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Gila Hayes

Tips for Women: Choosing a Semi-Automatic Handgun

Be sure a gun fits well in the hand and that all buttons or levers are easy to work. Author Photo
Be sure a gun fits well in the hand and that all buttons or levers are easy to work. Author Photo

Once so-called women’s guns were either revolvers—touted for ease of operation—or tiny, underpowered .22 or .32 semi-autos. Now, women can choose a semi-automatic handgun from an ever-growing selection, many designed for concealed carry.

With more options than ever, prioritizing desirable features in a self-defense semi-automatic helps women make good choices at well-stocked gun counters. Sadly, not all gun store clerks are savvy to the needs of their female customers, and too often confuse small and light with proper fit and functionality. Let’s consider semi-automatic selection priorities to ease the female gun owner’s first buying experience.

Of highest priority, the semi-auto pistol bought for self defense must function reliably. Rarely can one test fire a new gun before buying (after all, it would then no longer be new for the next shopper). Still, many opportunities exist at gun rental ranges to shoot samples of the same brand and model of the pistol under consideration.

How can you determine reliability? Ask what others have experienced. The Internet is a useful resource revealing positive or negative experiences of a big pool of gun owners with particular brands or models.

Take what you read with a grain of salt, but give serious consideration to multiple reports of premature breakage or feeding and extraction failures in a particular model of pistol. Confirm online anecdotes with information from firearms instructors, fellow shooters at the range and recognized experts like Gun Digest authors Patrick Sweeney, Grant Cunningham and Massad Ayoob, to name only a few. Remember, a gun must be sufficiently durable to fire thousands of rounds in training and practice.

In addition, a self-defense gun that will be in and out of holsters, carried for personal protection and used in training and practice requires internal safeties to prevent unintentional discharge if the gun is dropped. These are standard in high quality handguns like Glocks.

Trigger pull weight is another concern with most experts recommending a minimum five-pound pull weight for safety in circumstances that may call for presenting but not immediately firing a pistol.

Choosing a Semi-Automatic Handgun

Size matters in the caliber debate when considering guns for self defense. Faced with choices including .22 LR and .22 Mag., .25 ACP, a variety of .32s, .380 ACP, 9mm, plus all the calibers starting with .4, no wonder beginners become confused.

A good introductory class or mentored trip to a gun rental range is a big help, since recoil sensitivity varies from one individual to the next. Bear in mind that felt recoil changes radically from one pistol to the next, so caliber selection decisions have to be based on shooting the gun you eventually intend to own.

Most agree that calibers of at least .380 ACP or larger are best for self-defense. However, the buyer also needs to determine what is the largest pistol caliber she can fire with a sufficient balance of accuracy and speed. A simple evaluation entails firing five shots in five seconds, all inside a five-inch or smaller circle, from a distance of five yards.

Beyond caliber and recoil control considerations, the gun buyer has to deal with how the gun and its controls fit in her hand. The applicable term is ergonomics, though concerns are larger than one simple word can describe. Determine that you can easily and safely use controls, levers and buttons (which vary wildly from one brand to the next), including the manual safety, decocker, slide lock/release and magazine release.

In addition, for accurate shooting under speed, the distance between the gun’s back strap and the face of its trigger must let the shooter center the grip tang in the web of her hand and place the crease of her trigger finger’s first distal joint on the face of the trigger. Many semi-auto pistols are simply too large for small-handed shooters.

Don’t confuse a correct backstrap-to-trigger reach with simply buying the smallest semi-auto on the market. Even with small caliber options like the .380 ACP, the weight and overall dimensions of the pistol greatly influence handling, including comfortable recoil distribution and a solid hold in the hand during multiple shots and rapid fire.

Super small and light are not good criteria for a gun with which you may fight to preserve human life, especially if you can only hold it with a few fingers.

A final priority in self-defense gun selection is reasonable availability of aftermarket accessories and armorer services, as well as replacement parts for repairs and upgrades. This necessitates choosing a gun that is fairly common, not a one-of-a-kind collectible.

