have you ever used your hd shotgun?

[LSU12ga]

Has anyone here had to get out their gun, not nessissarly fire it, but use it as a deterrant?

I am intrested to hear some stories....and i dont want to do my homework.

[wolfdog45]

I have had to take it out and check on some noises but never had to fire it in self defense.

[Northern Sod Breaker]

Never with a shotgun but I have grabbed my rifle out of the closet @ 1 in the morning to check out noises coming from the barn yard. Tunred out to be nothing but better safe then sorry.

[jhgreasemonkey]

I grabbed mine once. It sounded like someone was breaking in. I lived in a bad niegborhood at the time. I went to investigate and startled a couple guys trying to steal my car dolly. they took off like a couple rockets when they saw the shotgun and never came back.

[Bigfatts]

I sure have. I was at home sitting in my game room, where I clean my guns, in the back of my house. I am finished cleaning and am relaxing drinking a Diet Coke on my futon. I am getting up to walk out of the room when I happen to glance out the sliding grass door and see a strange man standing in MY backyard! As I'm watching, he kneels down next to the Koi pond in the corner of the yard and looks as if he's going to go for a swim. So I'm thinking "***'s going on here?" There have been a few home invasions in the neighborhood lately so I grab the 870 and walk out the door. "Howdy." I've never seen a man run so fast in my life. And the look on his face was priceless. He ran around the house and scaled the 6 ft privacy fence without breaking stride. I went back in and called the SO. They came out and looked around and patrolled the neighborhood but they never found the guy. I don't know whether he was after the Koi, as some of them are quite valuable, or what. Never had a situation like that before.

[skeeter1]

I've never had to shoot any gun in SD, and I doubt I'll ever have to, but I'm glad that they're there. There have been a couple of close calls, once when an escaped felon was in my mother's neighborhood, (the cops caught him), and the second time there were cops with guns drawn circling around the house behind me (false alarm). In both cases, I dropped a .38Spl in my pocket and stayed in the house.

If push came to shove, I'd probably have grabbed one of the rifles or 12-gauge doubles. Handguns are fun, but if my life is on the line, I'd rather have one of the longguns.

[PJR]

Sure. Several times in fact. Living in the country my 870 is the predator control gun and it's seen use a few times.

It was only taken out once in response to a possible threat from a two-legged beast. No shots fired.

The beast in question was an ostrich that had escaped from a nearby farm and the owners were quite anxious to have it back. :D

[jhgreasemonkey]

An ostrich? That would startle the heck out of you. What the?:D I forgot to mention critters also. A big fat racoon got into my puppy kennel and was hassling the puppy so I had to blast it. That was a little messy at close range with a 12guage. :barf: Racoons get on the back porch my mama just chase em off with a broom. ;)

[LSU12ga]

what load did you use to kill it?

[jhgreasemonkey]

I was a heavy field load 7 1/2 shot. At close range the poor rotund critter basically turned to goo.

[flesheatingvirus]

A buddy of mine had a similiar animal incident. He was sitting in his living room when a 'possum poked its head up through a floor vent. Instead of doing the sensible thing, he stuck a 12gauge in the vent and pulled the trigger. Needless to say, he had a lot of scrubbing and sponging to do afterwards.

[JJB2]

well.... my HD shot gun is my s&w model 27 6" loaded with home brewed reloaded shot loads using the speer blue shot capsules and #2 or #6-7 shot... they seem to work on possums and coons that come around.... i have wondered how much damage they might do to a human sized target though........ took 4 shots to put a big coon down last winter so i'm thinkin i better stay with the smaller targets.............

[oletymer]

I think you people answered you own question about HD shotguns. In the majority of cases they are not needed. Just keep a field or competition gun around and it will serve your needs.

[Cameron]

oletymer I have to disagree.

The majority of times I drive my car I have no need of my seatbelt, I still put it on every time I get in...

I enjoy having my sporting SGs, but I also need a good self defense SG. Hopefully it will be like the seat belt and it will never be used in it's primary function....

Regards,
Cameron

[andrewd523]

Shotguns are like seatbelts... Great analogy! I feel they are also like car insurance... You have to have it (most states require it), but you hope you will never have to use it. Rather be safe than DEAD!

[Edward429451]

Just keep a field or competition gun around and it will serve your needs.

Probably basically true but I take the field barrel off at home and put on the short police trade in barrel. Best o both worlds I guess.

[FirstFreedom]

I've never seen a man run so fast in my life. And the look on his face was priceless. He ran around the house and scaled the 6 ft privacy fence without breaking stride.

