that I keep a green laser on is my home defense shotgun. Makes acquiring a target a lot faster.

scottW said...

exactly...Even though I shot dove as a kid growing up I did not learn about "aiming" a shot gun until I started skeet shooting. Learning a good technique to me is keeping the same grip and cheek weld. Once you get into that habit you can put the shot on target 9 out of 10 times.

Anonymous said...

SESSIONS: 2nd Amendment Extinct If Hillary Elected...

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/280839-sessions-clinton-is-the-most-anti-second-amendment-candidate

Anonymous said...

If your barrel has a ventilated rib, you can paint a short thin line of lumininous paint down the center of the rib near the sight bead for better sighting in dark environments. Even when non charged, its better than nothing.

Anonymous said...

Open and ghost-ring "rifle" sights are also available as updates to a shotgun,
which are very handy when dealing with non-aerial targets.