For example, thousands of holsters, replacement sight options and other aftermarket products are sold for the Glock pistol. That’s no surprise for a gun with three decades of popularity in the American marketplace. Often holsters or aftermarket pistol sights get their start selling to Glock owners, then branch out to the many other pistol options in use today. Consider that a hint.

Holster Cant and Ride Considerations for Women

Concealed carry holster cant for women.

Women, many of whom are short-waisted, benefit from dropped and offset holsters because carrying the gun lower on the torso moves the grips of the gun out and away from the ribcage and positions the barrel of the gun below the hipbone. Both the ribcage and the hip’s wide crest are areas of considerable holster discomfort.

In addition, lowering the holster alleviates the struggle to draw, which is difficult when you have trouble raising the muzzle above the mouth of the holster. Owing to women’s generally shorter torsos, this is a bigger problem for female shooters than it is for men.

Ask a man of average build to stand next to a woman of identical height, and in most cases the man’s torso will be longer than the woman’s; more of her height comes from her legs. This general characteristic is exaggerated with the petite, short-waisted figure.

When a short-waisted woman draws from a mid- or high-ride holster, the lift required to clear leather (a colloquialism meaning to draw the muzzle above the mouth of the holster) will typically entail lifting her elbow above shoulder height.

On the range, you’ll see all kinds of funny contortions like dropping the hip forward, twisting the torso or elaborately bending the wrist to achieve enough lift to yank the gun out of the holster.

Unfortunately, all these contortions are slower than a straight lift out of the holster, as may be accomplished if the rig fits perfectly on the shooter’s body. In response, the industry brought us the “dropped” element in the dropped and offset holster.

While few holsters will be as comfortable as a dropped and offset design, the comfort comes at a price. First, concealment is severely compromised, by both riding low on the hip and by extending the grips a couple of inches beyond the hip.

Next, attaching the holster to an elongated shank creates a fulcrum, increasing odds that the holster will move up with the gun during the draw, described as “following.” When this happens, the holster feels as though it is stuck on the gun. This is not true of all the dropped and offset rigs, but is a drawback of which to be aware.

Canting the holster severely on the belt, orienting the muzzle either to the front or to the back, eases the drawing problems the dropped and offset design tries to alleviate, but without its inherent lack of concealment as the gun and holster are allowed to snug in close to the body.

Drawing a gun from a deeply angled holster does require some degree of wrist flexibility, as well as top quality holster design for good retention. Still, a canted holster goes a long way toward increasing ease of draw, wearing comfort and concealability. A high-end example of this holster design is Mitch Rosen’s American Rear Guard.

— Excerpted from Concealed Carry for Women by Gila Hayes. Available at GunDigestStore.com.

Semi-Autos for Concealed Carry

The Glock and Kahr Arms pistols are popular striker fired semi-auto pistols for concealed carry.
The Glock and Kahr Arms pistols are popular striker fired semi-auto pistols for concealed carry.

From Concealed Carry for Women, author Gila Hayes explores some of the many semi-automatic pistols sold, summarizing their various options and how they operate.

As with revolvers, selecting a semi-automatic handgun from a prominent manufacturer who has a proven track record of a decade or two in business is a good idea.

Walther’s P99 with the striker cocked, as indicated by the protruding red dot at the back of the slide.
Walther’s P99 with the striker cocked, as indicated by the protruding red dot at the back of the slide.

While everyone likes to have something that is unique, the more mainstream your defense handgun, the easier it will be for you to find a wide variety of accessories like holsters, sights, replacement magazines and grips, to say nothing of repair parts in the event of breakage.

Among semi-automatic handguns there are several discrete operating systems: single action, double action, double action only, striker fired, and some hybridization between those types.

Much of the separation focuses on how the firing pin or striker is put into motion to discharge the firearm. For handguns, discharging a cartridge of ammunition is still, at present, a mechanical process by which a striker or firing pin must be released to impact the primer in the ammunition cartridge. To do so, handguns need a mechanism by which a hammer or a striker is released so it can spring or fall forward to do its work.

