_{Left image: A Remington 870 pump action police shotgun sits in an officer’s shotgun rack in his cruiser. Note the Aridus side-saddle, dot, and crimson colored Federal Flite-Control hulls. It looks like this officer has probably had one or more professional shotgun training courses under his belt.}

The majority of shotguns available today for self and home defense typically have some type of safety that prevents the trigger from moving back far enough to break a shot off. However, these safeties may not prevent a shotgun from discharging a chambered shotshell. If the shotgun is accidentally dropped or gets knocked around there is a chance that a chambered shell could be discharged because shotgun designs do not have drop safeties or firing pin blocks. While the chances of such accidental discharges are probably lower with more modern shotguns in good mechanical condition, the chance is never 0% either.

Shotguns are not “Drop Safe” the way handguns are.

The same reason shotguns are excellent defensive tools is also the same reason that makes them extremely dangerous if mishandled and not respected: their devastating payloads. Mitigating any accidental shotgun blast, no matter how small the chances is never a bad idea. This is why keeping a shotgun in cruiser-ready condition is a best-practice for those who rely on shotguns to defend themselves, others, or property.

“Cruiser-ready” specifically refers to a shotgun that is kept with an empty chamber but fully loaded magazine tube. In order to press a cruiser-ready shotgun into service, its action must be cycled manually. More specifically, cruiser-ready describes the actual way that police shotguns were stowed in police cars back in the day (and continue to be stowed now). Originally, this term was directly connected to pump-action shotguns, as these were and remain the most prevalent type of shotgun used for police duties. Over the years, many a misfortunate officer or deputy quickly learned what could happen to the roof or trunk of his car if he drove around with a loaded and chambered shotgun after running over potholes, rail road tracks or other nasty obstacles that go bump in the day or night. It did not take long to determine that keeping the shotgun with an empty chamber was the best way to drive around with it.

Any manually activated repeating shotgun pump-action or otherwise (at GAT, we are inclusive and have not forgotten about the Winchester Model 1887) is put into cruiser-ready by simply loading the magazine tube but not charging the action. If needed, the user must cycle the action, no matter what. There are two schools of thought regarding the storage of pump-action shotguns in the cruiser-ready condition. One camp of users prefers to leave their pump-action shotguns with the hammer “down” and the action unlocked (as if they had just fired a shot but not cycled the action). Their desire is to be able to grab the shotgun and immediately rack it. The other camp insists on keeping a shotgun cocked and locked with an empty chamber (Condition 3). They will hit the action-release lever to unlock the gun as they rack it every time. Many police officers are taught this method or personally prefer it, as an unlocked pump-action shotgun’s fore-end can move around while the shotgun is cradled in a cruiser rack and the vehicle is in motion. There is no right or wrong way, as long as you environment and equipment support it, and this boils down to personal context and specific circumstances.

Semi-auto shotguns are made cruiser-ready by loading their magazine tubes and then releasing a shell to rest on the shell carrier. To prepare for firing all one needs to do is to pull the charging handle back and let it fly. Regardless whether a semi-auto shotgun is driven by inertia or cycled by gas (or long recoil operated for that matter), there is only one way to store them in cruiser ready condition and one way to get them into action. Again, after loading the magazine tube, one must release a shell onto the carrier and make sure it stays there until its time to shoot. Most semi-automatic shotguns have cut-outs or slits on their shell carriers, so it is extremely easy to visually check for shells and make sure these shotguns are truly cruiser-ready.

Employing a cruiser-ready system for one’s shotguns also provides a generalized manual of arms for making any shotgun ready to fire. By following this practice, shotgun shooters can get into the habit of always cycling their shotgun’s actions before use and reduce any confusion or hesitation regardless of action type or model. Pick up the gun. Disengage the safety. Cycle the action. Ready. Shotguns make excellent defensive tools but handling them poorly can bring devastating consequences, so even if the probability for an accidental discharge (yes, accidental, a shotgun fired by inertia in a trunk or a vehicle rack was an accident) might be low, why not add an additional degree of safety to these awesome but also devastating tools?

Nassau County (on Long Island, just across from New York City) executive Bruce Blakeman didn’t hold back today when announcing that 200 new gun permit applications since the state’s strict new gun law making it nearly impossible to legally carry concealed. He called it arbitrary and capricious, referencing the standard test of a law under judicial review of the same name. In essence, the phrase suggests the law in question is baseless or despotic in nature, or a sudden turn of mind without apparent motive.

The gun law itself (championed by NY Governor Hochul) enacts, among other onerous restrictions, a ban on otherwise legally carrying citizens from bringing their gun into still poorly defined and nebulous “sensitive areas” like churches, and schools. The law only went into effect a month ago, on September 4, but in the mere 30 days since, 200 people have submitted applications for gun permits. The county has only had 1350 permit applications so far this year, which means September saw permit applications rise by over 33%.

Mr. Blakeman went on to promise that until litigation already in progress has rightfully determined this new gun law unconstitutional, which he believes it is, he and law enforcement will do their best to work within the legal framework given to them to serve the citizens of Nassau county. He goes on to explain that the law does nothing to make people safer, and simply makes law abiding citizens more likely to unintentionally break the law.

New York has really been knocking it out of the park with more ridiculous and random gun regulation, largely focused on ownership and carry this year. Seemingly spurred on by SCOTUS’ Bruen verdict, they have been windmilling for months, while (likely unsuccessfully) attempting to skirt it.

