I am thinking of getting a shotgun. Never had one. What I would like to know is why would someone choose a semi vs. pump and vice verse. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each system. Any advice would be appreciated. I have been particularly interested in Fabarms for a long time.
Pump vs. Semi
- Thread starter shogun
- Start date
What would this shotgun be used for mostly? You'll get better replies if you add more info.
Personally, I would have all three. I now own a pump and a side by side break-open. My next will be a semi-auto.
If you like the idea of not having to cycle an action between shots, giving you more focus on your target, a semi or double barrel would be the way to go.
For skeet and trap, I love my coach gun ( two shots is all you need ).
For 8 rounds of destruction, I go with the pump.
One thing to remember is that a semi will be more prone to jam than any other shotgun action.
Personally, I would have all three. I now own a pump and a side by side break-open. My next will be a semi-auto.
If you like the idea of not having to cycle an action between shots, giving you more focus on your target, a semi or double barrel would be the way to go.
For skeet and trap, I love my coach gun ( two shots is all you need ).
For 8 rounds of destruction, I go with the pump.
One thing to remember is that a semi will be more prone to jam than any other shotgun action.
pumps are tacticool, and you are not limited to a 5 round mag. Semi's can be a little cankerous with jamming, and usually only allow either 2 3/4 or 3'', whereas most pumps can handle a variety of loads. You really cant go wrong with either, it just depends what you like.
If i could only have one shotgun for hunting and playing around i would get a mossberg pump with two barrels, one of which is rifled for slugs.
If i could only have one shotgun for hunting and playing around i would get a mossberg pump with two barrels, one of which is rifled for slugs.
well boys i have owned every kind of shot gun before buying my winchester sx2 semi auto and ican tell you i have hunted in the mud and snow and in 3 year and over 3000 round i have had only 1 fail to eject ,the new semis arent like the ones of the days of old keep it clean and it will go boom when u pull the trigger and mine is a 2 3/4 -3 1/2 .and when i mean keep it clean i only clean every 300 rounds or so.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
If you want a long magazine, the pump is non-restricted The autoloader generates less recoil, the autoloader cannot be short stroked, and the modern autoloaders are as light and dependable as the pump. If you have a disability, the autoloader does not require two hands to cycle.
What is your budget?
A pump will cost about a third what a semi will run.
With a little trigger time you could learn to cycle a pump quite quickly.
I have a Rem 1100, and a Mossberg 535 combo, I use the Rem. for upland for quick follow-up shots and the 535 for waterfowl as it will take the heavy loads.
A pump will cost about a third what a semi will run.
With a little trigger time you could learn to cycle a pump quite quickly.
I have a Rem 1100, and a Mossberg 535 combo, I use the Rem. for upland for quick follow-up shots and the 535 for waterfowl as it will take the heavy loads.
- Location
- Just West of the GTA
Well for a first gun, I think there is a lot to be said for getting a pump. First off it takes a while to figure out what is going to be best for you, so it may be best to just get a pump, then drop the big change on a semi when you have refined your taste. Like Dave was saying, helps to know what you want to use it for. As for loading speed, pumps can be very fast. One buddy I hunt with is always surprised how much my pump sounds like a semi when I use it!
the remmy 870 is the shotgun of choice for a reason- and you can't argue with the relaibity- there was a time when the ONLY shotguns you'd see on the competition firing line were 870's and 1100's - now i'd be willing to give beretta and benelli a shake, but not back then-as for me, there's an 1100 sitting in my safe along with a defender ( but that's a matter of price more than anything else)
870 is the Shotgun of choice for who?? A quality Semi balances better,cycles better and balances easier. The new good quality Semi's will cycle as well as any 870. Probably better seeing the quality of some of the new 870's.
I'm quite sure that my Winchester 1300 Defender cycles faster and better than my friends 870 Marine and he feels the same way. One cool thing about it is, if you fire it one handed, the spent shell will eject allowing you to pop the slide forward and chamber the next round. Coolness.
shotgun of choice by definition of sales , notice I don't have one either- i did have one, but it shot ghost patterns- nothing in the middle and pellets around the fringe- not only that the action bars would twist and jam- but there are more 870's sold than any other, including the 1100, which by the same defintion, is the shotgun of choice of autoloaders, - and it's all about sales- you start including things like police forces and gov't agencies, and the 870 far out distances anything else-not necessarily the best shotgun, only the most popular
It,ll depend on what you want to shoot with it. If your going to hunt you can only put 3 in it, if your gonna shoot skeet you only use 2 if you shoot trap you only need 1 SO that said you have almost no use for anything that holds more than 3 unless you do a bowling pin match once a year.
A pump will take longer to operate at first if your new to shotguns and it,ll help you get your eye on the target between shots if your bird shooting, you can empty a semi quick if you get excited when the bird jumps up, i found out when I was 11.
If you want to shoot skeet a semi would be the better choice over the pump due to the time involved in getting the second shell in and off as well as effecting your aim while the 2nd bird of the doubles is disappearing fast.
It can be done but usually only by and experienced shooter.
If this is for home defence go for the one that says "duck hunter" all over it.
God forbid you ever have to use it for that but if you had to defend you home, when the story hits the news paper it reads more as " hunter forced to protect his family during break in last night" compared to using a restricted flashy short piece and having the headlines say " Crazy gun nut killed someone at his front door last night with a combat shot gun that was left by the front door"
What people percieve after an event like this can/might make the difference between freedom and jail time.
M.
I'd rather be a free geek thats alive than a cool felon wishing I was dead.
A pump will take longer to operate at first if your new to shotguns and it,ll help you get your eye on the target between shots if your bird shooting, you can empty a semi quick if you get excited when the bird jumps up, i found out when I was 11.
