Preparing the shotgun to fire

This brief photo blog entry will illustrate how to place a shotshell (a round of ammunition) from the magazine of a shotgun into the chamber to be discharged. This shotgun used in the illustration is a Benelli 12 gauge, but the information generally applies to all manually loaded shotguns.

Loading a shotshell (a round of ammunition) in a shotgun is fairly easy. To start with, move the pump straight back toward the stock. If the pump will not move rearward, you may need to press the cartridge drop lever up toward the frame of the shotgun, then move the pump toward the rear.

If a shotshell was already in the chamber, it will be ejected from the ejection port when you move the pump all the way to the rear. A new shotshell will then automatically be pulled from the magazine for loading just like the photo below.


Now just move the pump forward toward the end of the barrel to load the shotshell from the magazine into the chamber. You can see the shotshell on the way into the chamber in the photo above.


Once you move the pump all the way forward, the shotgun will be loaded and ready to fire. Do not forget that in order to discharge the shotgun, the safety select switch must be in the OFF position ("red is dead").

After the initial discharge of the shotshell, reloading the shotgun is just a matter of moving the pump back toward the rear stock again, and then forward as far as it will go. Repeat this pattern for each shotshell to be fired.



NOTE: Once the shotgun has been discharged with the safety select switch in the off position the first time, you should not have to press up on the cartridge drop lever to reload additional rounds from the magazine. Just move the pump to the rear and then fully forward to reload.

And, once again, remember the four rules!

#1 ALL FIREARMS ARE ALWAYS LOADED
# 2 NEVER POINT THE MUZZLE AT ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO DESTROY
# 3 KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET
# 4 - BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET

A QUICK SIDE NOTE: If you notice in the movies, some idiot always pulls the pump back and then forward on a shotgun to make a menacing "cha-chack" sound. First of all, if a shotshell does not fly out of the ejection port, that means their shotgun was not loaded to begin with! Second, if a shotshell does fly out of the ejection port, the character just threw away 1 of their 8 rounds of ammunition!

Even though the sound of chambering a round of ammunition into a shotgun is universally understood, do NOT cycle or chamber a round of ammunition in a shotgun just to make a point.

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