The single-action semi-automatic’s hammer must be cocked for the gun to fire, and this is generally accomplished through cycling the slide, either manually during the initial loading sequence, or as part of the slide’s cycle during firing.

If practicing dryfire, the hammer can also be pulled back with a thumb. Generally, the only way to lower a single-action semi-automatic pistol’s hammer (called decocking) is to press the trigger with the chamber empty.

Example of a decocked Smith & Wesson Model 3913.
Example of a cocked Smith & Wesson Model 3913.

Most single-action handguns have quite a short trigger pull, often as little as 1/8 inch, and not much pressure is required to discharge the gun. For defensive use, it is best if the trigger pull requires at least five if not six pounds to discharge the gun; extremely light trigger pulls of three to four pounds belong only on handguns used for sporting purposes, if at all.

The 1911 variant is the most common representative of the single-action semi-automatic type of handgun. These are produced by a wide variety of manufacturers, including Kimber, Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, Taurus, Para Ordnance, Springfield Armory, Colt, Ruger and many, many more.

Less common today, but still a very attractive option, is the Hi-Power style pistol, usually sold by the Browning company. In fact, it is common to hear this type of handgun identified as the Browning Hi-Power, when actually a number of other manufacturers over the years have also produced pistols on good old John Moses Browning’s Hi-Power single-action design.

Double-action semi-automatics start their firing cycle with the hammer lowered, but like the double-action revolver, pressure on the trigger both cocks and releases the hammer to fire the gun.

This can require from six to 15 pounds of pressure on the trigger distributed over trigger pulls of ¾ to one inch long depending on the gun’s design. When the slide cycles during firing, it leaves the gun cocked so that it subsequently fires in single action, with a shorter trigger pull and pull weights of five to six pounds and lower.

The better quality examples of this gun type have additional mechanisms for safely lowering the hammer without using the trigger. These mechanisms are called decockers.

Today, the most prominent manufacturer of this pistol type is Sig Sauer, though Smith & Wesson and Ruger, who once ruled this part of the market, still make a few traditional double-action semi-automatic pistols.

Still, much of their product line has moved on to striker-fired pistols. Heckler & Koch, Beretta, Bersa, CZ, and Walther are other common sources for double-action autoloaders equipped with decockers.

Glock’s in-trigger safety prevents the pistol from firing unless the center spar on the trigger is pressed. Thus, inadvertent contact with the side of the trigger is insufficient to discharge the pistol, but anything that presses against the center of the trigger face can make the gun fire.
Glock’s in-trigger safety prevents the pistol from firing unless the center spar on the trigger is pressed. Thus, inadvertent contact with the side of the trigger is insufficient to discharge the pistol, but anything that presses against the center of the trigger face can make the gun fire.

Double-action-only guns have no single-action mode at all. Trigger pull weights and length are similar to the double-action mode of a traditional double-action pistol, and differ from traditional double-action semi-automatic operation in that every trigger pull is the same, long and often heavy, just like on a revolver.

These days, most manufacturers of traditional double-action semi-autos also offer variations in double-action only, usually in response to specifications required for police or military purchase bids.

One unusual example is Para Ordnance’s Light Double Action (LDA) model on which the length of the trigger pull is fully an inch, but the trigger pull is accomplished by applying under six pounds of pressure to the trigger, about half that of most double-action-only pistols.

Striker-fired handguns are quite similar to double-action-only semi-autos, in that every trigger pull is of the same length and weight, but the striker-fired mechanism generally requires in the neighborhood of five pounds pull weight, give or take a pound or so.

Striker-fired pistols have been around for decades, but they really rose to prominence in the United States with the adoption of the Glock auto pistol by law enforcement agencies, a trend which private gun owners eagerly copied.

Soon thereafter, a dozen manufacturers were offering striker-fired semi-auto pistols, including Smith & Wesson, Steyr, Kahr Arms, Walther, Heckler & Koch, Kimber, Springfield Armory, Taurus and many, many more.

4 Concealed Carry Compromises to Avoid

Concealed carry tips for women.

