SCATTERGUN ALLEY: BUY THAT KID A SHOTGUN FOR CHRISTMAS  BUT NOT JUST ANY

SCATTERGUN ALLEY

For many young shooters over the ages, a long, slender package under the Christmas tree has been their entry into the world of shotguns.

BUY THAT KID A SHOTGUN FOR CHRISTMAS – BUT NOT JUST ANY

Things and models to consider if you’re gifting a scattergun this holiday season.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY LARRY CASE

Ihope that you haven’t forgotten what it is like to be a 10-year-old on Christmas morning. Now imagine that you are a kid in a hunting and shooting family. You have been wishing, hoping and praying that you will see that new gun under the tree. Can you remember this? Think of Ralphie in A Christmas Story. A lot of our hunting traditions are going by the wayside; I hope that this one has not.

I think it does a kid good to hope for the present he or she desires with all of their little heart. Hopefully Mom and Dad are on the same wavelength and agree that they are ready for this firearm, and that long, slender package will be there on Christmas morn. This now leaves Mom and Dad to make the right choice and buy our little guy or girl the right shotgun.

Get ready for a lecture.

Aguila Ammuntion MiniShell. (AGUILA AMMUNITION)

did, most kids got whatever shotgun that was handy shoved in their hands and were basically told to shoot it and don’t complain. Often the young shooter was laughed at after some old blunderbuss knocked them for a loop after they pulled the trigger.

Now let’s see. You give a kid a shotgun that doesn’t fit. It is too big

and too heavy, the recoil of which could make a grown man cry. Do we see a problem here? Friends, bad shooting habits can follow us for a lifetime; sometimes it is not our fault. The kid who was forced to shoot Uncle Bill’s Model 97 will never forget that it kicked like the proverbial mule. He shotgun that doesn’t fit. It is too big developed a flinch that day, which developed a flinch that day, which may very well follow him to the grave.

Not long ago I attended a product seminar of various gun companies, and I saw people – people who I think of as better shotgun shooters than I am – with some bad flinches. You’ve seen it while using a gun that you are unfamiliar with. You call “pull” or the bird goes up, and the safety is on. You

Remington Model 870 Compact Jr. (REMINGTON ARMS)

Henry Lever Action .410. HENRY

Rossi Tuffy .410. (ROSSI)

Mossberg 500 Bantam All Purpose. MOSSBERG

yank the trigger, and the barrel takes a big dip downward. Now where might that flinch have come from?

I have mentioned before about working with young people at various shooting functions: National Wild Turkey Federation Jakes Days, Youth Day at the Range, and the like. Watch the kid that picks up an ill-fitting shotgun that is too big and heavy for them. Most will lean back and heave the gun to their shoulder, usually snagging the stock under their arm because it’s too long for them. A gun that fits them allows the young shooter to stand straight and push the gun towards the target as they shoulder it like we are supposed to do.

Think about this. It is important to get a shotgun that fits your son or daughter now, not one that they will grow into. While you are waiting for them to grow into this gun, how many bad days in the field will they have? How many bad habits will they acquire because of a shotgun that is too big and heavy for them? So, I am going to o er you a couple of choices that you can consider for the young shooter’s first shotgun.

THE FIRST IS Remington’s (now RemArms; remarms.com) Model 870 Compact Jr. While most youth model shotguns feature a 13-inch length of pull, the 870 Compact Jr. has a 12-inch length of pull to better fit the smaller shooter. This feature is adjustable so that LOP can be increased as the shooter grows. With all this and the reliability of the Remington 870, can over 10 million owners be wrong?

Next is the Mossberg 500 Bantam All Purpose (mossberg.com). This gun starts with a 13-inch length of pull; however, the Super Bantam model gives you a 12- to 13-inch adjustable stock, and multiple barrel lengths are available. Other options include 12- and 20-gauge and .410 bore, but I would go for the 20-gauge; don’t start kids with a .410. I know that it may have been your first shotgun, as it was mine. The .410 is really an expert’s gun and not necessarily a kid’s gun, so let them shoot the 20-gauge with lowpowered shells.

Buying the right shotgun for your kid – at the size and ability they’re at now – will go a long way toward their developing correct shooting skills and staying happily engaged in target shooting and/or hunting.

