Gun School - Definitive Shotgun - Day 1

On Memorial Day Weekend, very bright and early at 5 am on Saturday morning, I met up with Tosh and we drove down to New London, Ohio to attend Definitive Training Solutions - Definitive Shotgun Class.

We arrived at the range at 7:45 and checked in to the class, and did the waivers etc and got our gear set up and set out.

With 16 students attending, it was a full  class. 

Shotguns ranged  in the pump department from a couple Remington 870s, a couple few Mossberg 590s, including two in 20 gauge brought by the two female shooters attending the class.

In the semi-auto category, there vast majority were Beretta 1301s, one Beretta A300, and my Tavor TS-12.

Only three years ago, at MDFI's shotgun class, the Benelli M4 series dominated.  Now there was not a single one on the line.

The class began with a safety brief and an introduction to what we would be doing and some note-taking on shotgun usage.

We then began by patterning the shotguns with our choice of high-quality buckshot.

 

Two words when it comes to quality buckshot - Federal FliteControl.

Some people tried cheaper buckshot and the difference - in their own shoguns when they tried FliteControl was night and day in terms of putting buckshot on target.

We patterned at 5, 7, 10, 12, and 25 yards. 

Using FliteControl, as seen above, the Tavor TS-12 kept some nice tight patterns, and even at 25 yards kept all the shot on target.

 The ladies using the 20 gauges had major issues patterning. Neither of them had the rare 20 gauge flitecontrol buckshot, and the buckshot they had looked like it had been thrown all over the target at 5 and 7 yards, and most of the shot was off target when shot from farther away. 

Interestingly, the malfunctions this class were all with the pump shotguns -  both of the ladies' Mossberg 20s were new and had issues including the end cap working loose on one and the safety coming loose and off on the other. First time for both of them using shotguns and they brought these new to class and both needed lubrication.  After some teething troubles, they worked but were simply not as accurate as the 12 gauges on the line, especially with buckshot.

In short, ladies certainly can, and probably should, handle 12 gauge shotguns for defense for the benefits from FliteControl alone, and for the much better ammunition choices that are available when using a 12.

Other malfunctions included some jams when port-loading a Mossberg 590, which was caused by the angle the gun was held at the time and was easily solved accordingly.  

The Tavor TS-12 ran like a champ, zero malfunctions.

 

After the buckshot patterning, we switched to bird shot for the rest of the day.

Lots of manipulation drills - loading via both the magazine tube and port, including under pressure during rolling thunder and Peel drills tom get used to moving with a shotgun.

We had an awesome lunch prepared for by the range owner and his wife and it was great - absolutely top rate hospitality and great people.

We also did one handed-manipulation and reloading drills as well. 

We finished up with a drill under competitive pressure which was fun, but the drill as structured didn't let me use the benefits of the Tavor to its fullest extent - namely its multiple tubes for very fast reloading. Instead, I had to load ammo that was loosely in my pockets compared to others who had them on cards secured via velcro on the gun.   This pocket retrieval was notably slower.

The next morning, I installed the cards on the sides of the Tavor.  If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

After the end of the class day, the entire class went out to dinner together.  The Tosh and I headed back to the hotel and got ready for Day 2.

It was a great start to the class.  We prepared to slug it out on Sunday. 

A Red Dot Is A Cheat Code

Most especially when mounted on a shotgun.

Aiming both much quicker and more accurate that relying on a bead or ghost-type rifle sights.

Especially with my new shotgun.

The Tavor TS-12.

3 tubes of 5 rounds each with one in the chamber for 15+1 shots without a reload.  You can also ghost load it, if you so desire,  for a remarkable total of 17 rounds on board and ready to go. Plus, as my friendly local dealer remarked, it looks like a space gun.

The push button at the front of the trigger guard allows you to quickly rotate the next tube into position after you've emptied a tube.  It's both intuitive and very fast to hit it with your trigger finger as the support hand rotates the new tube into position. 

There is a loading port on either side of the firearm, and shells can also be easily ejected from the tubes without cycling the firearm.

Cross bolt safety is right where you would expect it to be, and it is solid and easy to operate, and the charging handle is similarly easy to use.

In short, I should have bought this rather than the Turknelli from the outset and would have been a lot happier.   It's actually more ergonomic, handles better, is much easier to take down and clean, and is much more reliable.There's something to be said about buy once, cry once.

Size-wise it's pretty darn amazing.