If you carry concealed, eventually you'll be tempted to compromise one of these four things. Don't give in—avoid them at all costs.

We make hundreds of decisions every day. Be sure the decisions you make enhance your safety.

This includes avoiding dangers, and it means having a way to defend against that which you cannot avoid. Playing a guessing game that tries to predict when trouble may strike is foolhardy.

Habitually and regularly carrying a gun for personal defense whenever and wherever legal is a sensible decision.

You must persevere even when carrying a gun for personal defense is inconvenient, uncomfortable or when doing so opens you up to criticism. Falling prey to a predator is considerably worse than any of those discomforts.

It is ironic that much of the advice about carrying a handgun for personal protection includes compromises.

Here are four compromises you must avoid.

Concealed carry compromises to avoid. 1. Compromises between the size of the gun and the clothing required to conceal it;

2. Compromises in choices of activities to allow legal concealed carry for better personal safety;

3. Compromises in physical comfort for the mental comfort of having a gun quickly at hand to fend off danger.

4. Compromise that is sometimes urged upon us as women to let others take responsibility for our safety. This “offer” is a lie because it simply is not reasonable to believe that another person can be continually present to provide your protection.

If you understand and accept that your safety is your own responsibility, and have chosen to carry a concealed handgun as part of your personal safety provisions, make the commitment to yourself to carry your gun consistently.

The idea that we can predict when danger may strike is ridiculous and demonstrates how very foolish it is to carry your gun only when you find it convenient. Personal safety is a serious, no-compromise responsibility.

Carrying a gun is most successful when practiced consistently. Not only does this mean carrying regularly, it means working to carry in the same holster and body location as much as is possible.

Learning through observation and listening to others is useful, yet know that in the end you have to make your own decisions about what you are safe and comfortable carrying for personal protection.

Concealed-Carry-For-Women-BookEditor's Note: This article is an excerpt from Concealed Carry for Women, a new book by Gila Hayes. It takes a comprehensive approach for women who have decided to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. Click Here to Get Your Copy

Embarrassing Moments for Armed Women

Embarassing moments for armed women.

Because carrying a gun adds just one more complication to our already complex lives, carrying a gun in public is a fertile breeding ground for errors that can sometimes be embarrassing and sometimes prove very dangerous. Here are some tips for armed women.

Imagine that a friend makes a romantic “pass,” and instead of giving you a nice warm hug, gets a handful of your Glock Model 26.

A playful young child at the local playground dashes headlong into your hip and bellows in outrage, “Mommy! Your gun hurt my head!”

You stand to rise from a comfortable captain-style chair at a nice restaurant when your gun’s grips tangle in the chair arms, making a loud clacking sound, tipping the chair over and jerking the gun half out of its holster.

While the myriad stories about inadvertent breaches in concealment are instructional and funny to all but the embarrassed party, there are more serious errors of which you should be aware.

These usually center on a dropped gun or a dropped magazine, or rounds of ammunition that got loose and rolled around in a public place.

Carrying Concealed When Nature Calls

When carrying a gun in a belt holster, the question of how to secure it while using the toilet is quite a topic of contention. One school of thought calls for drawing the gun and setting it on the toilet tank, the tissue roll dispenser, or other flat surface.

This is probably functional at home and maybe even in a locked single restroom if you’re not too germ-phobic. This solution, however, is very iffy in restrooms with multiple stalls separated by metal dividers where one door slamming shakes the entire structure, and the toilets rarely have water tanks at all.

Concealed Carry for WomenHere, some trainers recommend drawing the gun and stowing it in your purse, or even in the crotch of your trousers.

If the gun must come out of the holster at all, a safer solution, in my opinion, is the one offered by Kathy Jackson, author of The Cornered Cat(1) website, who recommends hanging your purse on the coat hook, opening it, and stowing the gun in the purse.

Since I have been carrying a gun for some two decades, I’ve honed my carry gear to such good equipment that I can hold the belt tight against my thigh and the gun and holster remain safely upright, even with the trousers lowered.