Most of us know that Henry Repeating Arms (henryusa.com.) makes some very fine lever-action rifles. You may not know they make several shotguns, and one is the Henry Lever Action .410. The Henry .410 Lever Action shotguns now feature side loading gates for expediently topping o the magazine while in action. The six-shot tube magazines can also be loaded through the front of the tube and unloaded rapidly without having to cycle shotshells through the action. The 24-inch barrel model features screw-in chokes and ships with a full choke.

Another option here for an inexpensive .410 shotgun with the young shooter in mind (or for Dad if he wants to use a .410 with TSS loads for turkeys) is the Rossi Tu y (rossiusa.com) line of shotguns. The Rossi Tu y .410 comes in two models, the 18½-inch barrel with cylinder choke and a 26-inch model with screw-in chokes. It is a great little gun for the kids and Dad to hunt with. It would also make a good “truck” gun.

DON’T FORGET THAT lightly loaded shells for the starting shotgunner are just as important as a gun that fits properly. Let them practice and shoot on paper with target loads.

If you are going to turkey hunt, save the heavy stu for the woods. Remington (remington.com) o ers their Managed Recoil System STS Target load, shell out another dollar or two for a box of shells that the kid can enjoy shooting. Another option is the Aguila Ammunition MiniShell (aguilaammo.com), a 1-inch shotgun shell that is perfectly capable of shattering clay targets, but a lot more pleasant for the young (and old) shooter to use on the range.

Get that kid a shotgun for Christmas! Not just any shotgun, but one that fits them. Both of you will be glad you did. Merry Christmas to all my brothers and sisters in camo. Editor’s note: Larry Case has been a devoted outdoorsman since he was a child. He will admit to an addiction to turkey hunting (spring and fall), but refuses any treatment. He enjoys the company of gobblers and cur dogs that are loud and people who speak the truth softly. Case served 36 years as a game warden in West Virginia and retired with the rank of district captain. You can check out his podcast and other stories at gunsandcornbred.com.

Reload In A Flash

PRODUCT REVIEW

TactaLoad's easy-to-mount and indestructible fiveshell buttstock accessory provides shotgun shooters faster access to rounds than side saddle carriers.

STORY BY PAUL PAWELA • PHOTOS BY TACTALOAD

When a news reporter witnessed famous veteran Marshal John Slaughter walking down the street with his shotgun, the reporter asked, “Marshal, what are you going to do with that shotgun?” e marshal’s reply was “I’m going to use it to kill bad men, you damned fool.” e shotgun has been one of the go-to weapons since the inception of America. While Winchester advertised that their 1873 rifle won the West, as a historian of the Old West, I would argue it was the shotgun that made the most difference in Old West gunfights. As many families traveled west in covered wagons, they were usually

The TactaLoad FLASH-5 stores five shotshells in the buttstock, providing convenient storage, protection from the elements and easy access for reloading.

The Fast Loading Accessible Shell Holder, or FLASH-5, in action. It would make a good accessory for popular pump shotguns like the Remington 870 and Mossberg 500.

armed with three types of guns: a revolver, a rifle and a shotgun. e shotgun was (and is) versatile because it could be used for many purposes like hunting game or self-defense. Well-known for protecting people and valuables, Wells Fargo had two people on the stage – one driver who drove the horses and one guard armed with a shotgun, thus immortalizing the term “riding shotgun” forever. FOR THE AMERICAN civilian population, the pump shotgun has been the crown jewel go-to gun for years for protection against home invasions. So, when my boss and general manager for the American Shooting Journal asked me to review the new TactaLoad FLASH-5 buttstock, I must admit I was a bit apprehensive to do so. I must have compiled over several hundred case studies involving gunfights with a

The product was invented by a former Secret Service agent, Mike Lavergne. shotgun, and never, ever have I found a case where more than two rounds were used on a human being. at’s not to say it hasn’t been done, it’s just I have never seen it or heard of it before. en it got me thinking. I once knew a deputy sheriff who worked on a warrant squad and specifically went after outlaw bikers who were stealing guns and ordnance from the local military bases. e sheriff asked the breacher of the tact team, who carried a Remington 870 at the time, to say a “little hello” to the bikers from the sheriff’s department by putting one slug round in the biker’s engine block and one in the gas tank. As many as ten or more custom motorcycles were destroyed per raid. What a lot of reloading (or so I was told).

