You remember the old Miller Lite commercial wherein an army of beer drinkers on one side of the bar chants “Tastes great!” while the other camp retorts “Less filling!”? The debate on the best shotgun type for defense is similar. One faction places reliability atop their criteria. “No jams!” they yell. Then there’s the other side who swears by a modern semi-automatic. “Shoots better!” they roar. And so, the debate continues—a fray into which I shall now wade.
Reliability and its Nuances
In terms of sheer mechanical reliability, semi-automatics are not on par with pumps. Pumps are simpler, with fewer moving parts and less dependency on prior events in a sequence to operate. For example, if a shell fails to fire due to a bad primer or any number of other random events, a semi-auto will often jam. With a pump, however, the gun can be cycled like normal. Clean or even moderately dirty, a good pump’s mechanical reliability hovers above 99.5 percent.
“I see every type of semi jam—and I see it often,” says Navy veteran Bob Weatherald of Mid River Guide Service. He hunts every day of the waterfowl season on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and witnesses thousands of shots from all types of shotguns kept in all types of conditions, ranging from pristine to crusty.
But, before we pound our fists and yell, “Semis suck, pumps rule!” let’s consider some other factors.
Clearly, semis have become more reliable in the last few decades. Benelli’s inertia action did away with gas ports prone to fouling and malfunction. Fewer moving parts means fewer parts to break and less friction during cycling. These days, the Italian company’s M4 is employed by numerous military and police units, and its reputation for reliability is outstanding. Remington’s Versa-Max system overhauled the traditional two-port gas system by making multiple ports (seven, in fact) available. Other evolutions like rotating bolt heads, dual-recoil springs, piston-gas actions and slicker internal metal finishes have gone a long way to make the modern semi-automatic more reliable. Indeed, when kept oiled-up and humming, a top-quality semi is so reliable that big-money 3-gun shooters stake their livings on them strictly for their speed.
Anecdotally, I’d place a top-quality, gas-action semi-automatic that’s clean, lubed and loaded with full-power loads in the 98-percent reliability range. For every 100 shells fired, it might have two malfunctions, but only if those 100 rounds are fired consecutively without cleaning. If cleaned between every box of shells—a luxury the home defender is afforded, but the Soldier is not—the same gun can push closer to 99 percent. Inertia actions like Benellis tend to be slightly more reliable with much longer runs between cleaning periods. But, if you factor in such things as sub-power loads (reduced recoil and even most birdshot) and/or freezing weather, a semi-auto can plunge so far in reliability (75 percent or less) that it can become a liability. More than once I’ve dropped my Remington 1100 into fine sand that rendered it a single shot until every piece could be disassembled and soaked in cleaning fluid. Thank goodness I was hunting birds and not defending my life. For people who stake their lives on a shotgun and who operate in extreme conditions, a semi may not be the best choice.
Hunters are willing to accept a slight disadvantage in reliability for the recoil reduction and status semi-automatics offer. To competitors, a jam might mean dropping a stage. But, for home-defense, a jam could mean your life. So, you might think that a pump is the obvious choice. But, here’s where it’s nuanced.
Operator Factor
“I’ve also seen pumps thrown overboard,” offers Weatherald. “The difference is, when a pump jams, it’s almost always user error.”
Operating anything under pressure is more difficult unless the user has trained until its use becomes almost subconscious (often called muscle memory). So, while a pump is mechanically more reliable, it also requires more training to shoot well. That’s because pump guns are easy to short-stroke, or to fail to fully slide the action all the way back and then all the way forward, while under duress. If you haven’t practiced with a pump-action frequently, you may negate the pump’s inherent reliability advantage. By what degree is difficult to quantify, but it falls somewhere around 96-percent reliability when speed is prioritized.
Speed
In terms of speed—hitting many targets in succession—there is no comparison between a pump and a semi-auto. The question is, do home defenders need to hit eight targets in less than two seconds? The answer is: usually no. So, while it’s cool to talk about speed, in practical defensive terms it’s not a big factor, especially considering that in two or three shots there’s not more than a few tenths of a second difference between the two. I once saw an ol’ boy from Oklahoma hit four quail on a covey rise, and if I hadn’t seen the Model 12 in his hands, I’d have sworn he was shooting a semi-automatic.
Recoil
It’s academic a good gas-operated semi-auto can reduce recoil by as much as 30 percent versus a pump. This in turn makes the gun easier to get back on target for faster follow-ups. It also makes moving and shooting easier. But, in a home-defense situation, it’s questionable whether a reduction in recoil could play a factor in survival. What’s more important, however, is this: Guns that recoil less are more fun to shoot; and guns that are fun to shoot are typically practiced with more. And, there’s a strong argument that training with your gun is the most important factor of all.
Shootability
The main advantage a semi-auto has over a pump is its overall shootability factor. “Shootability” is a term for the combination of greater speed, less recoil and the fact that the gun can be operated with one hand and/or from awkward positions if needed. That’s a pretty big deal in the unpredictable arena of a home invasion.
Conclusion
In this column, you’ve seen much love given to semi-automatic shotguns over the years, mainly because this writer leans toward that camp. In my hands, while in the controlled environment of my home, I feel like the pump’s slight edge in reliability does not outweigh the semi-auto’s shootability advantages. But, for other folks who operate in sandy or extreme conditions, who view a cleaning cloth like a poisonous spider, are on a budget, prefer reduced-power loads or who are well practiced with a pump, the ol’ slide-action can’t be beaten.