I prefer this option in restrooms, since it entails absolutely no gunhandling in a public place. My dear friend Vicki Farnam likes a purse holster for these circumstances, since, like my solution, it entails no gunhandling whatsoever.

The aspect of all this gun handing that troubles me greatly is that there is no safe gun direction in a public restroom or even a single restroom in a public building, and often a safe, bullet-stopping backstop is not available in the home restroom, either.

With respect to all the folks who recommend various places to stash your gun in a public restroom, I simply will not do it. When you draw the gun out of the safety of its holster and handle it, that loaded gun is pointing somewhere.

Inadvertent contact with the trigger can discharge it with very tragic results, since something important may be forward of the muzzle in the direction in which the gun points.

Again, good gear contributes much to avoiding a dangerous problem. A gun carried on a rigid belt in a holster that is molded to the shape of the gun will stay securely in the holster even when it is not in its normal, muzzle-down orientation on your waistband.

Close your gun-side hand around holster, belt and waistband while lowering your trousers.

If bathroom duties require both hands, squeeze the holster against the outside of your thigh until pulling your britches up.

Denim jeans sometimes have enough stiffness to do this alone, but with a softer fabric like wool gabardine, you can also buckle your belt around your thighs or knees to create the needed tension, if that proves necessary.

Yes, this takes some finesse, but it can be done. I’ve been doing it for years. That way the gun need never leave the security of the holster, where the covering over the trigger guard provides a considerable margin of safety against an unintentional and very dangerous discharge.


Concealed-Carry-For-Women-BookEditor's Note: This is an excerpt from Concealed Carry for Women, a new book by Gila Hayes. It takes a comprehensive approach for women who have decided to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. Click Here to Get Your Copy

Concealed Carry for Women: Don’t Overthink Concealability

Concealed Carry for Women.

A note of encouragement to women who are struggling with how to fit a concealed handgun into their daily wardrobe.

For several days last winter, my photographer and dear friend Bob and I spent a lot of time together photographing a series of illustrations showing the success or failure of various combinations of handgun size, holster type and covering garments for concealed carry.

We were continually surprised at the number of times we put together the “Don't do” illustration only to have Bob ask, “What, exactly, am I supposed to show?” Combinations we were sure could never be worn out in public for fear of revealing a concealed gun were apparently much better at concealment than we thought.

It reminded me of a conversation I'd had with Tom Givens of Rangemaster in Memphis, TN, in which he emphasized that when armed citizens select  micro-sized handguns for self defense, they focus too much on ease of carry, not on the firearm's functionality under the duress of a fight to save human life.

That's a mistake, he stressed. We carry guns for defense under terribly stressful circumstances. That means we need to choose guns that are large enough to fire accurately, rapidly and repeatedly, if that becomes necessary.

We are overly-focused on our own uneasiness. We fear being discovered carrying a concealed handgun. Thus we exaggerate how much the gun shows through our clothing, or assume it shows, when indeed it does not.

“The public is not focused on you,” Tom emphasized. “In fact, most people probably don't even see you standing there!” We shared a good laugh, and I learned an important lesson, while we were illustrating my new book Concealed Carry for Women.

Of course, we must take reasonable steps to be sure guns concealed for personal defense remain concealed. But we also need to realize that unless you're wearing very tight or abbreviated garments, most compact sized firearms are surprisingly concealable.

Concealed-Carry-For-Women-BookEditor's Note: Concealed Carry for Women, a new book by Gila Hayes, is now available. It takes a comprehensive approach for women who have decided to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. Click Here to Get Your Copy

The Home Defense Shotgun For Women – Part 2

Author’s favorite shotgun is an old, well-worn Remington 870 set up with good sights and a 12" length-of-pull Hogue stock that fits her perfectly.
Author’s favorite shotgun is an old, well-worn Remington 870 set up with good sights and a 12″ length-of-pull Hogue stock that fits her perfectly.

There is another variable in shotgun selection: type of action. For defensive use, we choose between semi-automatic and manually-operated shotguns (called pump shotguns). Here's a look at both.

