As published in Law Enforcement Technology Magazine, January 2006
The Shotgun Speedload
by Dave Brown
Nothing matches the versatility of the police-issue shotgun. In the right hands, it is fast and accurate at typical encounter distances and packs enough of a wallop to stop deadly threats instantly. Its flexibility in ammunition selection is unmatched by any other weapon and its lack of a large magazine capacity is not a detriment if officers can be taught how to properly reload the shotgun when empty. With proper training that parallels advances in modern handgun training and acknowledges the scientific behaviour of the human body under stress, this century-old weapon can still be effectively employed today.
An emergency reload is not a "top-up" or "tactical" reload. It is a "real-life" reload, in which one may have practiced for hours on one of several different ways to reload a shotgun but when the bullets start flying towards you, all that training flies out the window, along with your conscious ability to think and, most critically, all your fine motor skills. Suddenly, top up techniques more suited to shooting competitions or demonstrating on YouTube don't mean anything when you suddenly realize you have just fired the shotgun until empty.
This is the physiology of stress. Auditory exclusion means one rarely has the ability hear their own gunshots, let alone count their rounds. Ironically, that 'click' you hear when empty may just be the loudest sound you hear.
Now, let's make sure that 'click' is not the last sound you hear.
The typical police pump-action shotgun is real-life encounters rarely needs more ammunition than what is carried in the tube. If it does, it may be that one more shell that will be needed to stop the fight. This is where the strong-hand speedload comes in. It is a technique for the AVERAGE officer in a real-life situation to get one more shell downrange, and get that shell in the chamber simply, reliably and in a way that is so natural, one can do it without hours of practice or even without much thinking.
The best part is this can be taught in minutes, and you don't even need some guy in 'cool-guy' pants to teach you.
Speedloading one more shell directly into the chamber with your strong hand after a shotgun has been fired until dry emphasizes simplicity, consistency, conservation of motion and a good understanding of the performance limitations of our human bodies under real-life stress.
Strong-Hand Speedloading versus Weak-Hand Top-Up
A speedload differs from a top-up reload. A top-up reload is completed on a partially full magazine, while a strong-hand speedload begins when the shotgun is fired until empty and concludes when one further round is loaded and immediately fired to stop a threat. This can be considered the “immediate action drill” for shotguns, and should form the bulk of reload training.
Whether the police shotgun is loaded with buckshot, slugs or less-than-lethal projectiles, there needs to be a reliable plan for when the officer runs out of ammunition before the threat has been neutralized. A spare round can be taken from the pocket and dropped directly into the ejection port, bypassing the magazine tube entirely and hopefully concluding the situation with one more shot.
While in some cases, it may be useful to have extra rounds dangling from various attachments on the shotgun or on your belt, in reality, most issues in real life are solved with the ammunition already in the magazine. But if one more round is needed, or there is the desire to switch from what is loaded in the magazine to what is carried in a strong-side pocket, the strong-hand reload is unbeatable for both speed and reliability.
After all, life is not a video game or a "John Wick" movie; the more a shotgun may be required to save human life in real-life situations, the less junk it should have hanging off it.
Taking simplicity and natural reactions of the human body in life-threatening situations into account, let's take a look at a simple depiction of a strong-hand reload from empty, assuming extra rounds are simply carried in a pocket.
All photos assume a right-handed officer. (When teaching left-handed officers who are often more ambidextrous, instructors can demonstrate several methods to find the one that works the best.)
On the surface, this seems like a fairly reliable way to speedload a shotgun and seems to work effectively on the training range. It even has an apparent bonus in that the shotgun never leaves the shooter's strong hand; ready for immediate action even at waist level.
Unfortunately, the term "immediate action" is pretty loose, considering we are dealing with what is essentially an empty shotgun at this point. Worse yet, this method violates every rule about gross versus fine motor skills that we have learned in the last thirty years.
When the weak hand is forced to depend on fine motor skills such as in this method, the stress of a real situation almost guarantees that the officer will fumble hopelessly with the shell while retrieving it from the pocket or accidentally toss it over top of the receiver. Some shooters have even been known to try to chamber a shell backwards during the panic of a real encounter.
Due to the unreliable nature of this first method in real life encounters, a second variation has been taught where the shotgun is held in the right hand, tilted to the side, and the shell is dropped into the port from above. (See photo 2.) Unfortunately, this method suffers from the same loss-of-fine-motor-skills problem as the first method, complicated by the tilted nature of the ejection port making for a much smaller target.
Test either method on the training range under tight time limits and the reliability of either one quickly deteriorates. It is not the reliability of a technique that works with someone who has trained and practiced their speedload technique hundreds of times; it is the reliability of a technique that can be performed by the AVERAGE officer with only minutes of training and practice. This is why the strong-hand reload works best on the street.
Teaching The Modern Strong-Hand Speedload
So how do we resolve the loss of fine motor skills in high stress situations with the need to drop a shotgun shell directly into the ejection port of an empty shotgun? The solution is actually quite simple - and not really all that revolutionary either.