 

Same barrel length, in a much more compact package, with more rounds on board to boot.

For whatever reason, the recoil impulse is also softer than the Turknelli - the heavy 12 pellet 00 Buck recoils subjectively much softer in the Tavor than the Turknelli, and bird shot is a non-issue recoil-wise - you can keep it on target and just launch 16 rounds of birdshot without pause. I also found I did not get any gas in the face when firing the TS-12.

The Tavor TS-12 also balances better and you can shoot it much more easily and accurately with one hand.

Spencer and Tosh both tried it for the first time Saturday, and they both liked it quite a lot.

500 rounds through the Tavor TS-12, a mix of 00 Buck and birdshot so far and zero issues.

I'm certainly liking this shotgun.

Gunschool Sunday - MDFI Foundation Shotgun

Since the last time I took a shotgun class was at LFI II way back when, it was time for a bit of a refresher. 

I had signed up for MDFI's Foundation Shotgun to be held in Caro, MI and 4 more of my friends also signed up for it.  Tosh, his cousin Richie from NY, Jason, and Spencer.  First formal training class for Spencer, which made it interesting as he is very much a Gun Culture 1.0 (hunting, everything I need to know I learned from my dad, Taurus Judge is awesome, ugh) type guy working on transitioning to 2.0.

Tosh, Richie, and I originally planned to fly to Caro and get picked up by Jason at the airport, 10 minutes away from the range, thus saving the drive. This would have been rather epic.

It was not to be.  

Weather forecast had thunderstorms en route and back, low IFR conditions with the potential for the ceiling to drop below minimums at Caro at the time of our arrival, and other unpleasantness that I did not feel made for a safe flight at all. 

So I called it and we drove instead. Decent yet unremarkable drive in thus resulted.  Turns out it was very much the correct choice - ceilings were too low on the way there, and the thunderstorms that erupted both during the class and during the expected departure times on the way back nailed it as the right choice. Epic will have to wait.

Class as usual started with an intro, and then a very detailed safety briefing and  detailed emergency plan.

The Instructors, as is usual with MDFI were excellent, attentive, and kept the energy up during class with a great teaching manner.

Lots of Benellis on the line, quite a few Mossberg 500s, some Stoegers and a Mosberg 930s.  I had my Remington 870 along. Tosh and Richie had matching Mossberg 590A1 with 20 inch barrels and Magpul furniture.  Nice guns but Richie's had some breaking in issues with the pump needing some lubrication or it wouldn't easily pickup the next round, and the stock needing to be shortened a tad, both of which were done and it then worked much better.

Started off with basic inspection and inventory of the shotguns, safe handling and movement,  loading and unloading techniques,  carry and shooting techniques, and then we got to some shooting drills. Immediately went into how best to manage shotgun recoil.

ESSTAC cards were extremely popular there.  Pretty much everyone was running them. I had the hard plastic shell carrier on my 870 and while the hard plastic ones are currently being frowned upon compared to the ESSTAC ones, due to the strain the plastic carriers apparently put on the trigger group pins, it was easier and faster to manipulate the shells both loading the carrier and unloading it than the ESSTAC cards, but I can see the value in those too.

Then we went on with how to pattern a shotgun.

Interestingly, 9 pellet Federal Flite Control does tend to throw a pellet from the group and we saw that with everyone's shotgun who had brought that load.  Pretty much all were still within the target but one pellet would end up away from the rest of the shot group.

I had brought along 8 pellet  Federal Flite Control and the results were rather interesting.  Here's the target showing groups from 5, 12 and 20 yards (note I pulled the 12 yard shot as I was in a hurry, so the left impact has nothing to do with the ammo itself, it went right where the shotgun was pointed at the time):

Very low recoil and no spread through 20 yards at all - the shot just flew together making a solid hole through the target.  Interesting.

Neighbor on the line was shooting 9 pellet Flite Control, and at 20 yards the Flite Control Wad from his shot was actually embedded in his target.

We then moved on to emergency reloads and ammunition select drills. Including under time pressure - each person started with an empty shotgun.  Person to your left fired one and then said "Go", you had to immediately fire one and so on.  This continued for 5 rounds so you had to constantly top off your shotgun.  Then we did it from empty shotguns and had to do emergency reloads for each set.  Quite fun and noisy.  It's called  the Rolling Thunder drill.