Still, I was not really sold on the idea. en my boss told me the inventor is a retired Secret Service agent. Now I was very interested. I have been in the business of testing equipment for going on 40 years, and most people who make a product are inventors or engineers who never use the actual product. I was reminded of that by the people at Natick lab who were designing test parachutes for the U.S. Army; when I asked them if

they ever jump the parachutes they design, they said, “Oh no, that is why we use you as a test jumper.” So, what a concept, a product designed by an actual door kicker. OK, now I was all in.

MIKE LAVERGNE IS the inventor of the TactaLoad FLASH-5 buttstock. For whatever reason, I generally cringe when I talk to current or former federal officers, but to be honest, interviewing Mike was a very pleasant experience. Mike is a very humble man who comes from humble beginnings. He started his law enforcement career in a sheriff’s department in Louisiana. His first two years were as a reserve officer before going full-time with the department. When asked why Mike got into law enforcement, he said he always had a mindset of a protector, so law enforcement seemed to be a good fit.

When assigned to his unit (patrol car) as a rookie, a 12-gage pump shotgun came with the car. Being the diligent rookie he was, he took his car and cleaned it from top to bottom, including his pump shotgun. Much to his horror, the previous officer had put chicken bones and paper napkins down the barrel, which is shamefully more common than one might think, even to this day. us, a lifelong love-hate relationship with the duty shotgun began for Mike.

After a stellar stint with the sheriff’s department, Mike had a passion to become a federal agent and followed his dream to become a Secret Service agent. When Mike served warrants and arrested criminals, he used a 14inch Remington pump shotgun. He would even go on to become a firearms instructor. Once again, the shotgun was part of the inventory he taught. e Remington shotguns came with buttstocks that had shell

Lavergne began his law enforcement career as a Louisiana sheriff’s deputy. It was as a firearms instructor that he would have an epiphany that eventually led to his shotgun buttstock idea. The FLASH-5 was awarded the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers’ Caliber Award for best new accessory in 2021.

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feeders that were on the sides of the buttstock. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they did not. Also, they only accommodated four shells, two on each side. So, there was always an extra round stuffed around somewhere because slugs and 00 buck come in boxes of five.

THIS WAS THE start of Mike’s epiphany of what would become the reality of the TactaLoad FLASH-5. At first glance it looks simple, but the number of hours it took to get to the point of perfection is mind-boggling. Mike went through several different buttstocks, having to saw them in half. He used machine welding, carbon fiber material with the right epoxies and different types of rubber bands to get just the right tension on the shell retainer. He then made 3D-printed prototypes and had different specialists give their input. Lastly, he farmed the product off to the main people who know how to run shotguns, such as competition shooters, law enforcement and military personnel. Why? Because the good Lord knows if anyone can find ways to destroy anything related to firearms, it’s those three categories of people!

So, what’s the bottom line you might ask?

Priority one for any head of household is the protection of the family. Man or woman, the pump shotgun is not only economical but can be utilized with a great deal of simplicity. If you have any of the common pump shotguns, which are Remington 870 and Mossberg’s 500, 535, 590, 600, 835 and the Maverick 88, the TactaLoad FLASH-5 is the perfect accessory. It is totally indestructible, and it is easy to put on.

As all the cool guy operator instructors will tell you, if you shoot the beast, you must feed the beast immediately. e TactaLoad FLASH-5 has easy accessibility to load shotgun rounds into the buttstock as well as the simplicity of loading the shells from the buttstock into the gun, and this can be accomplished with or without gloves. (Loosely translated, it will work under duress.)

Compared to competitors’ offerings and their prices, Lavergne and his FLASH-5 stand tall and ready to defend.

LET'S LOOK AT the positives of the product itself. e company is made up of former United States professional law enforcement and military personnel who know what it’s like to use products lives depend on. Check one. It is made in the United States. Check two. e inventor is a dedicated man who believes in God and uses his product to protect his greatest investment (as any of us are blessed to have), his own family. Check three.

At a recent major retailer industry conference, TactaLoad took the best new accessory award right out of the gate, which speaks volumes unto itself. Check Four.

Finally, the TactaLoad is affordable. Compare its price point against modern side shell carriers and you will find that not only does the TactaLoad beat its competitors’ prices, it’s also faster than side saddles for tactically reloading shotguns. Check five.

When adding up those five positive checks in total, you get checkmate for the TactaLoad FLASH-5. If you own a Mossberg or Remington pump shotgun, this is a must-have add-on accessory. For more information on TactaLoad, go to tactaload.com. 