Universal Shotgun

What gun or guns would you grab if you had to evacuate your home and community on a moment’s notice?

Well, whatever you decide, don’t leave your shot-gun behind. The shotgun is the most versatile firearm system ever developed. It can serve as a shotgun, an accurate big bore rifle, a handgun, and even as a flare gun. It can put food in the pot, and it can secure the lives of you and your family like no other firearm can. It is the ultimate “street stopper.”

Which shotgun to take with you is a more difficult question.

While we love our svelte doubles for target shooting and hunting, they are limited in their firepower, mechan-ically hard to access and work on, inflexible in design, and almost impossible to find parts for.

Well, how about a semiautomatic? They offer lots of firepower. The design is somewhat flexible. Their mechanisms are accessible for maintenance and clean-ing, although they are complex and unique to each maker. They’re also expensive.

No, if push comes to shove, my choice is the pump gun. This good old American design is simple, easy to understand, operate, clean and maintain, very reliable, flexible and offers as much firepower as the magazine will hold. It’s relatively inexpensive and the variety of after-market accessories available for it is mind boggling.

If yours is a Remington 870, Mossberg 500/590/600, or Winchester 1200/1300, you can just about make anything you want out of it. My concept of the all-purpose pump gun for tough times runs something like this.

Purpose-Built Defense

If I were in the family evacuation mode, driving a car, I would like my pump to be as compact and handy as possible. If necessary, I would like to be able to shoot it one-handed. This means re-stocking it with either a folding butt stock or with pistol grips on the forearm and at the rear of the receiver. That would immediately reduce the gun’s overall length by almost a foot and vastly improve its maneuverability within a vehicle.

I would have removed the magazine plug and might have added an 8, 9, or 10 shot magazine exten-sion tube. Loaded with a mix of number 1 or 4 and OO buck, I would feel pretty secure; however, I would have a sidesaddle shotshell carrier on the side of the receiver filled with rifled slugs just in case.

Barrels and chamberings are another matter. Ideally, I would like my gun to be chambered for the 3 inch/12-gauge shell. The 2 3⁄4 – and 3-inch shells will be the most commonly available after the panic and having the ability to chamber a 3-inch case adds to our gun’s flexibility.

The ideal barrel should be short. Let’s say between 18 and 22 inches, more like a turkey or slug barrel than a waterfowling tube. It should be fitted with inter-changeable choke tubes and that would include a rifled choke tube for shooting sabot slugs. In fact, because it is short and factory fitted with high visibility open sights and choke tubes, the common turkey barrel may be perfection. Well, one might want to carry along a completely separate rifled slug barrel with scope, but I think it would add unnecessary complexity to the kit.

Ammunition

Ammunition? Just a box each of No. 6 for upland game; No. 4 for waterfowl; No. 4 or 00 buck and rifled slugs for personal protection and big game hunting; and 10, 12-gauge flare shells for signaling.

So after all this theorizing, what pump guns fill the bill? A lot. Mossberg, Benelli, Remington and Winchester all offer models that range from turkey guns to tactical that would be ideal. Many even pack a pistol grip with their models.

If you already own a shotgun and haven’t explored the world of after-market accessories, do so. It’s an education.

And let’s pray we never have to turn theory into practice.