Hee hee, love a good holiday story. :)

[raggededge]

I have but one shotgun, a basically stock 1300 Defender. Only thing I threw on there was a home-concocted LED light. There have been a couple nights that I have sprung to the door with it in hand. Two or three times I've had people messing with the cars out front, but usually just flicking the porch lights are enough to get them gone without confrontation. About two months ago, though, someone broke one of our ground-level windows in the middle of the night. I'm still unsure of his intent, but he went a scrambling when he saw me coming. I hope I never have to fire, but if it comes to that I will gladly choose the safety of myself and my family over some misplaced societal dregs.

[bacardisteve]

i heard a horrible crash one night. the first thing i grabbed was my ruger deerfield carbine 44mag. it turned out that a rather large brauma bull from next door had escaped and had crashed through my door. my dog was trying to bite it as it was trying to fit its fat ass the rest of the way through the door. that was when i put 2 rounds in its head from 10 feet. i never could figure why it charged my door. something it saw must of ****** it off

[akr]

Wow! It's a good thing you didn't let it any further in. Your house would have been wrecked. What did your neighbor say?

[Travismaine]

The majority of times I drive my car I have no need of my seatbelt, I still put it on every time I get in...

I enjoy having my sporting SGs, but I also need a good self defense SG. Hopefully it will be like the seat belt and it will never be used in it's primary function....

Regards,
Cameron

You hit the nail on the head with that one. I have two home guns and I carry. I hope I never have to use them but if I do need one it will be there..

Travis

[the_oklahombre]

i heard a horrible crash one night. the first thing i grabbed was my ruger deerfield carbine 44mag. it turned out that a rather large brauma bull from next door had escaped and had crashed through my door. my dog was trying to bite it as it was trying to fit its fat ass the rest of the way through the door. that was when i put 2 rounds in its head from 10 feet. i never could figure why it charged my door. something it saw must of ****** it off

I've worked cows all my life and mostly angus and brauma. I have seen them run through doors and walls. Most times it was because something was chasing it. The other reason would be they are big, clutzy, and can't see very well. Cattle are not aggressive to the point where they try to track you down and kill you. They only get violent when scared or threatened. I really don't know if shooting it was the right thing to do. The dog barking probably was what "******" him off. More then likely if you would have started yelling and throwing your hands up the bull would have tried to retreat. You've got to show them you are a lot meaner then they are, I mean everyone thinks that bulls are like those that you see on the rodeo circuit. Just my opinion of course.

[Daves-got-guns]

JJB2, i have killed a grouse with those birdshot loads. Would not reccomend at all, as it seems glaser safety slugs do awhole hell ofa lot better job, and you don't have to worry about goin thru walls. Alittle on the expensive side, i would try out 5 and if you don't like them forget i said anything!

[auburnboattail]

I have used my HD shotgun in defense.
Not a pleasant experience, lived on a farm, came home, 2 guys in house 2 guys in barn.

dogs took care of guys in barn, I took care of guys in house.

key is dependable gun, automatic reflex, (practice,practice)

[Daves-got-guns]

sorry to hear that auburn, and i usually dont pry into this kind of stuff, because it seems to be a code of ethics to NOT ask, but id like to know alittle more about the situation if you will tell the story, in depth, but i understand %100 if you would not want to tell. Again i am sorry you had to use a weapon in self defense.

[auburnboattail]

Homeless drug addicts, looking for money or easily fenceable goods.
Live in remote Minnesota at the time on Christmas tree farm.
Dogs alerted me something wrong. Blue healer dogs known for biting power,
dogs found 2 guys in barn,Dogs chased them and downed them near roadway I went inside found guys, they ran out back door,They shot and missed, I shot and didn't miss. Called sheriff via cell. They wrapped up the scene.The follow up is more brutal than the crime. You feel like you did something wrong instead of the vermin who violated your rights.

If were not for the dogs I would not have been alerted and probably would have been overpowered by the 4. Because we tended the christmas trees and had bear and wolves frequently on the farm, I had a ritual of always having a firearm with me or my family simply to scare them off .
The guys located the farm simply becuse it was well known as a pick and cut tree farm and they figured we had large amounts of cash on a daily basis.

It is not anything anybody wants to experience. I was terrified beyond belief but I guess reflex for survival takes over.

It is just an example of why we must never surrender our 2nd ammendment rights.

We had excellent police dept. but simply they can not be there when you need them, they are not preventers of crime, they simply bring people to justice after the crime has been committed.

[FirstFreedom]

The beast in question was an ostrich that had escaped from a nearby farm and the owners were quite anxious to have it back

Lol - the other day there were a pair of emus roaming around my deer camp - weren't the least bit scared of me or my dog - came right up to camp to investigate. Neighbors and I figure they must have escaped from someone's farm. Neighbors feed them so now they're hanging around, apparently indefinitely.

[V4Vendetta]

Fortunately, I have never had a experience like Auburns.

