My disillusionment with the police riot shotgun came to a head some years ago during the apprehension of a felony suspect. The bad guy was hit with a load of 00 buck. He did not go down. He did not even seem too uncomfortable about the whole affair. And finally, his injuries from the shotgun blast were not very serious. I quickly became very unimpressed with riot guns.

Lengthening the forcing cone, backboring the barrel, and porting the barrel resulted in significantly tighter patterns from the Sheriff's self-defense shotgun.

Now, you have to understand that back in those days, our shotguns were part of the equipment that stayed in the squad cars. You had to continually check to see if the gun was loaded or if there were extra shells in the car. And the buckshot loads we were issued were not purchased because they were the most powerful or gave the best patterns. That shotgun ammunition was selected because it was the cheapest ammo the city could buy.

Clearly, none of us knew very much about the management of fighting shotguns. My solution was to back away from the whole deal completely and rely on my personal short-barreled, lever-action carbine in .44 Magnum. I had tricked it out myself, and I had selected and tested the ammunition myself. Over the years, I built up several of these guns and still have the last one I carried; it's a Browning 92 with a 16-inch barrel and a Williams receiver sight. In my view, shotguns were a good thing to stay away from.

A few years ago, I became interested in studying the causes and cures for bear attacks. One of the most knowledgeable people in this field is a Canadian named James Gary Shelton. Shelton is a hunter and a wildlife conservationist who realizes that bear attacks must be dealt with quickly and decisively. And surprise to me, he recommends using a short-barreled pump shotgun loaded with slugs as a defense against felonious bruins.

While doing research on this, I obtained a Remington Model 870 shotgun. It had an 18-inch barrel, ghost-ring sights, and a synthetic stock. Initially, I tested the gun with slug loads but finally was moved to do some work with the various modern buckshot loads. What I came to realize is that there is buckshot and then there is buckshot. The various loads are not created equal.

During my early police shotgun experiences, No. 4 buck was quite popular. After all, it held more pellets and the pellets were only slightly smaller than the traditional 00.

The problem is, buckshot pellets are round lead balls that, because of this configuration, quickly lose their velocity and, thus, their ability to penetrate. While No. 4 buck might, then, be the choice for home defense, it is probably not the best choice for dealing with a criminal threat at 25 yards. It spreads too much and loses too much velocity to be very reliable.

After all this time, defensive shotgunners have come to agree that the old traditional 00 buckshot is still the best all-around choice for use in the defensive shotgun. During my tests, I fired several popular brands of 00 buckshot on silhouette targets. It quickly became apparent that 25 yards was about the maximum range at which one could expect to keep all nine pellets in the chest area of a silhouette. Beyond that range, one is well advised to make the switch to shotgun slugs.

But it also became apparent that certain shotguns like certain buckshot loads. And this is not meant as a criticism against any one brand. Winchester, Remington, and Federal, to name the major manufacturers, all build excellent shotgun shells. It's just that shotguns are quirky. For no good reason, a particular shotgun will just shoot tighter groups with one particular brand. Another shotgun of the same manufacture may show a marked preference for another brand of buckshot.