The shotgun is held flat in the left hand at its natural balance point, with the open hand cupping the receiver right at the ejection port. At the same time, a spare shell is retrieved from a right-side pocket with the right hand. (See photo 3.)
The spare shell is simply dropped into the ejection port with the right hand. The shell does not need to be fed carefully; the only thing the shooter needs to worry about is getting the front of the shell towards the front of the gun. (See photo 4.) Even if the shell misses the hole, it will be trapped by the left hand and still fall into the port.
Once the shell lands inside the port, it will chamber as soon as the pump moves forward. (See photo 5.) The shell lifter straightens the shell out and guides it directly into the chamber, the shotgun is transferred back to the shooting grip as the pump is racked forward and the sight aligned with the potential threat. If necessary, the shot can be immediately fired.
While it might seem counter-intuitive to switch hands while speedloading, the fact is that this method is the only one that emphasizes gross motor skills for holding the shotgun and fine motor skills for dropping the shell into the chamber. Anyone who has ever been under a bit of stress because they are late for work and ended up dropping their car keys on the ground, will understand the rationale for this technique immediately.
To illustrate how instinctive this method is, simply watch the average right-handed officer loading a shotgun into the magazine tube when they are not under stress. You will notice that the vast majority of people hold the shotgun in their left hand and feed the shells into the tube with the right hand. The reason they do this is because it is the most comfortable way of doing it with the least amount of fumbling.
So now one has to ask why we have traditionally trained officers one way to load a shotgun when not under stress and a completely different way of loading when they are under stress. This can be a recipe for disaster.
For those agencies still teaching the old way, all I say is try both methods under stress. The older methods of training tend to fall apart quickly when a timer starts running and speed really starts counting.
For the ultimate test of shotgun ability, try my “five-in-five drill” where the shooter faces five reactive targets at seven yards, with four shells in the shotgun and one in their pocket. They have five seconds to knock down all five targets.
This test is tough but if it can be accomplished within the time limit. Speed, accuracy and speedloading ability have all be tested to near their maximum potential.
"Real life is not a movie or video game. The more a shotgun may be needed to save human life in real-life situations, the less junk should be hanging from it."
Lessons from CERU
The typical police pump-action shotgun can discharge anything from light training loads to duty buckshot to powerful slugs for punching through cover or dispatching wounded wildlife on the highway. An even newer option is less-than-lethal projectiles such as the bean-bag rounds and the latest variation of “sock” rounds, which can be deployed in certain situations in lieu of deadly force.
One example of the effective deployment of shotguns by agencies who use them rarely is in correctional facilities. Standard police duty rounds would be potentially hazardous to both inmates and staff alike. This is where impact weapons would be most effective.
However, one common myth is that impact weapons such as shotguns loaded with sock rounds do not have to be fired as accurately as standard buckshot or slug rounds. In fact, the opposite is true; impact rounds require more accuracy.
One industry-leading example of the deployment of shotguns for the exclusive use of various impact projectiles has been found at provincial correctional facilities in Manitoba, Canada. Here, Corrections Emergency Response Units (CERU) have now adopted the pump-action shotgun as a less-than-lethal projectile option after suffering through the worst prison riot in their history in 1996. For a period of twenty-four hours, inmates took over much of the Headingley Correctional Facility, causing millions of dollars in damage and inflicting serious injuries to officers and other inmates. To deal with such explosive situations in the future, the CERU teams needed impact weapons that could be rapidly deployed, accurately fired and capable of reliable speedloading under stress. For them, the shotgun proved ideal.
Denis Litster, former head of training for Manitoba Corrections explains, “Unlike other emergency response teams, when a hostage situation happens in a correctional facility we need to go in right away. We don't have the luxury of waiting them out. Our tactics are unique and our shotgun shooters need to be able to top up, speedload and switch ammunition types instinctively.”
Speedloading became a critical component of their shotgun training and is now included as part of their qualifying skills. Litster emphasizes how vital that skill is to their tactics. He reports, “We tried some methods commonly taught in "combat" schools but realized early on that officers would tend to fumble or drop rounds with the loss of fine motor skills when not on the training range anymore. When we saw what we considered the most natural way to speedload a shotgun, we knew right away that this was the only method that would work for us. It's quick, it's smooth and - most important - it’s dead reliable.”
Training Pays Off
In an ideal world, every officer would have a sidearm on their hip and a shotgun and patrol carbine in a rack behind the front seat. There is no reason that a patrol carbine needs to replace the shotgun. They are both unique in their intended purposes.
With good training, the shotgun can be the versatile and effective weapon it was designed to be, and properly trained shooters can utilize it for both its rapid multiple shot capability and even its psychological impact.
Years after the shotgun was introduced into provincial correctional facilities in Manitoba. Denis Litster is proud of the record his CERU teams were able to achieve in operational deployments. “In every situation, the subject complied without us having to fire a shot. We dramatically lowered injuries to officers and inmates and we substantially reduced the potential damage to our facilities. The cost saving alone was incredible.”