Trap-DSCN1291.jpg
Practical Training for Shotgun Self-Defense

Though a shotgun is by far the best home defense weapon, it is often difficult to find training opportunities.  Other than training at a firearm self-defense school, probably your best training opportunity is at a range designed for shotgun sports.  These sports are fun, they help you become proficient and safe in operating your gun, plus they are worthwhile from a defensive-training perspective, too.  A great combination.

Of all the shotgun sports, Sporting Clays is perhaps the most useful for developing skills that translate into firearms self-defense proficiency.  Sporting Clays ranges are harder to find than trap or skeet ranges, but the different targets used, and the variety of shooting distances and angles employed, provide a more diverse training experience.  The National Sporting Clays Association can help you find a club near you:  http://www.nssa-nsca.org/index.php/nsca-sporting-clays-shooting/

In competition, you probably will not be allowed to use a tactical shotgun, but rarely does a shotgun club mind if you use a self-defense shotgun on their skeet, trap, 5-stand, or sporting clays range.  (As long as you are following the rules, and using the shotgun ammunition required for that sport).  A few traditionalists may look at you sideways, but you’re not there to be clubby, so don’t let that bother you.

If you want to try using your tactical shotgun on a sporting range, and you don’t know anything about shotgun sports, you might begin with a visit to a “trap” range.  In this, the most basic shotgun sport, a clay disk is launched from next to you or in front of you, and you shoot it out of the sky.  If you don’t know what you are doing, be sure to first get instructions from the range master or knowledgeable friend, before you begin.

If you are using your tactical shotgun for trap, skeet, or another shotgun sport, the key to success is to shoot the clay target when it is closest to you.  This is generally right after the launch when it’s trajectory has it close to where you are standing.  With a tactical shotgun, this is necessary as you need to compensate for the wider spray of pellets that is inherent to a shorter-barrel gun.