How does pump action shotgun work

Even the pump grip has been sliced to reveal the inner workings. A round has been picked up from the feed tube, and then is lifted into the chamber. Name required. Mail will not be published required. Leave this field empty. Permalink - Videos , Gunsmithing. Russel Dobbs says:. May 25, at am. Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. To comment on a post, click Post Title or "Comment" Link.

The Bulletin title serves as the "Home" button. Usually, you can just tilt the muzzle down slightly, rotate the gun 90 degrees, and the shell will drop out of the ejection port. If there were shells in the mag tube when you checked it and you want to unload them, there are a couple of ways to do that. The quickest way is to just hold down the action release and run the action back and forth until shells stop coming out.

This method is easiest with the Mossbergs. Make sure the action is closed. Then flip the gun upside down and look just to the right of the shell in the mag tube. Press that inward with your thumb, and the shell will pop out. Then slowly ease the shell out of the tube. Repeat that process until you see the follower. On the Remingtons, the process is similar, but if you try to go straight to the mag tube, the shell lifter is in the way. What I suggest is, open the action first.

Now you will have a shell on the lifter. Tilt the muzzle downward and rotate the gun 90 degrees and that shell will fall out. Leave the action open and flip the gun over again. Now if you push on the lifter, it will pop all the way down out of your way.

The Remington has shell stops on both sides of the mag tube. Push that out of the way and the shell will pop out of the tube and you can slowly guide it out with your finger. Repeat that until you see the follower. Okay, so the mag tube is empty. Action is open. Nothing in the chamber, nothing on the lifter. Safety is on. The gun is clear. Now we can clean it, we can do some dry practice, we can put it away for storage or whatever else we need to do with it.

In this case, we are going to load it. There are different procedures for loading the gun. This is just everyday administrative loading without any time pressure.

These are available in several places online. I recommend you get a set of these so you can practice loading and unloading the gun safely at home. First, open the action and tuck the stock under your arm for support. Take the first shell in your other hand and just pop it into the action like that.

Now, close the action. Your chamber is now loaded. At this point, if you were to push the safety off and pull the trigger, the gun would fire. We have to load the mag tube. Grab your next shell, push it up into the action and pin it there with your index finger.

Use your thumb to push the shell into the mag tube. Make sure the shell goes in all the way past the shell stops. Your thumb will need to actually go into the mag tube a little bit like that. On the Remingtons, just use the knuckle of your thumb to push against the lifter and keep it out of the way.

Keep your thumb bent like this. Repeat that process until no more shells will fit in the mag tube. Now the gun is fully loaded. The forend is locked in place. Press the trigger. The gun goes bang.

After the trigger has been pressed, the forend unlocks. Before we can fire again, we have to open the action. That ejects the spent shell from the chamber. The next round is now sitting on the shell lifter. Push the action closed and now that round is in the chamber and the gun is ready to be fired again. As long as there is room in the mag tube, you can fill the gun back up. You might reach for your gun in a hurry in the dark and accidentally grab the trigger.

Your cat might start pawing at the gun under your bed. The gun might fall over and discharge in your closet because unlike most handguns, shotguns are not totally drop safe. Start by clearing the gun just like before: nothing in the mag tube. That will unlock the action. If you need the gun in an emergency, all you have to do is grab it and rack the action to chamber a round. This is really important with shotguns because they are so powerful.

When you fire the gun, the pressure generated inside the shell that pushes that heavy load of pellets out of the barrel at high speed is also pushing the shotgun against you. But with the right technique, even smaller statured people can manage a shotgun well.

Good recoil control starts with a solid stance. Stand with your feet at least shoulder-width apart, maybe a little more. Your dominant side foot should be slightly back. Lean forward at the waist. You want an aggressive forward posture with your weight resting on the balls of your feet. You might be tempted to place the stock on your shoulder or just inside your shoulder at the joint and blade your body toward the target.

Instead, bring the stock inward. Get it on the outside of your pectoral muscle, or even further toward your centerline if you can. You want the stock off your shoulder and off of where your collar bone sticks out. Keep your shoulders closer to being squared with the target, not bladed.

Keep your elbows pointed down, not sticking out to the side like this. Place your thumb along the side of the stock, not wrapped around the back. Bring the gun up to your eye-line and rest your cheek against the stock. This ejects anything that's in the chamber, cocks the hammer, and loads a shell in the chamber. Next, the shooter pushes the slide forward, which pushes the block and firing pin into the firing position against the cartridge.

After each fired shot, the shooter repeats this motion to reload the gun and eject used cartridges. An experienced shooter can repeat the motion of firing and then pumping to reload very quickly. And because the action is all mechanical and linear, it's very simple and unlikely to fail in action. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar.

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