Shotgun Operator

Service Description

Shotgun Operator is a two-day, 16-hour course that trains the armed professional or the qualified civilian to operate, maintain, and deploy the tactical shotgun. It runs from the classroom to the range and it does not stop at the fundamentals. You will strip the gun, clean it, and put it back together. You will find out what your own gun patterns rather than what the box claims it does. You will load it more times than you shoot it, because with four to eight rounds on board, loading is the skill that matters. Day two closes on a qualification course, in daylight and in the dark. The shotgun is the most powerful thing most operators bring to the line, and it is the least understood weapon they carry. Nearly everybody who arrives here has fired one. Very few have been taught one. That gap is what this course closes. What this course is not: it is not a familiarization day, and it is not a qualification you show up and check off. Bring a gun you intend to use, and be ready to work it. What we work on: • The operational components of the shotgun • Field stripping and maintenance • Shotgun ammunition types, and the benefits and liabilities of each • Safe manipulation: loading, unloading, reloading, malfunctions • Storage, carry, and deployment • Day and night qualification courses, minimum 80 percent Prerequisite: successful completion of a basic firearms course or equivalent prior training. Duration: 16 hours over two days. What to bring: • Pump or semi-auto 12-gauge tactical shotgun, 18 to 20 inch barrel • Sling. A sling is to a shotgun what a holster is to a handgun. • Sidesaddle or other on-gun shell carrier • Eye and ear protection • Billed cap • Note-taking materials • Shotgun cleaning kit • Water and food for two days • 100 rounds of 00 buckshot, 50 rifled slugs, 50 birdshot or low-recoil practice loads Bring a shotgun you are willing to run hard for two days. If it is going to break, better that it breaks here. And bring the ammunition you carry if you can. Zeroing and patterning with practice loads and then working with something else on duty is how people get surprised. Evaluation: you must pass the day buckshot, day slug, and night qualification courses, 80 percent minimum on each. The standards do not move. If a shooter comes up short we coach him, re-run him, and document it, and that is a better outcome than a number somebody handed him. What you should be able to do when you leave: tell me what your gun patterns at 7, 15, and 25 yards with the load you carry, load it under a par time both ways without looking at it, and name the one thing you are going home to practice. Every student signs the FTA Release and Waiver, the release we use for all HTS classes, before training begins. To ask about dates, pricing, or to request a seat, email hondotraining@gmail.com.