How Do You Operate A Pump Shotgun?
- Thread starter turtle4123
- Start date
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Yeah, what was the op thinking...
There’s no such thing as a stupid question, just stupid answers and yours is just that.
safehunter
Regular
- Location
- South Western Onterrible
I gotta second this. My winchester 1300 pumps so different from my 870 it should be classified as a different action. The 870 is a push then pull, or just pull with force. 1300 is open automagically.
Make that 99.99%
There’s lots of advice in this thread about the push-pull technique, which is mostly about recoil control, but for me there’s a much more important function for the support (non-trigger) hand which is control and the placement of the muzzle relative to the target, both before and during the shot.
Particularly on a moving target, but I think also relevant to static targets, the closer your muzzle is to the target or the line of the target before you start your shooting sequence, the easier (and less prone to mistakes) it will be to get the gun on target or on line.
If you skip all the skeet intro stuff and go to 4:16 in my summer project video below, you can see this principle in action:
Learning to pump quickly will come with time and experience, and you can minimize the effects of recoil by more carefully selecting your ammunition. I think the most difficult but rewarding skill to learn is the concept of tip placement relative to the target/line and the support hand plays a major role in learning this.
I find the easiest way to start to explore this concept is to actually use the index finger to point in parallel with the muzzle to the line of the target. I use this hand position throughout the shot sequence.
Best,
Brobee
Particularly on a moving target, but I think also relevant to static targets, the closer your muzzle is to the target or the line of the target before you start your shooting sequence, the easier (and less prone to mistakes) it will be to get the gun on target or on line.
If you skip all the skeet intro stuff and go to 4:16 in my summer project video below, you can see this principle in action:
Learning to pump quickly will come with time and experience, and you can minimize the effects of recoil by more carefully selecting your ammunition. I think the most difficult but rewarding skill to learn is the concept of tip placement relative to the target/line and the support hand plays a major role in learning this.
I find the easiest way to start to explore this concept is to actually use the index finger to point in parallel with the muzzle to the line of the target. I use this hand position throughout the shot sequence.
Best,
Brobee
Reclaimer117
Regular
- Location
- SW Ontario
Off topic, but your videos are cool. Nice intros and crisp camera control. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your kind and encouraging comment! It's our absolute pleasure to make them - they are often joint-effort with my daughters+wife who deserve a good portion of the credit for the camera work and extra kudos for their patience. I'm particularly proud of our latest video effort as it involved a new dimension of collaboration with our oldest. Unfortunately I cannot provide a hotlink as it's 100% a blatant commercial for her self-made summer target manufacturing job and we can't afford to be a site sponsor.
We're going to try to get out this fall with the camera and a short barrelled shotgun for either moose or elk - we hope it results in a great adventure video that encourages other people to get out and chase (and maybe share?) their own exploratory adventures!
And to end back-on-topic....one other perspective I'll leave for the OP is the idea that there are many ways to skin a cat. What works for me might not work for you, so I'd be super-interested to hear more about what you've discovered since your original post about how you run your pump gun, what's been working for you, and where you think your interest/focus is moving as you work things out for yourself!
Best,
Brobee
Not everything In life comes naturally to everyone. Get over it
If your pulling back on the slide of say a moss berg 500 while you fire it it will hang up, there can’t be any pressure on the slide release making it a push,fire,pull,push. The forward pressure helps a lot with some designs as you fire