Pump or Autoloader?

In the sporting world, double-barreled shotguns are often favored, but their ammunition capacity is too limited for defensive use. The choice between a pump and semi-automatic shotgun is similar to choosing between a semi-automatic pistol and a single-action revolver. The semi-auto shotgun employs some of the gas created by firing the shell to automatically eject the empty case and chamber fresh ammunition after each shot; the pump requires the shooter to pull the forend back to eject the empty shell, then pump it forward to recharge the chamber.

Racking the pump gun’s action to eject the empty shell and chamber another round, the shooter manually controls the supply of ammunition. On a smoothly finished pump shotgun this operation can become as automatic as shifting a manual transmission: you learn to do it almost without thinking.

Ghost ring shotgun sights.
Ghost ring shotgun sights.

The great advantage of manual operation is the gun’s ability to cycle the variety of powder charges as found in different brands and kinds of ammunition. A number of semi-automatic shotguns will not cycle low-powered bird shot, an inexpensive choice students favor for training.

The pump shotguns just don’t care, since they need not harness the gases or the recoil-impulse generated when the shell is fired to operate the gun. A pump-action shotgun can be forced to cycle a greater variety of ammunition and can operate when dirty or unlubricated, since the shooter does all the work.

On the down side, the pump-action shotgun may produce more felt recoil than a semi-automatic shotgun of the same gauge. Most semi-automatic shotguns use the gases produced during the firing cycle, channeling gas through small holes in the barrel assembly to cycle the action. As a generalization, an autoloader recoils slightly less than a pump shotgun.

There are, however, two types of semi-auto shotguns, and one does not bleed off any of these gases. Typified by Benelli and Beretta brands, some semi-auto shotguns cycle the action using the recoil impulse or the energy from the rearward thrust of the burning gases. A recoil- or impulse-operated shotgun will hit just as hard as a pump shotgun.

Spending More Money

Nomenclature for common defense shotguns.
Nomenclature for common defense shotguns.

There are several modifications made by custom gunsmiths that can tame the shotgun’s recoil. A barrel modification called backboring reduces felt recoil by redistributing the gases created by the burning powder, and as a side benefit it rearranges the pellets into a tighter shot group that does not spread as widely in flight to the target.

Best in the business for this after-market modification is Hans Vang, who developed the Vang Comp System and has worked his magic on both my “working” and competition shotguns.

Major modifications aside, a competent gunsmith can do much to simply “slick up” the operation of your shotgun. On the pump gun, this means smoothing away any rough places on the action bars and related working parts. Some of the same effect can be accomplished by pumping the action thousands of times, which could be accomplished practicing dry fire.

Extensive dry fire isn’t recommended for shotguns, however, as it is feared that the long firing pin may crack from vibrations that run through the metal during dry fire. If your manual shotgun cycles roughly, however, you can do everything but pull the trigger, racking the action repeatedly until the parts wear themselves into a smoother fit. The action release lever will have to be used if the trigger is not pulled; otherwise the action will remain locked closed.

Another common after-market modification is shotgun sights. Many shotguns come from the factory with no rear sight whatsoever, just one or two beads on a ventilated rib running along the top of many sporting shotguns.

Slug guns, set up for deer hunting, are the common exception, wearing better buckhorn or pistol style sights but their rifled barrels don’t work for bird shot or buck shot, since the rifling slings the shot toward the edges of a large circle with no shot in the center.

I believe a self-defense shotgun absolutely requires a good set of sights. Variations include a rear notch and front blade that are very like pistol sights; or a ghost ring rear sight that is much like an aperture sight, commonly used with a blade front sight. In my opinion, the Express Sight designed by Ashley Emerson and marketed by XS Sights can’t be beat on the shotgun.

The latter three are excellent choices for the combat shotgun, although the beads will suffice for those who will simply pursue basic competence with their home-defense shotgun at relatively short distances.