If you want to shoot skeet a semi would be the better choice over the pump due to the time involved in getting the second shell in and off as well as effecting your aim while the 2nd bird of the doubles is disappearing fast.
It can be done but usually only by and experienced shooter.
If this is for home defence go for the one that says "duck hunter" all over it.
God forbid you ever have to use it for that but if you had to defend you home, when the story hits the news paper it reads more as " hunter forced to protect his family during break in last night" compared to using a restricted flashy short piece and having the headlines say " Crazy gun nut killed someone at his front door last night with a combat shot gun that was left by the front door"
What people percieve after an event like this can/might make the difference between freedom and jail time.
M.
I'd rather be a free geek thats alive than a cool felon wishing I was dead.
Last edited:
A good semi-shotgun that can digest every single load without any problems is incredibly fun.
Generally Semi's would be for shotgun sporting fun/hunting. The pump would be for blasting fun (and zombies) due to the fact that with pumps you can get incredibly short barrels.
Unless you are going to get a super shorty (or mag fed) pump, get a semi-auto.
I recommend the MOSSBERG 930 if you can find one. I'd never sell mine. Pumps are definitely more robust and any model will do you good.
Generally Semi's would be for shotgun sporting fun/hunting. The pump would be for blasting fun (and zombies) due to the fact that with pumps you can get incredibly short barrels.
Unless you are going to get a super shorty (or mag fed) pump, get a semi-auto.
I recommend the MOSSBERG 930 if you can find one. I'd never sell mine. Pumps are definitely more robust and any model will do you good.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
I don't know if pumps are more robust. Many shotgun designs are very similar whether pump or autoloader, sometimes so similar you have to look twice at the forend or the bolt to be sure which model you are looking at.
Which brings us to another advantage of the autoloader, particularly for those who shoot slugs. The forend is fixed and provides much better support for precise aiming than does the wobbly slide of a pump gun.
Which brings us to another advantage of the autoloader, particularly for those who shoot slugs. The forend is fixed and provides much better support for precise aiming than does the wobbly slide of a pump gun.
- Location
- Thunder Bay ON Canada
I really don't like this, it's fearmongering and it's not true. Judges aren't the bunch of uptight idiots that they are portrayed to be in T.V. and movies.
My minor is law, I'm intending to go into law, and I just wrote a law paper on a typical self defence case; R. v. Kerr, [2004] 2 S.C.R. 371, 2004 SCC 44 Jason Richard Kerr stabbed Joseph Garon (deceased) in the brain with an homemade shank (contraband), in the edmonton max. sec. pennitentiary, and was aquitted of all charges. The judge found that kerr met the requirements of self-defence, that the threat to his safety was specific and credible, and that the option of retreat was not reasonable. The shank was an "weapon dangerous to the public peace" but the judges dismissed that charge stating that the presence of the Indian Posse criminal gang in the prison made it reasonable and right that the defendant would make and have an ice pick to protect himself.
In another case in Quebec a man suspected of being a member of organised crime took a cops head off with a shotgun, and had other illegal (to him) guns in the house, judges aquitted him, finding that there was no good reason to do a starlight swat-style raid on a home of a suspected criminal accountant, and the defendant had good reason to think he was in mortal danger.
In another case, a man in Sask. tried shooting out the rear tire of a truck speeding away that contained two theives and stolen goods, when he found that he had been robbed, and that thieves were getting away. His aim was off and the thief in the driver side of the truck died. He was aquitted of all charges.
The size/shape/colour of the weapon used in self defense is not important, just that the action of the defendant is reasonable under the law. Like I said in the beginning of this post, I don't like the mortal dread that most people seem to have of the legal system, it's not like it's shown on T.V. and I don't like the fearmongering. The legal system is run by thinking mature adult men and women, not trolls that live under bridges and eat children.
Of course many people never really deal with the justice system and some are convicted of silly charges, because you can be convicted of anything if you plead guilty to it, and 94% of people in Canada plea bargain when faced with a criminal charge. (actual statistic from my law textbook)
------------------------ [/end rant]
P.S. I like my pump gun, it's a Winny 1300, and it feeds the peculiar loads that I like to feed it, including black powder loads without having a gas system to gum up and clean. I can feed it confetti loads, I can feed it the single naked lead ball load, the super short shell loads, everything. It's got 8 shells (more with the supershorts) and is always reliable.
While I know the system is not run by kid eating trolls, and is supposed to be run by thinking mature adult men and women, I often find myself saying WTF were they thinking?
I think that the problem is that there are way too many lawyers involved instead of normal people. Instead of legal system, it should be called the lawyer system!
- Location
- Thunder Bay ON Canada
I know there are alot of headlines which are specifically designed to incite rage amoung the general populace, like "allowing" accused or convicted criminals to have basic civil rights or cases suppposedly getting thrown out on technicalities.
To get a case thrown out requires more than a technicality, it requires behaviour on the part of the police so odious and illegal that to continue with a case throws the whole process into disrepute.
As long as we want to maintaint the rightness of law, we can't treat even the lowest of the low scumbag criminal with anything but fairness and equality under the law.
If you are think you ever get the whole story of a criminal case from the mainstream media, think again.
I'll stop now, this thread is getting very much off topic.
To get a case thrown out requires more than a technicality, it requires behaviour on the part of the police so odious and illegal that to continue with a case throws the whole process into disrepute.
As long as we want to maintaint the rightness of law, we can't treat even the lowest of the low scumbag criminal with anything but fairness and equality under the law.
If you are think you ever get the whole story of a criminal case from the mainstream media, think again.
I'll stop now, this thread is getting very much off topic.