There have been several nights though where I heard my dogs barking & I go outside to investigate with a .22 in case it's possums but nothing happens. We have a lot of critters like possums & a few raccoon's.

[marlboroman84]

Almost once, but it turned out to be one of my drunken friends coming over for a middle of the night visit. Always good to make positive ID. :D

[Maser]

We had a rather scary experience at my house a couple years ago. This crazy nut who used to do buisiness with my dad was making lots of nasty threats on our answering machine. Was saying crazy stuff like he was going to kill him his wife and kids (me and little brother). The threats got so scary that my dad gave me 5 00 buckshot shells and told me to keep my Mossberg loaded and have my little bro sleep in my room with me. Luckily nothing ever happend and the next morning my dad turned in the answering machine to the police and they caught the guy for making murder threats.

Other than that time there has been a few times where my dad would take out his HD shotgun to check for noise or me taking my 10/22 out back to make sure possums weren't after the rabbit food or the rabbits.

[Guy B. Meredith]

Re: "Just keep a field or competition gun around and it will serve your needs." I wouldn't want an expensive firearm knocking about in the PD evidence locker--one of the reasons I don't use my revolvers for HD.

I slept through an incident in our front yard where I might have had real reason to dig out the shotgun. Gun dropped by BGs just outside our bedroom window.

Quite a few years back the city police copter spent a lot of time checking out the neighborhood and I decided to load up the bolt action Mossberg 195K I had at the time.

A few days ago and 400 miles from the above incident the SO copter circled quite a while. I called the SO and they would not give details but said I should remain where I felt safe. For me that meant breaking out the Mossberg Persuader with 00 buckshot and rifled slugs. Turned out some guy with a warrant for his arrest had bailed at a traffic stop outside our senior (read: easy victims) community. He had approached one resident's daughter for a ride during the time the SO was looking for him.

[Daves-got-guns]

i had a missed incident a few years back, with a girl i knew who still lives at the same house 1 block away. her mom had a b/f who wasn't winning at life by anybodys means. They split and he took off with a bunch of one of the daughters stuff, some large amount of coins, credit cards and other things. Well he came back one night when the mom was gone and it was the 16 year old girl and her younger sisters at the house, and was banging around outside, high or something trying to get into the house. The girl called my cousons cellphone who was at my house at the time but she was in the bathroom and had left her phone in her coat pocket or something and didnt get the call. If we would have got the call i probably would have trotted down there with my 12 guage and persuaded him nicely to leave, or face the "music". I tell this story alot on here, mostly cause i felt bad that we never heard the call and what if is one of the worst phrases man ever coined.

[howeudew]

15 years ago, we had just moved to Durham, NC. My wife was home alone with our two children. Late at night, she heard someone trying to get into my daughter's bedroom window.

My wife grabbed my old Savage 311 double barrel, and slid the two barrels through the blinds.

The noises quickly stopped, and were never repeated. The funny thing is that my wife had never fired a weapon in her life...she told me that she just hoped the appearance of the barrels might help.

It did!

[cowboy4884]

I keep an old 16 gauge SXS with an 18" barrel by my front door for what ever loaded with just powder. Full brass cases loaded to the brim with powder. I live in a bad neiborhood and one night had a motorhome parked accross the street with people coming and going. The motorhome was a large one about 40 ft and it was a new one, no plates just a sticker. I went out and asked them to move to a different area and I got flipped off and told to mind my own business. I walked back into my house wearing a cowboy hat, cutoffs and boots grabbed the old SXS and stuck my 1911 in the back of my cutoffs, walked back out to the street on my side and yelled for them to move it on. A couple of guys got out of the motorhome and as soon as they came around the front of the motorhome I pulled both triggers. The sound, the light, the muzzle blast they took of hitting the left rear section of a BMW parked in front of their motorhome. They never even came back to pickup their BMW, a towtruck picked it up a couple of days later. That was 4 years ago and I've never had any problems since.

Ken

[guisseppi]

I fired on a guy in Columbus Ohio Some 30 years ago, he was in my house stealing my sterio... I caught him in the act, he pulled out a screw driver and attacked me and I shot him in the lower torso with a Star PD .45 acp that was under a cloth on a shelf in my living room... I was arrested but later released, the thief was arrested and served 5 years of a 1 to 10 streatch before he was paroled.. If I had to, I would do it again, but I would aim closer to the 10 ring...

[akr]

Only thing more revolting than a possum or a skunk is Hillary.

[M.H. Ezzard]

V4Vendetta:OT but concerning your signature: Clothes of Heaven, Yeats I believe. The Choral setting of those lyrics by Z. Randall Stroope is gorgeous. Thanks for that.

[V4Vendetta]

Thanks. I got it from "Equilibrium".

The William Butler Yeats poem used was published in the collection "The Wind Among the Reeds" (1899). The full text goes: "Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."