Your skill with your defensive shotgun will be only as good as the practice and training time you put in with your equipment. Good technique is the first step in rendering the shotgun enjoyable for training and informal practice. The second step is setting up the shotgun so it is comfortable. Let’s outline some of the accessories that make a difference.

Before you set out to replace the recoil pad on your shotgun, look at your undies. Metal parts on brassiere straps are downright dangerous beneath the butt of a recoiling shotgun! My favorite cure is the PAST Hidden Comfort Recoil Shield for women, which is secured beneath the bra strap with several Velcro strips. Another cure is to wear a sports bra without any metal, but that won’t offer any recoil protection.

If the recoil really bothers you, consider having a gunsmith fit a Pachmayr Decelerator butt pad on the end of your shotgun. This incredible accessory absorbs and distributes the recoil like nobody’s business–it is well worth the price!

Read Part 1

This is an excerpt from Personal Defense for Women

The Home Defense Shotgun For Women – Part 1

After firing the first shot, brace the butt of the shotgun on the ground. The hand comes up to the forend to cycle the empty shell out of the chamber.
After firing the first shot, brace the butt of the shotgun on the ground. The hand comes up to the forend to cycle the empty shell out of the chamber.

While the handgun is an easy firearm with which to learn shooting skills, it is not the most powerful defensive weapon one may choose. The home defense shotgun lays claim to that title.

The handgun comes first to mind in discussion of defensive firearms because the pistol’s small dimensions provide the portability and concealability valued by the individual legally entitled to carry a concealed firearm for personal defense. Other defensive functions, including home defense or protection of a place of business, may be served as well or better by a light rifle or a shotgun.

As the second shot fires, the recoil has opened the action slightly on this old, well-worn Remington 870.
As the second shot fires, the recoil has opened the action slightly on this old, well-worn Remington 870.

Shotguns have many great characteristics for the ensconced defender — that is, for one who must remain in position and fight instead of fleeing. The shotgun is a common home-defense and sporting firearm that not so many years ago also saw extensive use in police service. We benefit from the shotgun’s long history since it provides many, many variations from which to choose, lots of ammunition options, and can fine tune the shotgun’s fit with a wealth of accessories.

Terminology

With shotguns, the term “gauge” is similar to our use of “caliber” for handguns and rifles. Unlike caliber, with gauge the larger the number, the smaller the bore. Historically, gauge was defined by the number of solid balls the same diameter as the inside of the barrel that could be made from a pound of lead. Thus, the 10-gauge shotgun is larger than the 12-gauge, which is larger than the 20-gauge. Even smaller are the rather uncommon 24- and 28-gauges. The exception is the smallest of all, the .410 shotgun, which is expressed by the measurement (caliber) of its nominal bore size.

The most common shotgun gauge is the 12-gauge, the dominant shotgun choice in law enforcement. For home defense, the smaller 20-gauge shotgun does the job just fine, and this smaller shotgun is often found in use by smaller-statured birdhunters, as well.

The shotgun is unique in its ability to fire shells containing varying numbers of pellets, different sized shot, slugs, and in some guns even shells of several lengths for a magnum or standard charge. It is really quite a versatile defense tool that can be a lot of fun to train with.

The great advantage of the home-defense shotgun is its simultaneous delivery of multiple projectiles at reasonably high velocities. The effect of 20 .25-caliber pellets of #3 buckshot moving at around 1200 fps from a 20-gauge shotgun is vastly more devastating than firing nine single shots of .25 caliber handgun ammunition into an assailant.

When innocent life is threatened, the overwhelming concern must be to stop the attack quickly. At that instant, we are not worried about the eventual survival or demise of the assailant; seeking only an immediate cessation of the attack. Used to stop violent attack, the shotgun is effective indeed when fired with accuracy and skill.

Pros and Cons

The home-defense shotgun is best employed when the home’s occupants can take refuge in a prearranged, protected area, and defend themselves from a single point. The multiple projectiles that make the shotshell so effective are equally dangerous to innocents if they miss the intruder and penetrate walls of occupied rooms. Handgun ammunition poses the same danger, of course, but this hazard is compounded by the multiple projectiles each shotshell contains. Later, we’ll discuss shot patterns, how they spread over varying distances, and the penetration potential of various shotgun loads.