The Bruen decision, you’ll recall, stated that New York’s “May-issue” concealed carry permitting scheme was unconstitutional, by virture of the 2A giving Americans a right to carry arms in public for self defense, and the fact that there is no American tradition of gun regulation that justifies New York’s proper cause requirement. NY State has spent the time since the decision doing everything they can to get around, or simply ignore that verdict with onerous, malicious, or random gun regulations attempting to intimidate people away from concealed carry and gun ownership however they think they can, in the name of “safety”. So what are they doing this time?

The bill in question directs the NY State Police to “develop regulations pertaining to the bulk purchase of firearms or ammunition and flagging those bulk purchases for further review for the purpose of investigating potential criminal activity.” How, or what standard will be used to determine what “bulk” ammunition purchases are is entirely unknown. Equally ethereal is the answer to the seemingly unasked question of “Where will the manpower and budget to monitor these purchases and enforce these regulations come from?”.

But it’s fairly apparent that the issue at hand isn’t bulk firearms purchases, concealed carry, or anything else gun related. It’s more likely an attempt at showing the voter base that keeps these people in office that they are “doing something” in the face of what they perceive as a hostile, politicized supreme court. This is street busking for votes, at best. If this was about control through gun regulation, they’d have an actual plan for how to implement and enforce this bill, which it would not surprise us to learn the State Police were not consulted or informed of prior to its writing.

Courtesy of Tom Givens, the Shotgun Casino Drill is a nifty exercise involving four different targets set up at a distance of seven yards. The first target requires one shot, the second target requires two, the third three, and the fourth four in this exact order. The drill is set up so that shooters will have to intentionally reload at some point in between addressing all targets. Targets must be engaged the requisite number of times and in the correct order to shoot this drill cleanly. A total of ten shotshells are required and the par time for the Shotgun Casino Drill is 30 seconds. Any standard IPSC classic or metric target or IDPA paper target will suffice. However, 8-inch steel plates would be ideal as shotgun ammunition destroys paper and cardboard in short order. (Steel targets become especially handy if you are planning to run this drill several times or if you are shooting this drill with multiple training partners or maybe as part of a shotgun course).

To shoot the Shotgun Casino Drill, shooters must start at the firing line with four shells loaded in their shotgun’s magazine tube. Upon the timer’s start sound, the shooter will engage each of the four targets in the correct order and will have to reload their shotgun as needed in any order they deem appropriate. Once again a clean run means that each target received the correct amount of shots in the correct order and with no misses. The array of targets can be placed in any order down range but each target should be visibly marked with its specific number. To mix things up, targets may also be shuffled around as desired.

This skill building drill is useful due to the fact that it does not require a large amount of ammunition nor is it too complex to set up. Only four targets are needed either at a pistol bay or in front of any suitable backstop. The Shotgun Casino Drill is useful in that in order to efficiently negotiate it, it requires a solid shooting mount in addition to proper recoil control and loading technique. After all, there are two main categories of skills needed to successfully employ a shotgun. One category pertains to the mental aspect of thinking while holding a shotgun, and the other category pertains to the mechanical skills required to shoot a shotgun proficiently. Incidentally, the Shotgun Casino Drill calls on these same skills: proper shotgun mounting, recoil control, and efficient loading. Give it a try next time you hit the range, as running a shotgun as fast as you safely can is a ton of fun!

Mantis has been a leader in motion dry fire and livefire tech for the shooting world. Their products are practical, innovative, and accessible. With the release of the Blackbeard laser and trigger reset system for the AR platforms they aggressively expanded their firearm coverage for dry fire and assisted drills. With two screens you could run both a Mantis X and Laser Academy. But the Mantis X was, even with some tuned settings, optimized for a handgun.

The Blackbeard X is optimized for the carbine and removes a hardware installation step. The new Blackbeard X magazine system powers the trigger reset and laser like the legacy system and now talks with the Mantis X training app via Bluetooth to capture that motion data. It also comes with several new carbine drills, accessible when the magazine talks with your phone or tablet.

Upgrade

Yes, the title said upgrade. The laser blasting and trigger resetting carrier system hasn’t changed. The magazine did.

Mantis will be offering an upgrade program for those who want to change their magazine to the new X enabled system.

Simplification is the key to success

Mantis recognizes human nature. The more steps to do a thing the less likely we are to do it, or to do it as much as we should.

The Mantis X app and Laser Academy both operate on phones, and do so well, because we keep our phones around us all the time. This vastly simplifies the logistics of assisted dry fire or data gathering live fire.

The Blackbeard X is that same theory, consolidating the resources of the Mantis X and Laser Academy into a single assembly. You will still need two screens if you want to run both programs, but I tend to use the laser as a simple POI more often than with the interactive targets of the Laser Academy system. Again, I do the simply thing more often.

I don’t have to attach the Mantis X censor to my carbine to run it now, it is the powerpack. Mantis has removed a setup step from my dry fire routine, consequently I’m more likely to use the systems when I dry fire because they made it easier. Using social sciences for good! The more tasks we stack the more people drop off from doing them, so ask less and deliver more. We build websites this way for a reason, we should absolutely be taking advantage of that for skill building.

There are no substitute or short cuts in skill building, but we do many unnecessary extraneous items that are not skill building. They waste time, effort, and do not contribute to the skill honing activity. Setup and teardown.

Blackbeard X vastly simplifies setup and teardown while providing carbine specific benefits in the program. You get more for the same effort.

They’re out now, Order or Upgrade here.