That rolling thunder drill inspired Mother Nature to chime in with a Thunderstorm complete with a close by lightning strike so class was paused as we all ran to our cars and got in as they were the safest place to be.  Holding metal sticks during active lightning strikes was counter-indicated.

While the rain then let up, that pretty much ended the class as more thunderstorms were on the way so we did not shoot the qualifier at the end.  Good call as indeed more thunderstorms did pass on through, and more confirmation that cancelling flying there was correct.

Excellent class, great instruction, great bunch of shooters,  and a great refresher on shotgun handling.  Highly recommend the class if you;re looking to use a shotgun for self-defense or need a refresher in doing so in a no-ego, positive learning environment.

Turknelli Trials And Tribulations

Took the Turknelli to the range and had some issues.

Basically, it would not eject, or would eject but not  chamber the next round. In short, it had become a lever operated shotgun.

Stripped it for cleaning and it was rather apparent why.

Turns out the gas pistons were frozen solid, completely locked up with massive carbon deposits.

As in really locked up:

 

 

 

That's solid carbon poking out of the piston tube under the barrel after hammering the piston downward to try and get it to move.   The pistons had to be removed by tapping on them with a hammer, a lot and rather hard.

 

Both O rings were found to be broken on the piston covers (that's the remains of one below between the piston covers and the pistons, so I ordered some new ones. I wonder if they broke during the first shooting session and that's why the other rounds wouldn't feed properly.

 

 

Look at all that carbon on those pistons, the one on the left with what looks like a black cap should look like the one on the right with the carbon removed. This stuff was packed on, solid 

Now the pistons move freely again, and I expect the Turknelli will work properly now.  They were rather impressively filthy and absolutely coated in chunks of carbon, as were the insides of the tubes they sit in.

Got everything back together and per the internet, it apparently will work even without the o rings in place but I expect the replacements will come in soon anyways so I'll pop them on before taking it to the range for its next trip.

Overall, the fit and finish of the Turknelli could be a touch better.  It takes a fair amount of effort to get the barrel lined up and inserted, and it seems to be a fair bit more effort than on Benelli M4s as seen by others showing disassembly/assembly on Youtube which is a bit of an annoyance. 

Then again, this is a budget version of the Benelli so if this now works, I won't complain all that much. Be interesting to see if this carbon build up  is due to some particularly dirty ammo or if it is some break in issue.

The New Boomstick

It's a Turknelli Coppolla T4 - A Turkish Copy of the Benelli M4 shotgun.

It is rather imaginatively and totally originally given the model number of T4. 

My first semi-auto shotgun.

 

It's a verbatim clone of the M4 Benelli, apparently with full parts interchangeability, for about a 1/4 of the cost of a real M4.

I did some upgrades, adding a replacement larger and far more ergonomic bolt changing handle, and a Quick Bolt Release Tab, which is a game-changer and highly recommended for any Benelli M4 or clone.  

 I also mounted a Holosun 507C X2 Red Dot on a Scalarworks Mount which fit amazingly.

Taking it to the range for the first time today, the Holosun needed no zeroing and was perfect as installed. Shot impact went right to the dot. Red dots on shotguns are awesome, very fast to track and transition between targets.

The Turknelli handled Nobel Sport LE 12 pellet 00 Buck (the replacement shipment from Lucky Gunner) with aplomb.  I fired 60 rounds through in rapid succession to break it in, zero issues and tons of fun to shoot.  Accurate as all get out.

Tosh enjoyed shooting it as well.His first time ever shooting a shotgun.   I also let him shoot my Remington 870, as he had not shot shotguns before and is planning to buy a pump.

It then handled Fetter 7.5 shotshells at 1280 fps without a hicupp.

It started to choke on the Fiocchi 7.5 shot  at 1250 fps, clearly not getting enough velocity and failing to reliably cycle.

After 200 rounds, it was getting dirty and then had trouble with Federal 7.5 at 1250 fps but still shot the Fetter without a problem.

It still had no problem with Federal Flite Control 9 pellet buck at 1350 , but  had some trouble with 8 pellet Flite Control that ran at a lower velocity.  Probably really, really dirty by then.

It still gave solid A zone hits to the headzone with Flite Control, which resulted in no headzone after the hits landed.  Amazing stuff.

It still had no problem finishing its first time out with a box of magnum rifle slugs that literally knocked steel targets right off their stands, which was much fun. 

Going to take it down and clean it thoroughly and then shoot it again to see if it clears up the feeding issues with the 8 pellet flite control.

I do believe it's a keeper.