As a defensive weapon, the shotgun seems best suited to childless couples or single occupants, or in home layouts where those to be protected are sure to be clustered behind the defender. The shotgun works well if those responsible for home defense take their position at the head of a hall that precedes all other bedrooms, or can defend the family from the top of a staircase, if all the residents are ensconced on the upper floor.

In any home-defense plan, the downfall of the shotgun will be its weight and length. If you must hold a home intruder at gun point with the shotgun for more than 10 or 15 minutes, its weight will become tiresome indeed. 12-gauge shotguns weigh around 7 lbs.; 20-g. shotguns average 5 lbs. Compare that weight to your 1- to 2-lb. handgun when deciding which home-defense tool will work best for you.

Shotgun Myths

You may have read elsewhere that the shotgun can be fired accurately without taking time to align the sights. This is not true. At home-defense distances like five yards, it is entirely possible to completely miss a human-sized target if the sights are not used! Skill with the shotgun, like any other defensive firearm, requires competent instruction, dedicated
practice, sighted fire and trigger control. When these skills are mastered, it becomes a devastating weapon.

Others have written that one big disadvantage of the shotgun is that it requires two hands to operate. This is not entirely true, either. Certainly, with only one hand, it is faster and easier to fire a pistol than a shotgun. Still, with advanced training, one can operate the shotgun with just one hand, including cycling a pump shotgun.

Shotgun Selection

(Top to Bottom) Youth sized Mossberg Model 500 20-gauge pump shotgun, bird hunter’s Winchester Model 1400 16-gauge autoloading shotgun and police-style Mossberg Model 590 12-gauge pump shotgun.
(Top to Bottom) Youth sized Mossberg Model 500 20-gauge pump shotgun, bird hunter’s Winchester Model 1400 16-gauge autoloading shotgun and police-style Mossberg Model 590 12-gauge pump shotgun.

Just as handgun fit is crucial to accuracy, the shotgun must also fit the shooter. Women face a challenge in finding shotgun stocks that are sufficiently short. One great advantage to the 20-gauge shotgun is the ready availability of “youth models,” short-stocked shotguns that operate just like the full-sized models. Most full-sized shotguns have a 14″ or longer length of pull (the measurement from end of stock to trigger), while youth models usually go at 13 inches.

When the shotgun’s stock is too long, the shooter’s support arm is nearly hyperextended, instead of bent at the elbow for strength needed to hold up the shotgun and pull it in tightly into the shoulder. Without strong support from the non-shooting hand, the shooter leans back at the waist, attempting to balance the weight of the shotgun over her hips. If merely holding the gun was required, this would succeed; however, when firing the shotgun, a shoulders-back stance is disastrous.

When strong stance is compromised, the recoil’s effects are intensified. If the overlarge shotgun is a pump action, working the slide can pull the shotgun out onto the shoulder joint, where it must be repositioned before the next shot, or it will recoil painfully into the joint.

By now, you can see the necessity of proper stock fit. As a general rule, when the butt of the shotgun is held in the elbow crook of your bent arm, the first joint crease on your index finger should fully contact the trigger. The 20-gauge youth shotguns fit this dimension perfectly for many women and should be seriously considered when buying a home-defense shotgun.

If a youth model is too short, you can add a recoil pad like the Pachmayr Decelerator, which not only dampens the felt recoil enormously, but also adds length to the stock.

Alternatively, the entire stock can be replaced with one with a 13″ length of pull, like those sold by SPEEDFEED®2 or the rubber overmolded 12″ stock by Hogue.

Requiring no gunsmithing to install, replacement stocks screw onto the Remington pump or semi-auto shotguns with relative ease. A more expensive alternative is to buy a full-sized shotgun with a wood stock, then pay a gunsmith to cut the stock to size. I have done both, and swear by my short little Hogue stock.

Read Part 2

This is an excerpt from Personal Defense for Women. 

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